flexagon | Exercise: back to basics

Saw a couple of people doing VERY neat combination exercises at the gym tonight. I'd like to try both of them.

One girl was doing military presses with 30lb dumbbells, simultaneously doing split lunges. That is, she'd lower the weights and bend her knees, then straighten and lift everything up. Impressive -- I was benching 40lb dumbbells on an incline at the time, which is moderately impressive, but I felt pretty darn boring with that going on right next to me. :) I wanted to talk to her, but she was gone by the time I finished my sets.

Another guy was doing standing one-arm Arnolds (military press with a twist), which I also do -- except, when he brought the weight down to about shoulder height, he'd fairly suddenly squat and let the weighted arm swing down between his legs, kettlebell-swinging style. Then he'd swing it back up, bring it in to the shoulder and up overhead again.

Me, I've been in a back-to-basics mode. Early this year I was having trouble forming a weekly schedule because there were too many exciting things to do; then the exciting options for both Thursdays and Fridays vanished, and I'm surprised to find that suits my mood just fine. It took me a long time to feel good again after the holiday's illness, and all I want to do now is stretch and strengthen: work, sweat, no frills. I really enjoyed taking two difficult yoga classes in a row this week; as I work 02 yoga back into my schedule, I'm now most drawn to ashtanga, which is the most nonstop and the hardest work.

Tentative weekly schedule:

Sunday: lower body weights
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 2nd series Ashtanga
Wednesday: acroyoga
Thursday: Ashtanga primary series
Friday: vinyasa
Saturday: upper body weights

In the weight room and in yoga, I think about handstand alignment a lot. Standing one-arm Arnolds? I hollow my body firmly and make sure to lift the weight up and BACK so I get more used to having my shoulders really open with weight on them. Down dog can support a lot of the same mental checklist as a handstand, too (weight on the right place in the hands, fingers spread, shoulders open, ribs drawn in). In wide-legged forward folds, I'm thinking about straddling up. It's odd... I haven't trained that many actual handstands lately, and yet I'm doing everything else with them in mind.