forgotten_aria

This is just a record for myself. Only making it public in case people are interested.

( current weight lifting personal records )

I tried to get a pulley offset for doing pull ups (bands have the problem that they don't give equal resistance and I wanted a concrete data point of where I was.) I think I got it working just enough to know that 80lbs of offset lets me do at least one pull up but since I couldn't get it working I couldn't test further or have a nice slow ramp up. 80lbs is a depressingly high number. Maybe 5 years is unrealistic.

I found a way to scale clapping pushups. I'm now able to do one with about 4" of scaling. Not far off from a flat one.

I decided to try plank DDR. I did one song and it went well, and then I wanted to do another song that might look a bit more impressive, and it was tough, I can barely get through it, but the first time I recorded it, I had bad plank form, so I recorded it again, and now I'm sticking out my tongue (a genetic trait when thinking hard) but tough!

Plank DDR lives!



As a side note, DaVinci Resolve is hands down the best video edit software I've ever used and it's free! I feel guilty that something so good is free. I would love to give them money, but the next tier up is way too expensive.

After some unbecoming whining about running, I started my training for my black belt physical in October and immediately my tendon is itching (a warning sign before it becomes inflamed.) I'm going to try different shoes next time. Give it lots of massage and hot soaks. It does not bode well for my training however. I will have to figure it all out, somehow.

On another note, I made notable progress with frogstand, for the first time holding it, rather than pushing up and falling back down. I'm still not past more than 2s, but it's progress.

I still can't figure out why it's so hard for me to kick up into handstand. I don't know if it's just the weight of my hips, lack of flexibility or just doing something wrong. I stopped really practicing in the door frame after I took a spill (because I missed the other side of the frame with my foot) and gave myself some bruises.

( bruises )

I haven't been dealing great with now, which is weird, since my life hasn't changed that much. I think it's because 2020 was supposed to be a year of hope, a year where we looked to removing the cheato. But even that, with Biden, is kind of soured. I am very tired of the current state of politics and press. I am tired that the cheato did so many things wrong, but his propaganda machines in the conservative media always find a way to blame someone else.

But I think the "unknown" is wearing on me and how this seems to continue to spotlight the worst humans. People who let their stupidity become violence. People who let their love of money make them do horrible thing and the "Haves" going out of their way to take from the "have nots."

Crossfit workouts have become all small dumbbell (because I don't own anything bigger) and body weight stuff, so I'm not getting my feeling of power from moving weight around. They did lend me a bar and some plates, so I gratefully have a barbell to play with, but since I can only go up to 125, it means I'm forced to work on those movements I don't do well (snatch, clean, overhead squat.) And I do need to work on them, desperately, but that doesn't generate accomplishment brain-chemistry.

Taekwondo has taken to teaching on line, and I'm finding it fun, but also very stressful. It's so hard to teach people when they might crash into a piece of furniture at any moment and when you're not really sure how left and right works, because your camera is mirrored, but you're supposed to be doing mirrored (which I haven't practiced that much, so I'm not confident I'm doing it right.) Then add in any technical difficulties. (I had zoom tell me it was the wrong password until I reinstalled zoom, my tablet's screen is failing again. Thank goodness I have so many computers.)

The best part of all this is I've gotten to play some really amazing board games online with good people. I've really enjoyed Tzolk'in, Hanabi, and Ghost Stories and we just started Gloomhaven. We struggled a bit both with the online game interface (it turned a card into a double backed card inexplicably) and getting our bearings, but I really really like it and look forward to its campaign nature.

The mixed part is I've gotten a chance to work on some movements that I hadn't been making time for . I did get back up into a handstand for the first time since my back got inflamed, which made me happy, but it takes me ~25 tries, and it's a bit of fear thing and I'm frustrated that I don't seem to be getting better. I've been trying to work on my overhead squat depth, but I have this gap. 20lbs, no problem, nice and deep. 35lbs, I can't even get parallel. (keep in mind, I can front squat a lot more.) I can't figured out how to get those in between weights. I can't really work on a snatch until I have the OH squat. There's also a gap in the weights right about where I need to work on my clean. I can clean 95lbs, no problem. I struggle with 115lbs. The plate math means there's no in between. I've been working on my pull up too, but the progress there is sloth-like, except I'm pretty sure a sloth can do pull ups better than me. I should also try working on my box jumps and my double unders, but I've not had the cycles. I am having fun posting things to my Instagram inspiration account, but even the plan for that is a reminder of what's going on.

