Two Cirque du Soleil Hand Balancers

These two brothers are so strong...the stuff that the larger guy is doing is just incredible (though what the top guy is doing is nothing to sneeze at either)

Slumbering men and silly cats..

...aren't so quick to escape a photo..

New Routine

Over these past 6-7 months, i've used two different methods of training, both of which have yielded results:

Summer
ME focused, no endurance days.
M-W-F upper body
T-Th-Sat core and lower

I then modified this going into the school year, allowing for some endurance training.
Fall
Monday: ME upper
Tuesday: ME lower and core
Wednesday: Metcon upper
Thursday: Metcon lower and core
Friday: Me upper
Saturday: Me lower and core

and now, i'm going to change that focus towards metcon/endurance training with each day being total body instead of the upper/lower split. The idea is that i want to continue developing ME strength, but i really want to emphasize endurance, because from the spring into the fall, i will be drilling parkour movements alot more, and during the summer i'm active every day all day, so i need the stamina and joint adaptations to handle things...this is the general idea
Winter
Monday: ME
Tuesday: Metcon (legs focus)
Wednesday: Metcon (upper focus)
Thursday: rest
Friday: ME
Saturday: Endurance (high rep,no particular focus)

because I'm doing full body workouts, i'm not sure how my body will respond to certain workloads, so i'll have to do a little feeling around to see what i can handle while still making gains. I'm still going to be aiming for certain overload goals during each cycle, but i'll have to make sure i don't push too hard.

Hooray for Muscle Ups!

Today I hit a personal best with 2 consecutive muscle ups-they felt so much easier than before. Now i'm hardly using any kick to bust through the transition; my first two or three of the day (I did maybe 10 or so throughout the hour) were so nice-i'm pretty sure there was no leg movement except to balance in the air.

I'm not sure how i'll fit these into training, but i'm definitely going to add them in somewhere; there's no point in developing a strength skill (as basic as it is) and not using it to progress further.

i'm hoping that by this time next year i'll be capable of at least 5 in a row.

What i want in the appearance of a video..

this is joenkkoe from Finland; he's using sony vegas 7 (i think) for editing and a canon HV20 for the camera. Terrific look to this footage-he's also very strong, so it makes the video all the more impressive.

Photography Practice

Lots of snow outside, so i went around the house and just kept snapping pictures. Though they're nothing special (and i can see some things that i should've changed) here are the better ones.

Strength-Endurance

Recently on .net there was some arguing about endurance v. strength, with some people claiming that anything but maximal loads were only training endurance, which set others off, as they began to delve into hypothetical examples(rock-climbing, specifically) This got me thinking, and though i didn't post my thoughts, i felt like writing this down, as it is a component of my training that i'm seeking to improve in.

The examples that were used were comparing the ability to hold onto a difficult hold in rock-climbing(just the ability to hold; a sort of 1 rm effort) and holding onto holds of different difficulty for longer periods of time. Some people were claiming that a person who can hold onto hold x will be stronger than a person who cannot. I agreed with this point, because i think of that limit capability as a true measure of strength; just being able to do it. Not for how long the person can hold on. Then the people who came up with this idea decided that to hold onto that same difficult hold x for a longer time means that the climber is stronger. I feel this isn't correct, and here's why. The way i see things, after a 1rm effort, everything becomes a matter of endurance. The difference between what i'm saying and what people were arguing about is that I am taking into account the varying levels of intensity.

To create a visual idea, think of a tree with branches at different heights, with each height acting as a "level". Each level's branches are harder to hold onto than the ones below it. Now imagine that someone is trying to hold onto the highest branch they can for the longest period of time. With these levels representing different amounts of intensity, then at each level, to hold on, the person requires the ability to endure at a higher intensity level.

This is my idea for training; if you press 100lbs twice, then you are developing the endurance to lift that 100lbs more than 1 time. You aren't training strength, you are training strength-endurance. Now i understand that strength gains would come from this sort of training, but in terms of just abstract ideas, i still see this as a form of strength-endurance training.

