Erik's Workout Log, Take 2

Just a quick update on some things;

-PL is going along pretty well, though keeping the scapula completely protracted in the actual PL is difficult. The leans are helping a lot.

-Gonna step back from the rings for my straddle L and just work it on the floor, at least until I have a stalder.

-Manna has been a long journey, but now I finally feel I'm doing the MSH properly. Over the past year or so I've been slowly working away from parallettes to the floor, then turning my fingers back. Now I'm on a flat palm with fingers back and am feeling what seems like the contraction I need to press forward. Looking forward to the work I'll need to do later.

-HSPU have been slowly coming back. Stooped HeSPU have been working well, but my crappy shoulder flexibility always keeps me from getting perfect form. Right now, I'm trying to at least get my elbows in the right spot so I don't fall into the rut I always do. Also working with weights to do full ROM (fairly light at the moment).

-Front lever...I "think" I have it, but I need to film myself and make sure I'm not collapsing at the hips.

Injury to report.

During pancake stretch, went too deep and something in my left hamstring...went. Kinda felt and almost sounded like sliding your fingernail across corduroy pants. So yeah, I've now pulled (or whatever I did) something on every axis of that damned hip. Might make straddle L and Manna work difficult, but I don't think it'll interrupt too badly.

Woah, that was a while without an update. Kinda derped on that, I guess.

Anywhoo, I'm making this log more of a "notable notes" log instead of a daily thing. Writing the same thing over and over again seemed kinda pointless.

The hip is doing a lot better, I really feel that I handled it correctly. I'm still not back to the level of flexibility I had before, but it's pretty darn close.

Some things I have noticed;

planche (planche leans and tucks with my toenails assisting kind of help me feel the position a lot better...I hope)

HS presses (playing with Stalder negatives on parallettes and floor. It's only really effective when I can keep my arms straight and scapula elevated, which sadly is about half the time. Hips aren't strong or flexible enough to press back out of the straddle L, so that's going to have to be addressed. Shoulders are slowly opening in the HS itself, so that's good. I'm going to start doing what I was before May's seminar, and holding the lowest part of the press I can with good form for time in a pike. It helped me feel the trapezius during the press)

manna- still nowhere near the actual thing, but I at least have the right position and can lift most of the pressure off my hips.

front lever- bridging from straddle to layout is tough! Especially when you don't have room to do proper front pulls. Hopefully by resuming some abbreviated negatives, I'll be able to build up the strength I need, since pulling up from a dead hang from my rafters isn't doing much for form...which it should. Weird. Started doing scap pulls in a tuck FL to strengthen those, so we'll see where I am in a while.

HSPU- ...ugh. Just ugh. I can slowly feel the old strength coming back in my shoulder, but that's bad. The old strength was wrong, made me restart the progressions no less than three times, and each time with horrendous form. I need to find a way to perfect them so I don't get knocked back down to the beginning again when I reach full ROM...again. At least I've figured out the shoulder rotation this time.

MPPr- sort of playing with a chest roll variant, more for back than shoulders. Start on belly with chest on ground, push up into headstand. Do the same thing in a pseudo planche to work that.

So that's a bit of what I've been doing. Hopefully some of the stuff I mentioned I can figure out a way to fix soon, because waiting until May to do so is going to suck.

Handstand pushups are going to be annoying to build up properly (again), though in my box HeSPU (I know, back there again :cry: ) I managed to perform my reps with proper form (elbows in, scapula non-winging).

When I did it, though, I did feel it in my chest a bit. Sort of felt like I was pulling myself back into position rather than pushing myself up. It looked right, though I'm not sure if I was supposed to be using my chest at all...quite confusing.

Some things I've noted about proper (I hope) HeSPU form.

In order to keep my back straight and use the right muscles, I've had to pretty much forget everything I knew and re-teach it to myself...which sucks, because I thought I knew a lot. Sticking with box HeSPU (elbows in) until form is second nature.

What I've been trying to focus on is using both what feels like the tops of my pectorals to sort of pull my shoulders back over my hands to avoid arching my upper back and keep my scapula against my ribcage, as well as contracting my core, something I'd been pretty lax in.

This seems to be giving me good (or at the very least better) form from what I can observe, so hopefully I can drill this into my brain quickly and start working on building my strength and ROM back up.

Well, a few things have become apparent lately. While my pulls and movement related to that movement group are progressing and able to be strengthened by me on my own, presses are going to need outside influence/tutelage.

I'm going to try and find someone that can help teach me these things (there's a gymnastics facility nearby that lets local traceurs practice, so maybe they'd be cool with me learning gymnastics there), and report back on it later.

Quick note on some things;

Work has been mainly focused on opening my shoulders for handstand and keeping the scapula against the ribcage. Wall run frequency has been upped to twice a week, one arm chins are ugly but feel within reach of a few months focused work, and the rest of the year will be spent perfecting the front lever.

Been practicing the transition in the half reverse muscle up by hooking my feet into a band hung over the bar and using that as support. Doesn't let me feel the shift in balance very well, so it'll have to be phased out soon. Manna saw a bit of progress after the seminar, however I'm going to take a week to recover due to some strain in my left elbow/forearm. Normally I'd be worried about the strength loss, but this time what concerns me most is the lack of practice since the move is unfamiliar.

Not so much a training update as it is a news update.

Having recently gone back to school, I decided to try out for the university's rowing team, and after a month of tryouts, I made it! The team I'm actually on is a novice team, meaning that they took people who have never rowed before and train them to. Getting back into sports is exciting (I'm not looking forward to the 5 AM practices in the rain and snow, though), and I'm going to continue doing the same strength program that got me this far to take me even further.

Thanks guys!

Tweaked my right wrist doing something on Monday, and it came at the end of a training cycle, so I guess now's as good a time as any to take a week of "active rest." As restful as it can be while still doing the rowing training my university has me doing, anyway.

Still though, the past few weeks have been alright; I managed to bring my legs together in my side lever (still working to get the concentric press), and I think I made a tiny wiggle forward in my understanding of the planche. Manna work is going well, but some things need to be tweaked and need to really focus on pressing forward as well as up when I play with the elevated MSH.

And thus ends my week of enforced "rest". I'm going to go back into my next cycle tomorrow and see how everything feels.