Tuck your pelvis under and move your chin back. Now lift. Good!

[flexagon]

Today I trained my free client, the Leaning Tower, in the gym for the second time ever (the first time was last Tuesday). I may have a hard time expressing how thrilling and cool it is to actually be working with someone. This is a person whose BMI is well over 40 and who hasn't worked out in many years, and whose wrists can't take much pressure, so it's a really great chance for me to work with a BEGINNING beginner. Although she's already lost 30 lbs by changing her diet and walking, I'm having to start her off at a level well below what the NASM book thinks is "Zone 1 for deconditioned clients". For the Tower, standing on one foot for a five-count with one hand on the wall for stability is a good exercise for the ankle-stabilizers. But she's intelligent, aware of what's hurting her and what's not, and can feel when an area is working.

I feel awful when something goes wrong -- last week, I kept her on her left ankle for too long and strained the stabilizers, and this week I didn't warn her to not arch her back during bench presses and she cramped up her back. :-( But on the other hand, we were doing wall pushups today and she couldn't feel her pecs working -- so we tried the bench presses and she still couldn't feel her pecs working, and cramped her back -- so I thought hard about how to isolate the suckers, and finally had her hold a stability ball against the wall and squeeze the sucker. She felt it in her pecs (!) and I did a little victory dance. The Tower wants an improvement in whole-body functionality, and as she gets stronger and we work on her balance and proprioception I KNOW I can help her achieve that. It's ever so exciting.

So this is what I'll be doing with an hour of my Tuesday evenings for the next little while: helping someone become more functional, which in a way is a return to mechanical engineering. Ah, be still my nerdy, gym-rat, 60 beats per minute heart!

Comments

[nevers.livejournal.com]

yay for teaching! (or training or whatever you want to call it)

[body-alchemy.livejournal.com]

It's so exciting just to read about it :).

I wish we lived in the same city, though. It would be fun to work out together!

[flexagon]

I'll keep posting about the Tower's progress, at least when there are cool things to report. :) Visit Boston sometime! It's nice here!

[nevers.livejournal.com]

i'd love to hear if YOU have any ideas for getting people to straighten their arms in handstands. did you ever have trouble with that? i'm not sure if it's due to weakness, lack of body awareness, inflexible shoulders, or something else altogether…

[flexagon]

Hmm, I may still have trouble with that! According to Moses anyway, when I start to lose a hs I collapse a bit through the shoulders (he's a proponent of doing hss in the fully-shrugged-up position) and bend my elbows a bit. It usually helps me stay up a couple of seconds longer -- I think my shoulders have a bit more play in that position. My shoulders are decent in terms of flexibility, but when my arms are straight, and straight overhead, they are pretty limited in how much they can adjust from there. So anyway, I think inflexible shoulders could be a part of it.

In gymnastics we do some shoulder stretches before hss, like putting our arms on a bar and kneeling down and stretching the arms up and back. A very similar stretch, but upside-down, is to do a bridge (or come through hs to putting feet up on a big foam block, which is more fun) and try to shift the ribcage over the hands.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

oh, we do tons of shoulder stretches. so maybe they are doing their best and i should keep reminding them but mostly let it go.

[flexagon]

maybe. oh also, moses has us try to get into perfect straight hs position while standing. if it's impossible standing, then it's REALLY impossible upside down. anyway, you probably do that already too...

[apfelsingail.livejournal.com]

How cool- good for you! :-)

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

That's awesome. Whole body functionality is something I struggle with, and I'm glad The Tower has someone who can give her mechanical engineering tips!