Meet Matilda

IM PREGNANT!!!!!!..................................That would be the case if i was female, Instead meet my evil twin Matilda. In reality Matilda is a very painful blood blister that was conceived from barefoot running. Despite being told to stab my evil twin and end this madness I've decided to keep her around a little longer (Doctors advise) (although I'm renowned for not following doctors advice) to not risk the chance of Matilda becoming infected, to see if she calms down and lets us both go our separate ways. Matilda is a f**king b*tch, she stops me putting pressure on my left foot and she is VERY painful so I'm very close to popping her ass into next week.

Blood Blisters can form after chafing, or pinching, and apparently keeping the skin of the feet and hands dry and hard reduces the risk of damage or separation of the skin layers e.g. reducing the risk of Blood Blisters. I admit i have been a fool and gone to fast into barefoot running on concrete (which doesn't help) and need longer just slowly barefoot to strengthen my feet and my feet's skin, until my feet are at "hobbit level" hehe but i guess we learn from our mistakes. My training yesterday with everyone was good despite being unable to put pressure on my left foot hehe. I completed a target of mine of two muscle-ups in a row but instead four muscle-ups in a row which was kinda kool i guess woot woot! . Me and Matilda are going to stay at home today so no bottom level for us tonight. I leave you all with peace, harmony and a picture of Jason's feet.

- Spence

Yay Optimism

Well, things have been interesting, my right knee has been pretty poor lately, and im quite worried about it, so ive taken a big reduction in impact training, icing joints etc. But tbh, this couldnt have happened at a better time, and im not fussed about it. I felt weak in many areas again the other day, and even though i have progressed, i dont think its as much as it could be. I feel im weak in basic areas too, especially as my pushups are abysmal, but not in terms of my arms, but using my back and not arching it. I cant feel when im doing it, so im experimenting a lot with my camera and changing what i do to try and sort it out.

This has led me to do loads more conditioning at home, ive found things i can do everyday, out in my garden and more indoors if its raining, and im very determined to become stronger in areas ive identified as weak, which is a lot.

I was a bit of a grouchy..... goose today at the jam, but i wouldnt say for bad reasons, just because people were trying things that they were not ready for, and it's a re-occuring theme. So as i was reducing impact and trying to influence people to do less "big" things a bit i went barefeet, this also stopped me from doing anything I have banned myself from. I really enjoyed it and felt a big difference so im going to increase barefoot training a lot. My feet are now very dirty and i cant wash the mud off them. Good stuff.

P.s sorry i havent been on the last two bottom levels, i had a mock exam the next day last week.

But i will be there this week. yay!

Kevin: Pressures on training

Recently I have felt that others think that I have slacked or become lazy in my training. I missed the last BL due to food poisoning (bleurgh!) still feel a bit weak because I haven't trained hard for about a week now.

Now is coming up to exam time (oh the jubilance!) and in the midst of the sudden rush of GCSE revision that I need to catch up on as I spent the whole of Easter holidays avoiding school work the best I could! So It's difficult for me to force myself to not train as much as I would like to because of educational pressures and also I feel as if I let my friends with whom I train with most, mainly gay boy Dizzy and gay face Jason. You all know how much I love to train and also in the warming weather the temptation to neglect schoolwork to train is always mingling in the air. Yes I will train, but at this moment in time it's not possible to train with the regularity I have trained over the past couple of months or so. What I really don't want to happen is for something I love to tarnish my educational progress; but I will train so hard come the summer; which I can't wait for!

So I hope to see all you guys out training soon, but apologies if I occasionally can't make training sessions!

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.

1st mar 07
post by: Jason

Progress

Last week i felt it was time for me to return to BL because i had over come some of the problems i was having and i am confident now that i am back on track and will be able to get past the other problems that still plague me.
(I will follow this up when my goals are complete, (2/3 weeks me thinks)

When i returned to BL i was surprised and disappointed to find that only Dizzy and Kevin were still training, regardless of this and being kicked out of BL straight away we had a great night and i showed them a few new things to do that i had been training whilst i took my little break.

Next week i hope that we see a better turn out? I will hopefully be bringing two new friends, i don't know if they will stick at it like kev and dizz but i guess we will have to wait and see
- watch this space -

Confidence

Well, the bottom level sessions have been carrying on for me and Kevin, but the numbers have slowly dwindled over time. This is ok, as we hear from many people such as Spence that they are keeping up conditioning and pushing themselves, good stuff.

