Up, over, and awayyyyyyyy!

[flexagon]

Oh my gosh, acro class tonight! What was up with me? I was super awesome basing flag. My handsprings on the tumble track were easy. I flew a few two-highs and based one.

But what cheers me up the most is that I got my back kickovers again. That is, I started in a backbend and kicked up and over my hands. I've done this before but a) it's been about a year and b) I never ever did six in one class the way I did tonight. For those who are curious, the final piece I didn't have was that I needed to lift/jump the second leg too. :)

It was a big class... maybe that charged the air with a little more energy than usual, and made me feel like I had to be good in order to help inspire the beginners.

Comments

Back kickovers et al

[islenskr.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm awed. I've always always always wanted to do a back kickover, but never had the strength to get my second leg over. To be fair, though, I haven't tried this since I was in college, so perhaps it's a good thing for circus on tomorrow night!

Now that I'm on the road to acro/circusness with regular trips to the gym and circus classes, I wanted to ask you about your schedule and your diet. I feel a bit like I'm floundering and am not sure if my gym schedule and diet are appropriate for the goals I have (pressing up into a handstand, perhaps *some* contortion, doing a pullup or two...). I also wonder if I should be doing pilates and/or yoga in addition. (Feel free to email me: islenskr at yahoo dot com.) I'm really interested to know!

Re: Back kickovers et al

[flexagon]

Oh, gosh. *blush* I am blushing at your use of the word "awe". :)

I've always always always wanted to do a back kickover, but never had the strength to get my second leg over. To be fair, though, I haven't tried this since I was in college, so

Did you try it? How'd it go? It's still quite difficult for me. I seem to succeed if I shift my weight over my hands a couple of times, and kick on the third one. Also if I pick up my second leg as well as the first leg, pull in on my abs and claw down into the ground with my fingertips.

Now that I'm on the road to acro/circusness with regular trips to the gym and circus classes, I wanted to ask you about your schedule and your diet.

Sure! I feel like we have similar goals, so I don't even feel like I'm leading you too much astray by recommending doing sort-of the same things that I do. :)

My workouts:
~4 mornings a week and aiming for all 5 weekdays, between 20 and 30 minutes on the elliptical machine in the morning before breakfast (not before water though, a big drink of water really helps).

Weekends are for weights. Saturday is upper body and Sunday is lower body. This is halfway around the week from when I do most of my higher-impact acrobatic stuff. In the gym after lifting, I sometimes play with acro or advanced yoga moves, but not always. Sunday after the leg workout is always dedicated splits-stretching time. More details on weight workouts are available on request. :)

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are acrobalance/tumbling and acroyoga lessons, respectively. Like circus, both of these are more like strength training or at least intervals, less like cardio. This is when I get most of my upside-down time. :)

Mondays I do 90 min of vinyasa yoga (vinyasa = strong cardio component) and Friday I do 75 minutes.

Thursday is my rest day (the elliptical doesn't count).

Lastly, for the last couple of weeks, on Mon-Weds-Fri I've been doing some pullups in the work-gym with my friend rifmeister. For that, we do a pyramid, trading off sets... 1, 2, 3... up to failure and then back down... 3, 2, 1. It's really helping me get my pullups back and feeling good again. Yesterday I did a set of eight for the first time in quite a long while, which was awesome.

Re: Back kickovers et al

[flexagon]

...annnnnnnd, diet.

I don't feel I have the perfect diet at all, just reasonably sensible guidelines. In general, I'm quite responsible about what I eat during the week. On the weekend I eat food that is less healthy, but I also eat less of it.

I don't shy away from foods that are heavy (like cheese and Triscuits, or bacon and eggs), but again, those things are very satisfying, so I can eat less of them. And I eat the desserts at work ~1-2 times a week, but again, tiny portions. I try to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, and whole grains when possible.

Okay, so what I actually eat is:
* Something hot and proteiny at breakfast, like a whole wheat bagel with egg and cheese (sometimes bacon). Or, sometimes, grilled cheese sandwich on Ezekiel bread. For a while I was making little whole-grain wraps with eggs, cheese, and fake veggie sausage, and freezing them, but kind of fell off that wagon.

* At lunch, it's always at my work cafeteria. Usually I mostly fill the plate with salad and then go cruising for entrees that work when put over the salad, like chicken. If there's brown rice I might devote the plate partly to rice-and-whatever. Generally this is my uber-responsible meal.

* I get hungry at 3pm, so I eat a handful of nuts and dried fruits, or sometimes a hard-boiled egg, sometimes something like string cheese with pita chips. Protein.

* Dinner varies, but is generally smallish.

* Celebratory burger-with-multigrain-bun at our favorite restaurant on Friday night. Another week survived! I'll drink a hard cider here, and occasionally even get fries instead of the usual salad. This is 90% of the beef I eat (and I do always want it, by the time Friday rolls around).

* Starbucks mochas on weekend days, as a treat. Decaf lately. :)