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Re-starting a cold motor
Aug. 25th, 2013 09:34 pmDoing handstands (and everything else) last week after what felt like a long break has been... interesting.
Thursday, in a private handstand lesson as I tried to get a curl into my UPPER upper back, I complained "it's always something different!" And my coach said "That's because you're improving. We fix one thing and then another." And I was all dumbfounded, like, oh. He told me to remember how much better my handstands have gotten in the last three months and... I couldn't. Isn't that such typical me? I really wonder how my motivation system works. Why do I keep putting in the time if I'm not aware of the improvements? But it was very cheering, anyway, to hear his reply.
And... sometimes time off gives you a chance to feel things anew. On Monday I was just super wobbly and trying to regain the handstand feeling. Thursday I was feeling the upper-upper back curl, Friday I finally felt what it's like to push my shoulders open as part of a straddle-up. Sigh -- don't laugh, please. I've been fighting to really feel that for years -- it happens so naturally with kickups and so not-at-all with straddle-ups. So anyway, I started feeling it, and played delightedly with my new feeling through about half of Bender's class. Getting the timing entirely wrong, but just playing with having added in this piece I've been missing. Jump, push, fall. Jump, push, fall. I know I can re-integrate it with the rest of what I know, given time, and I want it even if it totally borks the actual handstand.
In a somewhat similar way, doing my straddle workout on Wednesday felt like trying to tie knots in a rope that's been soaked with water and then frozen. Things would bend, a little, but it felt NOTHING like it used to, and I was painfully sore afterward. Did it again on Saturday and it was almost pre-break normal feeling. Things didn't go as far as just before my 4+ week break, but my chest brushed at the end, and it at least felt the way it should have. My left leg, not the right one, is now the one that shakes like crazy in a straddle L... go figure.
Almost two weeks after I tweaked my knee somehow, I did 3 pain-free sets of pistols today before the fourth one (a variant) twinged. Okay. Will wait half a week and try again and leave out that variant.
I'm really looking forward to working on flexibility again, now that all systems are go on the straddle, and the hamstring continues to get better under the expensive, inconvenient care of Way-Across-Town Therapist.
Thursday, in a private handstand lesson as I tried to get a curl into my UPPER upper back, I complained "it's always something different!" And my coach said "That's because you're improving. We fix one thing and then another." And I was all dumbfounded, like, oh. He told me to remember how much better my handstands have gotten in the last three months and... I couldn't. Isn't that such typical me? I really wonder how my motivation system works. Why do I keep putting in the time if I'm not aware of the improvements? But it was very cheering, anyway, to hear his reply.
And... sometimes time off gives you a chance to feel things anew. On Monday I was just super wobbly and trying to regain the handstand feeling. Thursday I was feeling the upper-upper back curl, Friday I finally felt what it's like to push my shoulders open as part of a straddle-up. Sigh -- don't laugh, please. I've been fighting to really feel that for years -- it happens so naturally with kickups and so not-at-all with straddle-ups. So anyway, I started feeling it, and played delightedly with my new feeling through about half of Bender's class. Getting the timing entirely wrong, but just playing with having added in this piece I've been missing. Jump, push, fall. Jump, push, fall. I know I can re-integrate it with the rest of what I know, given time, and I want it even if it totally borks the actual handstand.
In a somewhat similar way, doing my straddle workout on Wednesday felt like trying to tie knots in a rope that's been soaked with water and then frozen. Things would bend, a little, but it felt NOTHING like it used to, and I was painfully sore afterward. Did it again on Saturday and it was almost pre-break normal feeling. Things didn't go as far as just before my 4+ week break, but my chest brushed at the end, and it at least felt the way it should have. My left leg, not the right one, is now the one that shakes like crazy in a straddle L... go figure.
Almost two weeks after I tweaked my knee somehow, I did 3 pain-free sets of pistols today before the fourth one (a variant) twinged. Okay. Will wait half a week and try again and leave out that variant.
I'm really looking forward to working on flexibility again, now that all systems are go on the straddle, and the hamstring continues to get better under the expensive, inconvenient care of Way-Across-Town Therapist.