Anyway, how this affects me is that i am trying to develop my ability to endure at very high levels of intensity to advance my parkour, bouldering, handbalancing, and other movements. A while back i was reading through Blane's old training regime, and i noticed that he would train his endurance, but with additional weight attached to him. Eventually i realized that he was increasing his endurance on a higher plane of intensity.

pictures from stock photo and slopeypete
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slopeypete/274670081/

Pulling Power Update

I've been working up from +15lbs since the start of this school year, and my current working set up in pull ups is 4x5 with 25lbs(11.3kilos) extra. i feel alot stronger, and today i managed a +55lb (25kilos) pull up! I don't have much longer before i take a deload week, and then begin focusing on endurance, so i'm hoping that i'll be able to develop a pretty good level of strength-endurance through the spring and summer before focusing on heavy stuff again next fall. Maybe by then i'll be capable of a 1.5x bodyweight pull up. Of course, that means adding on 31lbs to my current maximum, so we'll see.

Once i start my power biased endurance training, I think i'll be going to the Ymca more so i can utilize their pull bars with one higher than another (maybe 1 foot in difference..? i'm not sure) for ballistic pull ups. I'd really like to be able to comfortably do bar muscle ups by just doing a hand change mid pull up, rather than having to develop a false grip.

who knows? maybe this stuff isn't far off..

Anders and Kai Wee

these are the older brothers of my friend Olaf; they're into all sorts of things, but any sort of movement or art interests them. This is their barefoot climbing video.

Chinese Oly Lifters

These are a few of the olympic lifters from China..they're amazing athletes! I've looked over these pictures so many times-very cool.
these were taken by "Dehwang" on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dehwang/

The Shape of Things

It's thanksgiving today, and i've decided that i will make a blog to keep tabs on my long term training progress, while i take care of day to day stuff on Apk. I'm hoping to post some pictures and videos of myself and some things that are truly inspirational down the road. I'm seeking a very balanced, large capacity of overall work, strength, and endurance physically, so i can do what i love most-to play. At the moment I am practicing the discipline of parkour, and from time to time i go bouldering as a change of pace/difficult challenge. In addition, I play missions, slackline from time to time, and pursue various projects that are challenging or on a large scale. (this past summer my friends and I spent some 70 work hours digging a 9 by 7 ft hole that was going to have a clubhouse built inside, but the park authorities bulldozed it the week we got the pieces of the clubhouse down to the forest) I also play baseball, and though it was once the focal point of my life, i've changed my mindset towards improving my overall ability to move; not just my skills in baseball.

I have been training parkour for about 17 months as of today, and i have been focusing on physical development for that whole time, while spending a smaller portion working on techniques, balance, and basic movements. I have been trying to develop my strength to a solid level, from which i will progress the skills i accomplish (muscle ups, somewhat heavy pulls and dips, etc.) to higher levels of endurance. When the weather gets warmer the amount of technical practice that i do will definitely increase, and i'll try to advance my parkour as far as possible.
I have been training using a variation of the Russian Conjugate Method so as to develop endurance and strength simultaneously, and i will be emphasizing the endurance part in a month or two as i head into baseball season.

Here's where i'm at at the moment:
I am 16, 173 lbs (78.5 kilos) and 6 feet (183cm)
Broad Jump: 9 ft
Pull ups: 17
Dips: 17
Muscle ups: 1

i don't know what my max deadlift and squats are, and i don't plan on testing for a while. Right now i'm allowing my legs to adapt to a medium sized workload as i encountered a mild overuse injury, coming out of a rest period way too fast.

Right now I am in a 4 week progression cycle, so i can't say "this is what i'm doing". instead, this is what i did yesterday and the day before for my heavy days:

Upper
-4x4 pull ups (+25lbs, v. wide-touching-wide-shoulder)
-3x6 dips (+20lbs)
-3x4 OaDb press (50lbs)

-4x4 One leg Calf Raise (+180lbs)
-3x6 shin flexion (100lbs)
-2x1 wrist roller (10lbs)

-4x6 internal rotation (45lbs)
-4x7 cuban rotation (25lbs)
-4x6 face pulls (12 plates)

Lower and Abs
-Front squat..10-6-5
loads: 45-95-135
-Romanian deadlift..10-6-5
loads: 135-205-225
-4x6 knees to elbows
-4x8 landmine twists (60lbs)