13th Apr 07
Post by: Jason
Progress part 2

Ok so i was meant to post my progress a few weeks ago but i have been training hard and been very busy.

Quite a while ago i spoke with my uncle who talked to me about turning weakness to strength, I'm sure every one has heard the saying and had a few thought about the relevance to their own life's?? This was the same time i was at a low with my training and i couldn't get his words out of head so when i sat down and worked out what i was going to do i decided that rather than setting my self targets i feel like i need to achieve or want to meet i am going to evaluate myself and find my single worst weakness every day and use some of my own advise that i have given to lots of people about good ways to stay inspired/ motivated using a calender, It has all worked well and i am achieving they way i had hoped or better so hear is my progress.


Goals i set when i took a break from bl:
*50 tricep press ups consistently
*20 over grip pull ups consistently
*Stronger ankles -rehab
*Stronger med deltoids, handstand press -rehab
*Better balance
*re learn muscle up- from momentum

I achieved all of my goals before the end of march but i was still fighting hard with my muscle ups and handstand press having only done a few poor ones.
I surprise my self with the pull up goal because i was expecting it to take longer, i used to max out at 13-14 and now my latest max is 22 normal shoulder width over grip and 23 closed under grip with a slight leg jolt to finish the up on the last pull.

I was shocked at the recovery of my left shoulder that has been painful to the point of collapse in certain positions since i was about 11 when it twisted badly in an accident. It has been very painful to even try handstand press and so i was determined to change this but didn't think i could re build it as fast as i have to the point where i am ecstatic to say i feel no pain just muscular fatigue when doing handstand press now.

Balance was the most fun of all my missions i set because after the first full day of just balance i realised that i was not as bad as i thought and that my confidence lacked originaly because i had not improved my ankle strength so i was hesitant to practice precisions for fear of re spraining my ankle.

Re learning muscle ups has been a hard task physically but a harder one mentally because to start with its gutting to lose any strength and skill, whilst training them i asked my self why i lost them and realised the answer is realy simple i just didn't train them enough. Whilst in Cambridge last year i had to be very delicate with my knee because of the surgery and its internal natural repair so i did allot of upper body work on scaffolding and that's how i learnt muscle ups, when i first moved to Canterbury i trained in a great tree and could muscle up well still but when the tree was cut down i couldn't find any scaffold, bars or dry trees as it got wetter so my preparation/conditioning just didn't include the skill. After a huge amount of work i now have them back and they are getting better.

(I found the method i used to stay motivated and keep track of progress so simple and effective, i really feel like it has helped loads so I'm going to write an article of how to do it and how it works that i will post put up as soon as i can, maby it will help others)

BL:
The numbers at bottom level are still low but better now and i am pleased to say i can see a fair few guys progressing well because of their effort and application to preparation. We have found some great new spots and now that Canterbury is in bloom and the weather is good we are starting bl at the later time of 4.30 or 5.00pm at the latest at the castle trees and not in the car park- unless it is raining all kinds o hard, blam! I am going to ask some one to film what we do at BL next week so video soon to come.