Crow Pose Program Session 7

Prepare
GMB Knee Mobility routine  

Today's GMB Mobility session focusing on Legs.

Practice

3 Turkish Getup singles per side with 16kg Kettlebell

3 reps of Windmill with 16kg KB overhead

Beginner Core Conditioning Routine from the bonus section of Elements

Play

Exploring Backward Roll, walking legs around arm, then touching toe to the rear.

Push

Reverse Lunge with 16kg KB in rack

Bent-Arm Monkey #3 with minimum 1-sec. pause

Both of the above spread through the afternoon.

Ponder
Heard and felt some clicks in my lower spine during the Windmill practice.  I have not felt any pain but will monitor closely. 

Knee was still acting up in deep squat for Monkey and Frogger.  I found however if I squat with my feet closer together - much narrower distance than shoulder width, the knee ache goes away.

The knee seem to like the Reverse Lunge and the lower level Shrimp Squat variation which is a lot like Reverse Lunge.  I'll stick to those for strengthening the leg to reduce knee pain.

Best hold in Crow Pose today, working out of Bent Arm Monkey #3, was 14 seconds.   At my level, the hands have to be active, with the fingers applying pressure as more of my weight shifts forward, and my palm heels working when the weight starts to shift back.

Crow Pose Program Session 6

Prepare

Today's GMB Mobility session focusing on Hips.

Practice

Realized I forgot GMB Knee Mobility routine so I went through that.

Play

Today's GMB Vitamin session focusing a combination movement incorporating Forward Roll, Merry Go Round, and Backward Roll.  

Occasional play with Bent-Arm Monkey Variation 3 (hold a Crow Pose pause for at least 1 second), spread through the afternoon.

Push

Taking it easy today so no push.

Ponder

The Vitamin session was a hoot!  Because of my failure to nail the Forward Roll, I knew I had no chance of properly executing either version of today's combo move.  So I spent both Play sessions within Vitamin exploring the same level of the combo move.  One problem I've had with Forward Roll is the struggle to get the shoulder, neck, and head into the proper setup position for it.  But today, I discovered another issue - not being sure what side the legs need to pass by my extended arm.  I figured out that the legs pass on the opposite side of my head.

While reviewing Brett Jones' Windmill 101 article, I came across his other article on the Lock and Rock technique for identifying the ideal foot position for a deadlift or squat position.  My problematic left knee tends to ache when I get into a deep squat for the Monkey or Frogger.  I was surprised to find that my "ideal" foot position, per the Lock and Rock technique, calls for my feet being turned out even further.  I tried turning my feet out more and the knee ache went away!

Although this was supposed to be a sort of rest day, I couldn't resist the urge to try Bent-Arm Monkey Variation 3.  I realized that I could practice this more productively by entering into Crow Pose slowly, and thus slowly bringing my weight forward, as the weight on my toes decreases, until the feet start to float.  I was thus about to achieve a new personal record in the Crow Pose - 16 seconds!

Crow Pose Program Session 5

This wasn't really a Simple and Sinister session, as I didn't practice kettlebell swings.  I didn't work a lot on Crow Pose either, but I'll call it a Crow Pose session.

Prepare

GMB Knee Mobility routine, then today's GMB Mobility session focusing on Fundamentals.

Practice

Reverse Partial Turkish Getup - from standing to the bridge instead of Tall Sit.  The reason is that I noticed a tendency to allow the shoulder of the supporting arm to shrug by the time I settle into the Tall Sit.  So I figured I would stop at the bridge to work on improving the shoulder alignment, as well as improving the quality of the bridge.

Beginner Core Conditioning Routine from the bonus section of Elements

Play

GMB Vitamin session focusing on Backward Roll.

Push

No real Push work today.

Ponder

I woke up this morning with sore triceps, which was probably the consequence of playing with Bent-Arm Baby Frogger and Fall Forward to Negative Pushup yesterday.  I was feeling a bit too beat to do kettelbell swings.

The Vitamin session was a lot of fun.  I was always more comfortable with backward rolls than forward rolls.  I lack the hamstring flexibility to perform it in a pretty way, but I think I can nail this move sooner than the Forward Roll.

Going forward, I will continue to practice the Turkish Getup in some form or another because it's been good to my shoulder.  I may start supersetting it with a Windmill as described in Brett Jones' Windmill article.   I will stop practicing kettlebell swings for now.  Swings have strengthened my back as promised but I still have lingering aches in the hips when I sit and lie down in bed.  Lately my core training has been split between the Turkish Getup and Swing.  After about 6 months of this, I want to try replacing the KB Swing with the Elements Core Conditioning Routine and see what that does for my core.

Found another thing to ponder - Breathing.

Crow Pose Program Session 4

Prepare

GMB Knee Mobility routine, then today's GMB Mobility session focusing on Shoulders.

Practice

1 min, 10 sec. Crow Pose practice sets for a total of 3 sets.  This time I just left my face on the ground, didn't try fighting to look up.

