"So long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.

[flexagon]

Edit: I'm glad nobody commented on this yet, because I forgot what I most meant to say: what I hate about gymnastics is the incessant thudding and pounding. Probably half of this is because I'm bad at working with velocity and momentum, but the other half is that I really don't like the shock waves rippling through my skeleton. It's not that I'm getting old either - I've always preferred for my exercise to not hurt me on a regular basis. I'm weird that way.

Gymnastics tonight: front handsprings down a wedge ("the cheese"), and working on tick-tocks. Mostly, that meant I was falling from a handstand to a bridge but with my feet landing on panel mats, then awkwardly walking it in and trying to kick back over my hands -- like the end of a back walkover. I got all the way down to 2 mats thick, which is a lot better than ever before -- and rather close to zero -- and if I'm motivated, this is also something I could do at the regular gym with the help of an aerobics step. I stopped doing these last week after feeling a most fascinating stretchy/crackly feeling through my sternum and front ribs, but everything seems all right again now. Must have been something loosening up.

There is now a place I can get to when I stand on my hands -- er, which is to say I now sense "on my hands" as being a place I can be, that has area, rather than just a point I pass through on my way over. When I'm kicking or pushing up, what I'm thinking these days is put yourself there!. According to the teacher, who I'll call Moses, I should be thinking something more like squeeze your butt to avoid piking!, but hey, one thing at a time.

I walked for about five miles in the lovely temperate air yesterday. Today I made a new friend. Tomorrow?

Comments

[figmint.livejournal.com]

Fwiw, having shock waves rippling through your skeleton is absolutely fantastic for bone strength. I read a study about gymnasts and wrestlers having incredibly dense bones due to all the floor thumping.

So you got that going for you. Which is nice.

[figmint.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the crackling through your sternum? Mine does that all the time. Or did. I got so I liked it, and would stretch in a way so that it would do that. Then it started to hurt, so I stopped. Now it won't do it at all, even when I try.

I should add that I'm an obsessive "cracker." Every joint imaginable. Nasty habit, that.

[nahele-101.livejournal.com]

man, i'm having the hardest time getting handsprings.

i just don't get it! any ideas, hints?

in other news, i figured out how to do a backwards roll into a handstand! :)