Marlon's Circus Training Log

Hey everybody, I'll be heading off to circus school in about a week and I'm gonna start keeping a log of my strength training on the gymnastic bodies program as well as the progress I make with hand balancing, tumbling, and anything else I work on over the next year or so of school. Hopefully I'll be able to upload video fairly frequently. At the least I'm gonna try to put up a video at the end of each steady state cycle as a visual record of where I'm at.

My Goals for the end of my next cycle are as follows:

Pressing:

-Legit Straddle Planche hold (no piking, hips level).

-5 HeSPU with no arching at all.

-5 L-sit Straddle Handstand Presses.

-50 Pushups.

-3 Min Handstand Hold.

Pullilng:

-Straddle Front Lever (arms locked, flat back, no piking).

-One Arm Chin-up both arms.

-3/4 bodyweight Chin-up.

-20 Pull-ups.

Core:

-Straddle L-sit (Hands shoulderwidth, legs parallel to floor).

-V-sit (Legs at or past Vertical).

-30 Hanging Leg Lifts

Legs:

-Nothing specific for now, just get generally stronger.

As of Yesterday this is where my strength is currently at:

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Statics:

Flat Tuck Planche: 9 sec (5 sec holds)

Flat Tuck Front Lever: 8 sec (4 sec holds)

Back Lever: 19 sec (10 sec holds)

Middle Split Hold: 11 sec (6 sec holds)

One Hand Center Straddle L-sit: 19 sec (10 sec holds)

Other Stuff:

Pushups: 37

Pull-ups: 12

Hanging Leg Lifts: 15

Handstand: 1min 30 sec

This is the routine I plan to be using over the next training cycle. I may make some adjustments to the volume and intensity over the next week or so, and possibly even some bigger changes once i move into my new apartment for school because I won't have the same training situation. On top of this I'll be doing GTG, hopefully at least 5 days a week, to increase my pushups, pull-ups, and hanging leg lifts. I'd love to hear it if anyone has any critiques to make about this routine.

Monday

Wrist Warmup

Ido Portal's shoulder ROM Band Warm-up

3 Sets

-2 Reps Extended Flat Tuck Planche + 2 HeSPu

-2 Reps Extended Flat Tuck Front Lever + 2 One Arm Chin-up Negatives (slightly assisted)

-2 Reps Back Lever + 3 RLL Headstand (10 lbs ankle weights)

-2 Reps Middle Split Hold + 5 Alternating Single Leg Squat Jumps Each Leg

Finish with:

-4 Sets 45 second Handstand Hold Freestanding

-2x10 Wall Extensions

-2x10 Dislocates

Wednesday

Wrist Warm-up

Ido Portal's Shoulder ROM Band Warm-up

3 Sets

-2 Reps Extended Flat Tuck Planche + 2 Handstand Presses

-2 Reps Extended Flat Tuck Front Lever + 3 360 Pulls

-2 Reps Back Lever + 2 Reps One Hand Center Straddle L-sit

-2 Reps Middle Split Hold + 5 Hamstring Curls

Finish With:

-4 Sets 45 sec Handstand Wall Runs

-2x5 Bridge Wall Walks

-2x5 Jefferson Curls

Friday

Wrist Warm-up

Ido Portal's Shoulder ROM Band Warm-up

3 Sets

-2 Reps Extended Flat Tuck Planche + 3 Tuck Planche Pushups

-2 Reps Extended Flat Tuck Front Lever + 3 Flat Tuck Front Lever Pull-ups

-2 Reps Back Lever + 3 Weighted Hanging Leg Raises

-2 Reps Middle Split Hold + Weighted Squats maybe?

Finish with:

-3 Sets 1 Min Wall handstand

-2x10 Wall Extensions

-2x10 Dislocates

I'll be heading off to circus school in about a week

I'm so jealous!

You're very strong, well done.

wow nice work Marlon.. color me jealous. Good luck at school man seems awesome.

Very nice :shock: gotta follow this log for sure, good luck with your circus training

Very nice back lever work. I'm surprised you don't have at least a solid straddle front lever hold with that level of back lever ability.

Need more hamstring flexibility work though! Very nice handstand, but the presses, manna/v-sit, and HLR work will benefit much more with better ham flex.

Circus school does sound awesome though. Good luck sir.

Thanks for the well-wishes guys!

Yea, flexibility has always been an issue for me, 3 years of pretty consistant stretching and i still don't have my splits or straddle, and my pancake is pretty pathetic too hopefully I'll finally be able to make some real progress with that once i start school. The back lever / front lever situation has felt like a very like a strange one as well, I got my back lever a couple years ago without ever doing any specific training for it until this past cycle, but my front lever has improved extremely slowly despite my giving it much more attention and training time.

