2009/04/30 - Day 19: Moderate day

Today's session consisted of a nice mix of strength work, Flowfit and Tai Ji. The session looked like this:

Static holds:

Crow: 10 x 6 seconds

L-Sit: 10 x 6 seconds

Basic body weight work:

Ring push ups: 3 x 3

Ring Rows: 3 x 3

V-Up holds: 3 x 10 seconds

Flowfit level 1: 1 x 13 minute round

Tai Ji form practice

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, in fact, I would even say I had fun. Us masochists do however have a strange idea of what fun actually is. I felt a lot stronger in the static holds and body weight work. I am getting close to straightening my arms in the Crow and I am now able to keep my hips pushed forward in front of my hands with the L-Sit. I was also able to lower the rings to just a few centimeters above the floor for my push up work. One thing to keep in mind though is that Coach Sommer considers these early gains as mainly due to neurlogical adaptation to the exercises. Real strength that can carry over to other activities apparently takes significantly longer to develop. The Tai Ji is also improving but I have a long way to go to regain the fluidity I used to feel in the form. Luckily I do know that Tai Ji really is a life-long adventure. More fun stuff tomorrow.

2009/04/29 - Day 18: Low intensity

Some more outside training today. I did:

Intuflow intermediate

Cricket Flow x 4

First section of Spider Monkey x 4

Back bend wall walks x 3

Some Tai Ji forms practice (Yang Lu Chan form)

Tomorrow it's back to the strength work.

2009/04/28 - Day 17: Intuflow and an old friendship rekindled

After my Intfuflow session today I felt like moving a bit more, but in a relaxed fashion. I went to www.warriorarts.co.uk and downloaded Erle Montaigue's excellent free ebooks on the so called "old style" of Tai Ji as developed by Yang Lu Chan. I used to practice this style (as well as the less martially oriented Yang Cheng Fu form) extensively a few years ago. It was great to rediscover this trustworthy old friend on the lawn outside. The movements felt a bit rusty but after playing around a bit with the first section of the form I felt great. Tai Ji really is a perfect compliment to the strength oriented training I've been doing lately. Who knows, it might just become part of my daily schedule again like it used to be.

2009/04/27 - 16: High intensity

I did some more body weight strength work and Flowfit today. I am really liking the exercises from the Gymnastic Body book but they are REALLY hard. This is what I did:

Static holds:

Tuck front lever: 10 x 6 seconds

Ring support: 10 x 6 seconds

Basic strength work:

Pull ups: 3 x 3

Ring Roccas: 3 x 3

Ring Jack-knives: 3 x 5

Jump Squats: 3 x 5

Flowfit level 1: 1 x 12 minutes round

Out of all the exercises it is the front lever that needs by far the most work. I just cannot get my body horizontal yet. I'm not sure why this is the case but I think the most likely suspect is that I don't have sufficient core strength yet. Like I said yesterday - success with these methods are measured in years, not weeks. Now I just need to remain patient.

2009/04/26 - Day 15: Moderate day

I just finished a very enjoyable session which consisted of a mixture of basic gymnastics strength work (for ABSOLUTE beginners) and some Flowfit. The session looked like this:

Static holds:

Crow: 10 x 6 seconds

L-Sit: 10 x 6 seconds

Basic strength work:

Ring push ups: 3 x 3

Ring rows: 3 x 3

V-Ups (tuck) 3 x 10

Flowfit level 1: 1 x 11 minute round

I'm beginning to understand why Coach Sommer is an advocate of steady state cycles lasting 12 weeks or longer. He makes it very clear in his book that gymnastic strength is built slowly over long time periods. With this type of training I'm beginning to think in terms of months (and even years) rather than weeks. Although I have made some gains since the beginning of the cycle this work feels like something that should be chipped away at day after day and month after month to see real results. My most notable gains thus far have been with the ring push ups and crow posture. The rings were much closer to the floor today than the first time I did this. In the crow posture I'm beginning to feel as if I can almost lift my legs away from the arm support which means that a full planche will be on the cards before my 50th birthday (which is only 11 years away).

2009/04/25 - Day 14: Low intensity

I trained outside on the lawn again today. I guess I'm trying to catch the last bit of warmth before winter really sets in. I did the following:

Full Intuflow intermediate sequence

4 rounds of the Cricket flow

2 rounds of the first part of Spider monkey

It was a great session except for the fact that I'm itching now because of rolling around on the grass.

2009/04/24 - Day 13: Fast Intuflow

I just did a short and fast Intuflow session today. I normally train inside but today I decided to train outside on the lawn. I really must do this more. It felt good to stand outside and watch the sun going down while training. For some reason I did all the movements very fast today and this generated a great sense of flow and relaxation. Quite nice!