So I have been doing most of what I set out to do, as far as the actual gymnastics skills training I have been doing splits, front lever front planche and handstand practice or rather progressions. I have come to learn that splits hurts as much as the kids say it does and front lever is actually WAY harder than it looks. I am already seeing some improvement on my leg and hip flexibility but when you start out with hamstrings of steel it’s not hard to see some improvements.
My strength is up, I was able to bench with the straight bar on the incline bench last week without any issue which means that the chiropractor has actually helped my shoulder issue via my neck which is completely counter-intuitive to me but it really seems to be working. It is a little disconcerting to have such flexibility and mobility in my neck after being bound up for so long, I am sore some days from doing very normal tasks and my neck is making a lot more cracking noises than it used to as the bones move around like (I assume) they are supposed to. I have to admit I haven’t actually kicked up into handstand yet, I am working towards that slowly doing all the progressions first to make sure my body knows what it is supposed to do the right way. It’s easy to think of doing things right, it’s another thing to execute a foreign movement correctly without any practice. I have not been sleeping that well, this is not a surprise since my sleep is often my least carefully attended to part of my health. In fact, I have been so tired the last week or so I am going to take a vacation day to try and get some extra sleep and rest taken care of.
So, numbers. I am benching 5 a side on the chest machine which is deceptively easy. 8 a side on the leg press (it won’t take any more). I can comfortably do 3 a side on the military press machine but the barbell press itself I am only up to almost 2 a side which for me is a little low. Pullups are not increasing, I think I may tiring myself out doing pullups last but I am struggling to 7 most days. Then again I am still doing 8-10 sets each time. I have been doing a lot of very heavy laying pullovers for chest, something that overstretched my triceps last time and I am still sore from however I think that the pullovers plus the dip machine have enabled me to put some much needed size on my chest. Â I have modified a bench and bar to do assisted front lever / falling tower type work. It hurts a lot but did open my eyes to the fact front lever is far more abs than I would have imagined. I thought the back strength would have been the weak point. I think I was wrong…
In other news I am binging on Dr Who, to the exclusion of everything except the new season of The Vampire Diaries which is barely surviving the loss of Nina Dobrev in my opinion. We have Bubble Guppies Live tonight with our darling daughter who has also started skating and is currently the fastest in her class. The fact it is still just walking on ice isn’t the point. 🙂 She is the fastest ice walker out there! Gymnastics is going very well I was surprised by some of my girls the past week or so getting success on some very challenging skills. They grow up so fast, and now they are starting to have things click which is amazing to see.
So the next few days should see me finally getting inverted, attempting to work on my balance with parellettes and hopefully getting some rest. Wish me luck.