Anyways, yesterdays training:

-my 30 minute gymnastics lesson went well; my round-off backhandspring is feeling pretty solid. My front tuck and front pike are still being a bit difficult though. I've been working on a front tuck with a half twist off the trampoline for more than a month now and I still can't get the hang of twisting whatsoever.

-I did about 45 minutes of hand balancing later in the day, my one arm handstand progressions were feeling better than ever. My straddle OAH felt very controlled on both my left and right hand even when i brought it down to just two fingers and my thumb on the assisting hand. I've started to work on the legs together OAH too, and while there is definitely much less room for error than the straddle if i keep a good amount of tension in my lower body it doesn't feel all that much more difficult overall. I'm working on a few different variations of the one arm elbow lever and it's feeling a bit shaky because I've been focusing almost solely on my OAH recently. I've just started training the air baby again and it's just as frustrating as i remember :x

Strength training went pretty well although I think I'll make a few adjustments to ease things up a bit:

-I was planning to work my flat tuck planche holds by lowering from a handstand, but I'm going to hold off on that for a couple weeks until i get more comfortable with the slightly more extended position I'm using this cycle.

-I'm lowering the HeSPU from 3 to 2 reps

-The One Arm Chin-up Negatives will be slightly assisted by holding a rubber band with my free hand, I may try to eliminate the assist once i get more comfortable with the way my body rotates.

Other than that everything went pretty smoothly, I used 5 lbs instead of the 10 lbs I planned for on the RLL headstand because my lower back has been bothering me this past week, but I'll definitely bump it back up by next Monday.

Todays Training:

Did about 1 hour 15 minutes of hand balancing today. I probably went a bit overboard and my wrists may be complaining tomorrow, but hopefully not. One arm handstand is coming along very well yet again. I had two or three very nice straddle OAH holds with just 2 fingers assisting on the other hand. A couple good OAH holds with legs together as well (all 5 fingers assisting). I spent the last 15 minutes working on elbow levers, but after an hour of OAH work I was too tired to get much quality work done.

After hand balancing I did 30 minutes of stretching, and while i don't have any way of objectively measuring my flexibility over the course of this summer I'm quite certain that my pike, pancake, and bridge have improved slightly. Not so much with my splits and straddle though.

I'm being lazy about GtG because i hate it but I'll probably have 3 or 4 sets done by the end of the day.

I had my last tumbling lesson today before moving and it was also my best lesson ever Something kinda clicked i guess and i was able to see much more clearly while tumbling than I have been in the past, everything was really consistent and i stuck way way more of my landings than usual. My round-off backhandspring isn't entirely straight, i'm veering slightly to the left, but i think that will be easy to fix with some more work on my round-off. The front tuck with a half twist continues to elude me but i still did much better than usual.

I got interrupted while hand balancing so I'm not quite sure how much time I ended up training for, probably between 30 to 45 minutes. As expected my hands are bothering me but I still had some very good training today. I only worked on my straddle OAH and I had several very strong holds on my right hand with just 2 assisting fingers. The left hand is a bit less competent but I'm still getting strong holds with 3 assisting fingers. I also managed what my sister calls "a 2 second one arm handstand" and what i call falling slowly while on one hand.

I got 3 sets in for GTG today, I need to be doing a whole lot more.

Strength Training didn't go as well as I hoped it would. I couldn't keep my hips level on several of the tuck planche holds, I've been rounding up from 4.5 to a 5 second hold and while It might not make much of a difference I think i'll be shooting for 4 seconds from now on. During the first set of handstand presses my form broke down on the second rep, and on the second and third set i failed entirely on the second rep. I'm not sure what I want to do with the presses, I'm hesitant to drop them down to a single rep because I don't think thats really enough volume, but I really want to be specifically training them, so I think I'll give them another try next week and see how it goes. I could only manage 2 360 pulls, and on the second rep of each set I had to go from a full back lever to a 1/2 lay during the pull from a german hang. I guess the problem is that while i was very meticulous with my strength testing i didn't account for the fact that even though i might be able to do two press handstands when I'm fresh on a test day, It's much more difficult when I'm tired after doing multiple sets paired with static holds and what not.

Adjustments:

-4 second FTPL hold instead of 5 second.

-for 360 pulls I'm going to pull into an inverted hang in a tuck FL extended into a full BL for the descent to german hang, pull back to inverted hang in a 1/2 lay, and use a flat tuck FL for the descent back to a hang.

I made a post about some of the hand pain I was having in the Joint prep forum and Coach Sommer recommended that I take the next week off and then ease back into training. I may do some stretching, and core leg work later today or tomorrow but certainly no hand balancing, tumbling, or upper body work. I'm also moving some stuff up to my new apartment today so taking the time off now works out pretty well because I'll be busy.

