Weekly Progress Report: 2012-02-12

I got the chance to try out the Nissan Leaf yesterday. Surprisingly interesting! And that’s coming from a guy who loves manual transmissions. But… there seems to be only one gear on that electric engine It just…goes. Accelerations are surprisingly powerful!

Challenge #6 and #8: Straddle Press to Handstand & Iron Cross

Welp, here’s a small medley of movement variations I’ve worked on to progress on the main goals.

When the Tuck Planche doesn’t test well or I don’t feel that strong in the position, I figured I could do reps instead, which allow for less intensity and more volume. We’ll see if it pays off! Also, I’ve been thinking of ways to work on the “press to handstand” part of the movement, aside from handstand push-ups. I don’t have the strength yet to press from bottom to top; same goes with keeping my elbows flexed, holding my body while elevating the hips. So I found a way to lighten the load until then, while still working the transition.

For quite some time now I’ve been on a quest for an efficient way for me to progress on my pull-up numbers and strength more quickly. What doesn’t help too is a small shoulder issue which has been nagging on me for some years. It’s progressed a lot towards being fully healed, especially in the more recent months. But still, there are days when it doesn’t agree with pull-ups at all. The idea came to me this week to work on partials; I’m actually not sure why I didn’t consider it sooner. I guess I was too stuck on the idea that I need to work on the full range of motion. I now realized I’m weaker on some parts and stronger on others. Namely, I’m especially weaker on the extremities of the movement. Also I hadn’t really tried wide chin-ups before, but they felt good for my shoulders and wrists today.

Challenge #11: Origami

It’s pretty cool; this time around they took me about 10 minutes each to make. AND I didn’t even need the instructions at all. Not too shabby.

Cranes 6 and 7 are done! 993 to go.