Well this post was to set myself standards, and something i dont intend going back on. Im not going to give myself specific targets just yet, but im going to be increasing the amount of conditioning i do and the intensity of it. Ive been feeling inadequate in various areas, particularly my power to rate ratio, so im going to work on this lots, however i was pleased to notice at the Worldeide jam workshop i wasnt the first to collapse or give up mentally, and this has given me reason to highlight areas which im not too bad at in comparison. Just feeling a lot less things restricting me now, so i cna push myself, no more coursework, no more driving tests/ lessons now all is left is uni visits.

More posts in future when i figure out exactly how i want to do this.

Next, Bottom level has been great recently, regardless of small numbers, we've been making it as interesting as possible, with some excellent missions being set, and games played, without a feeling of competitive regime. Tis good! Conditioning at the sessions as felt rewarding more as well as knackering! good stuff.

Catch you later! Love dizzy kiss kiss

20th Jan 07
Post by: spence

Aims for Spence's daily Conditioning program and Bottom Level

Push-ups
I have successfully completed my first goal by the beginning of 2007 at the end of December which was 50 push-ups in one swift repetition but i have to physically push myself still at 50. I'm setting a target by end of this month that i will successfully have at least 60 or hopefully 70 push-ups in one swift repetition.

Chin-ups & pull-ups
I'm very new to chin-ups and pull-ups in my daily regime as i have only just acquired a pull-up bar which helps alot with training indoors so my repetitions using the bar are quite pants at the moment. Even at bottom level I could and can just about make 20 chin-ups and 10 pull-ups in one repetition before i physically cant do any more reps. I'm setting a goal by the end of next month to have at least 20 pull-ups and 30 to 35 chin-ups in one repetition.

Planche (muscle up)
Planche is a big goal right now and for my conditioning, i have been practicing a lot lately (probally even while you read this hehe), its weird that i cant do alot of reps of chin-ups and pull ups using the bar and i can successfully Muscle up (planche) from a set marker on my wall using no momentum just strength with the very tips of my toes touching my floor and the bar being just above of my eye line, but using no force of my body or using any momentum to proceed into the full muscle up i just cant quite do (yet). I have progressed to the point where i can almost nearly planche using consistent techniques like Negative muscle ups and explosive muscle ups. My set aim by the end of next month is to successfully muscle up from a hanging position using no momentum but just strength that will be a very hard task, but im very determined.

Sit-Ups and Stomach Crunches
I can successfully complete 400 stomach crunches in sets of 4 repetitions (100 each rep). My goal by the end of next month will be to add another hundred stomach crunches to each repetition. Bringing the total to 200 each repetition and 800 stomach crunches all together in one regime.

quadrupedal walking
I can successfully quadrupedal walk the wider length of the Bottom Level Conditioning Car Park and the length of Whitstable Car parks sea wall. I'm not to sure on the total metres of the sea wall and the Bottom Level car park. Im very pleased with how swiftly i can quad walk backwards up a set stairs, ive been practicing this everyday and it shows that repetition defently pays of in conditioning and parkour hehe. I'm setting no physical aim including repetitions, Instead im going to set an aim by the end of next month to be able to improve quadrupedal walks stamina being able to complete these lengths without tiring my body out completely.

What are bottom levels members aims for there conditioning Regimes?

Also a personal message to Bottom Level-
At the Moment i am struggling to improvise on my planning to attend and actually condition with my friends At Bottom Level, its a bit of a hectic time at the moment with my college, education and revision which i see as being just as important as my conditioning and my parkour training, my family and visiting and being with my girl and best friend, helping her through her very hard time, with her physical health and our relationship. Im by no means making any excuses. But I'd just like to personally apologize to you guys for not being able to attend 100% of the time as i know its quite a team effort, I personally apologize to everyone. I'm very satisfied and happy the way my conditioning is coming along at the moment and even though im not there with you, dosent meen im not conditioning very HARD!!!. I really hope i can see you all again soon and i generally cant wait till im back and training with you all again. Keep it up guys.

Training in BL

Training has started again for those who did not know.
4 at Bottom Level on Thursdays.