Circus school officially started on this Tuesday and i've been very very busy; about 6 hours of training on tuesday, then 8.5 hours at my job on Wednesday, followed by another 5 or so hours of training today. We've been doing A LOT of static stretching, yoga, dynamic stretching, partner stretching etc. and I'm really excited to see just how flexible I can get in the next 9 months. we're also working on the basics of a lot of aerial stuff and I'm learning quite a bit. For example today I found out that trapeze is extremely painful, and also that my shoulders have a serious mobility problem which makes it very hard just to hang by two arms with my shoulders actively engaged in the proper body position.

While I've had plenty of time to work on hand balancing it's always after my 3 hour group classes which leave my quite exhausted so I haven't had the most quality training time and I don't have much progress yet to speak of. We also won't be tumbling at all till next week so nothing to say about that yet

Well it's 9 months later and I've absolutely 100% failed to keep this workout log :oops:

But, I'm gonna give it another try. My 9 month program in the school I was attending back in September is over, And I've been accepted to the National Circus School (Ecole Nationale de Cirque) in Montreal, Canada as a Hand to Hand porter. My Training there doesn't start till August 9th so this log will still probably be sparse till then because my summer is gonna be really hectic.

Hopefully Ill still manage a good amount of posts over the next two months. I have a hand balancing act and a hand to hand act that I hope to get video of soon which Ill post, along with some training videos as well the first of which I should have up within the next few days.

Ok,the first video to go up is going to be handbalancing. this is where I'm at after 9 months majoring in hand balancing at circus school. I've made less progress than I would have liked in that time period but I'm still rather happy with Where I'm at. More videos to come as well as actually training logs soon.

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Dude you are jacked :twisted: Congratulations on the one-armer

:shock: Awesome Videos!!!!

I have to agree with Razz you are jacked. Keep up the awesome work, and congrats on your school.

Inspiring video. Looking forward to seeing more updates in your training.

You should post your flag video here as well Its quite impressive!

Thanks guys!

The past two days have been pretty good training-wise. I haven't fit in time for strength work yet but lots of hand balancing and stretching.

Both days went something like this for handbalancing

Hand Balancing Warm-up:

Ido-Portals Shoulder ROM and Stabilization routine

Coach Sommer's Wrist Pre-hab Series

Some other random dynamic Hip and lower back warm-ups

2x1min Handstand holds Canes then Floor

2x30sec Hollowbody holds.

Training:

Lot's and Lot's of One-arm holds and attempts on floor and canes (Straight body, partial straddle, Full straddle).

Some Side balancing work, Negatives as well as only going as low as I can still pull back from.

Some Straddle and Pike Presses from Standing

A bit of One Arm-Elbow Lever work towards the end.

My handbalancing training is very dis-organized, I just train until I feel like fatigue is keeping me from properly executing skills, So I'm training for about 1.5 hours a day at the moment and it feels fairly hopeless to try to recount exactly what I did in the number of repetitions and sets etc.

Stretching:

On Tuesday I stretched my straddle along with some other positions primarily focusing on hip rotation and mobility (butterfly, king pigeon, and a precursor to the lotus position the name of which I cannot recall at the moment. I ran into the book "Beyond Stretching" by Pavel last weekend and have started incorporating PNF stretching as well as some new dynamic straddle stretches into my routine, hopefully Ill see some faster improvements in the next couple months.

On Wednesday I worked my pike, my pancake, and my front splits. I was shocked to find out that rather than having lost a good deal of flexibility in my splits I was actually more flexible than ever and got all the way to the floor on both sides for the first time

More updates to come, My hand to hand partner is coming down this weekend so I may be able to get some video of us training

Thanks Guys

@niftyvt I may put up that video in a bit, I'm hoping that with a bit more practice I'll be able to touch my toes to the floor on both sides and I'll make an updated video

Marlon said:

Thanks guys!

My handbalancing training is very dis-organized, I just train until I feel like fatigue is keeping me from properly executing skills, So I'm training for about 1.5 hours a day at the moment and it feels fairly hopeless to try to recount exactly what I did in the number of repetitions and sets etc.

On Wednesday I worked my pike, my pancake, and my front splits. I was shocked to find out that rather than having lost a good deal of flexibility in my splits I was actually more flexible than ever and got all the way to the floor on both sides for the first time

Thats how I train lol, I just go until I get to tired and/or my form breaks down, then I take a break and work elbow levers and things that arent as taxing as freestanding handstand work. Your improvement in your flexibility is most likely due to all of the active straddle holds you have been doing, which is a good thing! :wink: I know that as I continue to work my straddle-L my straddle flexibility is improving along with it, my straddle is still rubbish but now its not quite AS bad :shock:

Keep it up, I like reading about others with the same handstand obsession as me

You've got to tell us what you get up to in circus school! It sounds like an amazing place, and your progress proves it.

