Posture Exercises

Last night, or the night before, I can't remember which (vino?), I went through the posture exercises on PZ's DVD and I was shocked at how terrible my posture was. My middle back is tight and sore when in the correct posture and my hip flexors are struggling to handle the strain of sitting in an 'L' position.

I have since thought that my posture in general is poor and does me no favours in my TKD at all. I would say my pelvis is tilted forward and my lower back is to arched which I think might make weak stances but also might explain my tight hip flexors (or they might be the cause). So I did a quick Google and found this:

http://posture-exercises.blogspot.com/

It seems a good resource and I am going to investigate it further and with a combo with PZ I hope to improve my posture.

Change'd it Up

I didn't really change too much at all. But I totally concentrated tonight on doing quality reps for the GA Level 1, it made the suspension exercises (rows, bridge & curl, hammer press) slightly easier by carrying less weight i.e. I had the straps at an angle rather than just straight down - this meant I could really concentrate on form, it works big time I felt it good. 

Then I did some lower body stuff, lunges (50), single leg deadlifts (12), back thingys (12), side bends (40), kicking position side bend things (15 each leg twice).

I am gonna look through some more of the ES DVD just now.

Glasses

Damn it!

Splits Pics

I am trying to encourage all Elastic Steel practitioners to post pics of the splits progress to a forum on the PZ domain. Here is the link to the forum: Splits Photo Postings

There is only me who is not too embarrassed and have posted a pic. Dave TKD says he will post soon, but I think he is already well in to the splits, but I really think it will motivate others to improve if they post their photos.

Let's see what happens.

Feeling Good

So after my post on Thursday about not wanting to go training...

...obviously I went training because that is what I do, I go training, I do TKD, that is me. I had a massive headache and didn't do any fighting but at least I went and did training. I had a good stretch at the end in Front Splits routine.

Friday Night

I read PZ's post about changing up the routine went things get a little boring so in my GA workout tonight (which I can squeeze in to 30 mins just now) I really concentrated on quality reps and I found it to be a great boost as I could really feel myself working. It was a good session on GA level 1.

I must say here that doing the rows, bridge and curl and hammer press are about twice as hard on Suspension straps than they are on fixed apparatus. I mostly use straps suspended from my chinning bar but when I am down the play park or in the training hall and using the fixed bar things are much easier. 

ALL GOOD.

Not again

So this i feel about going training tonight.

Come On!

So last night I did a good lower body session involving:

Joint warmup

light stretching

straight left deadlifts x 20

Criss Cross Ab things x 20

Single leg deadlifts x 12, both legs

Criss cross x 20

Single straight leg deadlifts x 12, both legs

Criss cross x 20

Back Extensions, 2 sets of 20

Leg raises, abductor and adductor, 50 reps each exercise each leg.

Then moved on for a good stretch in the front splits routine.

NOTES:

Single straight leg dead lifts are hard! Mainly because of my poor balanace and lack of muscle control in the range. I will stick at these.

Back Extensions I find tricky because of the lack of flexibility of my shoulders. I know what I gotta work on here.

MY HIP FLEXORS ARE JUST LIKE ROCK! They are so stiff it is almost unbelievable, still I will keep at it.

Updates

So Thursday last week I worked a lot but am pretty sure I did a lower body workout and a good stretch for front splits. 

Friday I did GA Level 1 again - wicked.

Saturday - rest

Sunday - TKD and GA Level 1

Monday - TKD

A Good Week

Monday

Did my now usual Level 1 from Gravity Advantage Bodyweight Manual and followed it with some planks and ab stuff.

8 x Wide Grip Rows, 8 x Narrow Grip Rows, Rest, Repeat

8 x Weaving Pushups, 8 x Divebombers, Rest, Repeat

8 x Bridge & Curl, 8 x Hammer Press, Rest, Repeat

12 x 1 leg Deadlifts, 20 Wide Squats, rest, repeat.

I think I also did some reverse crunches. I can't remember, I have been so tired recently because I have been working so hard on www.buyXsocks.com

Tuesday

I didn't do a thing training wise, except for early morning joint rotations, squats and I have also added a really strict daily set of horizontal rows in the morning.

Wednesday

This was our 4th Wedding Anniversary and we went out for a meal that evening. However I managed to squeeze in a 40 minute session for Level 1 GA. Man, every exercise is a nightmare. So hard. The bridge and Curls just mash my grip and my inner forearms. The Divebombers become a nightmare by rep 5.

More to come...crying baby right now...

Happy 4th anniversary

I did train earlier in the evening.

Staying Active

So I was meant to be doing some training tonight but I got caught up learning to book keep for this www.buyXsocks.com and other stuff.

Anyway, I am staying really quite active. Here is the first stage of making an Apple Crumble: getting the apples...

Back in the saddle

So I was a bit ill tail end of last week so laid of the training for a few days. Cracked on tonight with GA Level 1 and added some abs stuff like planks and reverse crunches. Then I did the deadlifts and wide squats.

I did some kicking specific stuff to work the hips and lower back: 

Stand with leg on chair back or similar, side kick position then lean over the floor by your standing leg and then pull your body back upright. Works sides  and hips. Then do the same but turn away from the kicking leg, so like a back kick position and this works either side of your lower back. NICE.

The new pressups, divebomber and weaving, are mega. 8 of those are hard going. The rows as well, hard as you like. On some reps it's like I just have no power and can't pull myself closer. 

However, I am improving lots and quickly. ITS ALL GOOD.

I finished with a light stretch routine. Main stretch is tomorrow with some more pics.

So where we at

well well well, I have just been so mega mega busy that I haven't blogged here for ages. I do have minor reasons for not being so active on the MSC blog and that is this www.buyXsocks.com which is my new online shop which just sells socks, one brand of socks to be precise and that brand is X-Socks.

Check out buyXsocks.com right now

So where am I at with training and stretching?

Well, I will admit to not doing too much stretching recently there have been no excuses. I mean I have been stretching but just not sticking to a set plan and as a consequence I haven't seen the results I was seeing earlier.

However I have still been training my body and still going to TKD. So for physical condition I am doing the Gravity Advantage programme by Paul Zaichik at the moment, and will continue to do that for a few months. It's not really a programme in the sense that he tells you exactly what do in terms of reps and sets and on which days, you have to decide that for yourself and it was only after doing some research and asking PZ for help on his forums that I have settled on a plan. I upgraded myself from The Fundamentals on GA to Level 1 on GA - so last nights workout consisted of this (and it was really really hard):

• 8 x Wide Grip Horizontal Rows straight in to 8 x Narrow Grips - rest then repeat once more
  
• 8 x Weaving Pushups (oh man, how hard are these!) straight in to 8 x Dive Bomber Pushups (mental hard) - rest then repeat once more
  
• 8 x Bridge and Curls straight in to 8 x Hammer Presses - rest then repeat once more
  
• Side Planks then one leg dead lifts then knee ups on pull up bar
  

Hard as hell for me was the pushups and I am really quite strong on pushups, but various forms of the standard one. These new ones are totally hard and 8 reps was a real struggle, in fact in my second set for the dive bombers I went on to my knees at rep 6

So, 'its all good', and tonight I'll probably have a good light stretch.

Don't forget to check out www.buyXsocks.com