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Maybe in 2015 I will be an insect.
Dec. 24th, 2014 06:03 pmThe things we do shape us physically. I know this, yet I'm always shocked when people are able to call it out, or when I notice some sort of crossover.
Exhibit A: I'm doing a contortion stretch against the wall, and the substitute teacher says I can tell you fly a lot of foot-to-hand -- most people rock back into their heels on this exercise, but not you.
Exhibit B: I'm doing terrible handstands, and Pokemon says It looks like you've been doing a lot of hand-to-hand lately. You're getting yourself up there and then kind of giving up control.
With this in mind, let's face it -- I've been training reasonably hard and I haven't gotten what I wanted, and some of what I do is fighting other things I want to do. I'm not concerned about strength here, I'm concerned about patterns of movement and what activates by default and where my body gets used to sitting.
And maybe I'm tired of being an all-arounder anyway. Maybe I would give up my pullups and scap (retraction) hangs in order to get better at protracting and pushing; maybe, assuming I manage not to hurt myself, I would give up something (just time, probably) in favor of constant forward-bending flexibility work. Maybe, in short, I'll yield to being a specialist next year, and see if I have better luck moving the envelope than I have in trying to expand it.
Heinlein, for those who don't know, famously said that specialization is for insects. But maybe it's also for people who aren't going to live forever.
Exhibit A: I'm doing a contortion stretch against the wall, and the substitute teacher says I can tell you fly a lot of foot-to-hand -- most people rock back into their heels on this exercise, but not you.
Exhibit B: I'm doing terrible handstands, and Pokemon says It looks like you've been doing a lot of hand-to-hand lately. You're getting yourself up there and then kind of giving up control.
With this in mind, let's face it -- I've been training reasonably hard and I haven't gotten what I wanted, and some of what I do is fighting other things I want to do. I'm not concerned about strength here, I'm concerned about patterns of movement and what activates by default and where my body gets used to sitting.
And maybe I'm tired of being an all-arounder anyway. Maybe I would give up my pullups and scap (retraction) hangs in order to get better at protracting and pushing; maybe, assuming I manage not to hurt myself, I would give up something (just time, probably) in favor of constant forward-bending flexibility work. Maybe, in short, I'll yield to being a specialist next year, and see if I have better luck moving the envelope than I have in trying to expand it.
Heinlein, for those who don't know, famously said that specialization is for insects. But maybe it's also for people who aren't going to live forever.