Very inspirational!

How exactly did you get started into this sort of thing?

As expected I've been all over the place so far this summer; Up in vermont and back to Massachusetts several times, and a week down in Barbados just since the beginning of June. As such I'm having a hard time consistently training. I got in a 1 hr tumbling private lesson fit in, but My hand balancing has suffered. I got half a hour in one of the days after my last post, only about one more session before I went down to Barbados. While there, I trained for half an hour to 45 minutes one day on the beach, but besides that I only dabbled a bit in the hotel room. I did manage to stretch consistently in the hotel, and kept up a bit with the conditioning I could do with just the bit of floor space I had. The last day I was on the island I did find a gym to go to and got a chance to work on some turkish get-ups which I'm hoping will help improve my shoulder stability for hand to hand. I also got a chance to work on my pathetic squat which at the moment is probably somewhere around 220ish. After getting back to the states I did nothing for a couple days and finally got myself back on track today.

Todays training:

Warm-up

Coach Sommers Wrist Series

2 One Minute Handstands

Skill Work:

1 hour and 15 mins of work on my one arms.

-These did not go well today, I was very frustrated the entire session, but I guess I deserved it and shouldn't really have been surprised by how off I was considering I hardly trained my one arms for almost 2 weeks.

15 Minutes or so on side balancing/flag work

-Fortunately I had these 15 minutes or so for a morale boost. I Managed to get my toes to the ground on my left side and lift back to a straight handstand, then got less than an inch from the floor on my right side.

I'm trying to press into handstands as much as possible during my training time rather than jumping into them, so I did some straddle and pike presses from standing as well as Several side presses which I have never been able to do before. I also worked my pike press from L-sit and Straddle Press from Straddle L-sit a little bit. Unfortunately my presses have felt significantly harder lately mainly due to lack of flexibility stemming from over stretching my hamstrings doing splits back on june 3rd.

Strength Training:

I'm making a bit of a change in my training and stepping away from Bodyweight work for my lower body conditioning. I've made this decision after seeing the lack of carryover I've had from Single Leg Squats to Regular weighted Squats. While My single legs squats have improved a lot and I've managed one one each leg with over 100lbs extra weight, my regular squats remains depressingly low.

Warm-up:

Ido-portals Shoulder band warm-up

Conditioning:

3 Giant sets of -

2 sets Middle Split holds

3 reps 280lbs deadlifts - Despite the lack of carryover I'm seeing with my squat, I was very pleased to find today that I could deadlift at least 330lbs (I had to stop there when I ran out of plates) on my first day trying the lift.

2 Sets Straddle L-sit

5 reps hanging leg lifts

3 more giant sets of -

2 sets Flat tuck planche

3 reps tuck planche pushups

2 sets Flat tuck front Lever

3 reps tuck front lever pull-ups

and last but not least, 3 endurance handstand holds against a wall to failure. the first for 2 minutes the second for 1minute 30 seconds, and the third for 1 minute. with 60 seconds of rest between them

@ seiji

-I'm hoping and planning to to keep a very detailed log while Im in montreal.

-As for how I got into this stuff, I wrestled in high school and some of the kids on my team would walk around on their hands a bit before practices. I gave that a shot and liked it so I started learning how to do handstands. I found beastskills.com and started working on single leg squats, l-sits and other bodyweight exercises. while looking for handstand tutorials you Youtube I found a handbalancing act by Encho Keryazov and thats when my obsession with hand balancing really started. At some point I ran into coach sommers artical on planche and front lever training, and that Lead me to This site. I trained on my own for a few years, went to circus school after highschool and Here I am.

Oh man, I think Entcho on youtube was also the reason why I took as much of an interest in handbalancing as I have.

Even funnier, I was in wrestling last year during high school for a while. We didn't do anything gymnastic besides distance jumps and crawling on the floor. :/

Can't wait to see what you get up to. Good luck with your training!

Your training looks good, but from my preference I would do the 2 sets of 60 sec handstand AFTER you have done your 1 arm work. Endurance holds are good, and can be a nice warm up, but remember that you need all your strength to keep the 1 arms.

When I train, I generally do a routine of stretching before I just do a couple of shorter handstands to get my wrists warm and ready Then I go directly to the 1 arm work. If i do blockwalks, endurance or other exercises, I always do this after I work positions, and 1 arm presses. When I feel I have worked my positions and my pressing power, which are the most important to me at this point, I go on to do the easier stuff.

Super-cool stuff. All the best in your training.