Made a pact with SRB last week to go to bed earlier, at least during the work week. We had terrible follow-through the first few days, not least because of working through some difficult conversations with each other about our relationship. But last night and the night before I slept extremely well and awoke feeling ready to get up. This morning I even woke up 25 minutes before my alarm, got back in bed to snooze because I'm so used to doing that, then realized I didn't need or want to lie down anymore. So instead I went downstairs and did my wrist, hip, and shoulder warm ups.
On that note, I think I've found what I want to dedicate myself to training-wise for the medium term. Jumping, sprinting, and dunking are not in the cards here because of lack of access to proper facilities. There is, as far as I know, no running track in Islamabad outside of the national stadium. That is hardly a practical place to train. In any event, I reached my main goal on that front last year, and explosive activities take a toll on my joints. My left hip is still janky from all the left-right planting I did for years and years. It'd be great to go back to it at some point in the future; I'd love to run a 12.0 100m, for example. And to have a 36" vertical jump at age 36!
But for now it's not practical. So I've been going through the motions, dabbling in this and that. Getting back into yoga through SRB's classes has been fun, and a nice challenge in terms of body organization and awareness. Lifting weights will always (knock wood) be satisfying. Jumping rope is great and actually yesterday I did some double under work and it was so smooth, transitions from singles to doubles and back effortless, and that felt amazing. But it all feels aimless.
So, back to those wrist, hip, and shoulder warm ups. They come from a company called GMB, which stands for Gold Medal Bodies. It's an online training resource with a mix of free and paid tutorials for all kinds of bodyweight movements, exercises, and feats. The free materials are terrific and their philosophy is really appealing: considered, deliberate, progressive, awareness- and injury-prevention focused. This morning I bought a set of training packages from them: two focused on progressively more advanced gymnastics exercises, starting with things like crow and 360-degree jumps that I can already do, to cartwheels and tumbling, to handstands and levers and eventually backflips and planches human flags.
Can't wait to get started, tonight after yoga, with a guided self-assessment of my mobility and movement. Followed by another reasonable bedtime.
On that note, I think I've found what I want to dedicate myself to training-wise for the medium term. Jumping, sprinting, and dunking are not in the cards here because of lack of access to proper facilities. There is, as far as I know, no running track in Islamabad outside of the national stadium. That is hardly a practical place to train. In any event, I reached my main goal on that front last year, and explosive activities take a toll on my joints. My left hip is still janky from all the left-right planting I did for years and years. It'd be great to go back to it at some point in the future; I'd love to run a 12.0 100m, for example. And to have a 36" vertical jump at age 36!
But for now it's not practical. So I've been going through the motions, dabbling in this and that. Getting back into yoga through SRB's classes has been fun, and a nice challenge in terms of body organization and awareness. Lifting weights will always (knock wood) be satisfying. Jumping rope is great and actually yesterday I did some double under work and it was so smooth, transitions from singles to doubles and back effortless, and that felt amazing. But it all feels aimless.
So, back to those wrist, hip, and shoulder warm ups. They come from a company called GMB, which stands for Gold Medal Bodies. It's an online training resource with a mix of free and paid tutorials for all kinds of bodyweight movements, exercises, and feats. The free materials are terrific and their philosophy is really appealing: considered, deliberate, progressive, awareness- and injury-prevention focused. This morning I bought a set of training packages from them: two focused on progressively more advanced gymnastics exercises, starting with things like crow and 360-degree jumps that I can already do, to cartwheels and tumbling, to handstands and levers and eventually backflips and planches human flags.
Can't wait to get started, tonight after yoga, with a guided self-assessment of my mobility and movement. Followed by another reasonable bedtime.
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