Which is the main problem. I've been feeling tired and drained this whole time and I don't really know why. I have very little will to do things that aren't video games.

I hope people are doing well.

I've never been able to do a pull up. Even for that short week I weighed 135lbs. I got a pullup band hoping that will help, but I've not seen any progress at all (slight progress in using the band, but none in negatives.) Hoop has also started trying to build my upperbody strength, with shoulder and back engagement.

I started to do some more research and people see to feel that a banded pull up doesn't help because it helps too much at the bottom. My negatives are pretty much instant, so they're kind of useless. I can do the scapula engagements, but they don't feel like progress. I've also tried the kneeling pull down on the weight machine, and I'm not convinced it will help in the long run. A lot of the guides assume you can do negatives.

The most discouraging thing, though, is so many of the guides say "lose weight." That's not a training suggestion! Sure, every body weight exercise would be easier if I were lighter, but that's not helpful!

I was able to lift my toes off the ground starting with a bent arm in hoop which was a nice surprise.

I also built a 14/17/20 plyo box because at my crossfit gym they only have 12" and 20" boxes and I wanted to train up to 20". I can do 14" no problem, but 17" is just above what I can do. I'm hoping I can soon get that last little height I need. I built it (with the help of my mom) because they charge ~$50 for one premade. After building it, I'm not so sure I shouldn't have spent the money. I wouldn't have gotten the size I wanted, however, so in the end, I got what I hope I need.

One of the interesting thing about my lyra classes is that the warm up is combined with the pole class, which means it's this interesting blend of strength, yoga, and flexibility with just a hint of sexualization. I don't think I could ever really enjoy pole because of the sexualization of it, even though it seems like an amazing art form. (If this instagram thing takes off, I'll take a beginner lesson just for the variety of it.)

As with crossfit, I'm super glad that i'm already pretty strong, because the warm up is also pretty challenging (as it is, I can't do "low plank" which is basically pushup hold.)

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but the crossfit warm ups are what I used to call "working out," and would have killed me before TKD. It's kind of awesome that I'm at a stage where it really does just feel like a warm up now.

Until crossfit, i never got endorphins from exercising. Today, because of the format of the workout, I almost made myself sick (I try to avoid that) but then when I got home, I was like "ah, that was relaxing... wait..." Whee! Endorphins rewriting my memory. :)

My back is still a bit inflamed but almost better. I think what happened was I over worked my muscles, which let my damaged disk slouch and inflame one of my nerves (by internet self diagnosis, the L5 nerve.) I'm hoping to be ok by Saturday for a group silks class that a friend organized. I haven't been able to do crossfit since two weeks ago and TKD since a week and a half ago. Usually this has a negative effect on my mental health, but I'm doing pretty well. I am looking very much forward to getting back to both, however, so I'll have no problem starting back up.

Also on the mental health thing, I referred to the Winchester Town Day show as a "gig" and had someone assume that I had been paid. I didn't mind the misunderstanding. I seem to have done a better job of breaking the money == worth or money == legitimacy link than I thought. I referred to it as a gig, because with taiko we used to do lots of probonos and they were still gigs. I would love to do a paying gig again someday, but I don't see that happening unless I get involved with a group again. I just don't have the self drive to practice and perform enough.

I've recorded one of the songs that I composed for Winchester down day and I'm pretty happy with it, given my current skill. My singing is a little pitchy, but I think has some really good quality to it. I don't have an autotune filter for ableton, so I just have to live with the pitchiness. There was also a weird resonance that I couldn't tell if it was just inside my head, so I notice it out. I'm currently making a music video for it. My attempt to be dramatic and artsy in the video has great potential for coming across as pretentious, but I think that's a risk I have to take.

I hope to get it done by middle of next week and then start working on my Halloween costume in earnest.