I then worked through today's GMB Vitamin session focusing on the Pilot Freeze. As with other Vitamin sessions, I failed to master all 3 variations but I'm starting to understand why mastering the movement is not the point.  Rather, the point is to explore the movement and observe what can be learned.  What I learned was that I did not shift enough weight over to my upper body to free up the hips and legs to float.  Could I shift enough weight over to achieve the necessary balance?  If not, is it because I lack the strength to support the weight?  These questions will have to be answered another time.  

 

In my exploration of this position, I went over too far to the side and fell on that side.  Luckily, while the wrist felt a bit sore afterwards, there does not seem to be any lingering pain.

Play

3 minutes of Bent-Arm Frogger with the minimum 1-second Crow Pose hold.  My max hold was 5 seconds.  I think the effort expended to push into the ground during the Vitamin session drained me a bit.  It's also possible that not expending the additional effort to raise my face off the ground during Crow Pose practice somehow affected my performance here.

Push

2 minutes of Bent-Arm Monkey.  Shoulder complained just a tiny bit.

 

Front Scale practice spread through rest of afternoon.

Ponder

I'll try to take a look at what the upcoming Vitamin session looks like before my next Crow Pose training session.  If it looks like it will challenge the upper body more like the Pilot Freeze then I should probably schedule the Vitamin session the Push section.  I don't think I'm supposed to be this tired before the Play section.

For Bent-Arm Monkey I should work more on pushing through my hands into the ground to elevate my feet, instead of initiating the jump at the feet.  This would make the Bent-Arm Monkey more of the strength training exercise that will help me with Crow Pose.  

I looked for more examples of Bent-Arm Frogger and found the Bent-Arm Baby Frogger in this Locomotion Circuit Conditioning video featuring Ryan of GMB:

What I notice is different about Bent-Arm Baby Frogger compared to standard Frogger:

• Standard Frogger starts out of a squat - preferably a deep squat, whereas in Baby Frogger, the feet are closer together
• The arms are outside the thighs instead of inside the thighs.

I tried Bent-Arm Baby Frogger for a bit.  I can probably work it a bit but I'll have to be careful about how much load I put onto my arms and shoulders - especially the suspect one.

While browsing the GMB channel on Youtube, I stumbled upon the video and article on exercise for bone health.  The Fall Forward to Negative Pushup exercise reminds me of the forward breakfall that I was taught in Jujutsu class.  The idea of improve bone health in my feet, knees, and shoulders appeals to me, but the article does advise to not do this routine more than 2x a week.

Today's Simple & Sinister session

I started the session with the GMB Knee Mobility routine. I've practiced pieces of this routine before but have often forgotten to include the jump. 

Then I worked through today's GMB Mobility session which focused on Hips.  This time I remembered to do the leg lifts in the Half Frog.  Hardly any of the dull ache I've been feeling in my ailing knee while practicing the Sumo Frogger. 

Practiced the reverse partial Turkish Getup that I thought of yesterday.  The idea is to start in the standing position with the kettlebell supported overhead,  work through the movement down to the Tall Sit position, then work back up to standing position again.  This practice mostly went well.  I realized that I tend to rush the transition from the Lunge to the Leg Sweep by  putting the supporting hand onto the ground so quickly that I'm practically dropping onto that hand.  I also noticed a tendency to shrug the shoulder after I put the hand on the ground.  I don't know exactly why I do that so I'll have to monitor this more closely, as it compromises my stability.

Swing portion:  2-arm 32kg swings for 2 sets, followed by 4 sets of 1-arm 24kg swings.  I called it after noticing significant drop in the quality of movement due to fatigue.   I think I didn't rest enough during the Play portion of the GMB Mobility session.

A bit of play with the Bent-Arm Frogger with minimum 1-second Crow Pose hold.  The max hold I was able to manage was 5 seconds.

For the afternoon, I practiced Front Scale Leg Lifts.  The knee felt much better today than yesterday.

Good article on Diatonic Harmony

Comes with audio examples:

https://www.artofcomposing.com/08-diatonic-harmony

Third session under new Crow Pose fitness program

Prepare

GMB Knee Health routine, then I used today's GMB Mobility session in its 15-minute entirety for Prepare.  Today's mobility focus was on Fundamentals.

Practice

1 min, 10 sec. Crow Pose practice sets for a total of 3 sets.  Barely got my face off the ground a couple of times.

Play

3 minutes of Bent-Arm Frogger with the minimum 1-second Crow Pose hold.   I landed a 14-second hold early, then managed a 11-second hold towards the end.

Push

2 minutes of Bent-Arm Monkey.  Shoulder still held up ok.

3 sets of 5-6 reps of Back Leg Elevated Lunge to try to strengthen quads for knee health.

Vitamin session focusing on a movement called Merry Go Round - joyful fun!

Sissy Squat practice spread through rest of afternoon.

Ponder
Reviewed the video of the Bent-Arm Monkey:

The next time I practice Bent-Arm Monkey, I should start with the first variation, which is just to place the hands on the ground in the diamond formation and load them.  Then I should practice the 2nd variation, which is the variation I practiced today, and work on being able to perform it more slowly like Chris does in the video.  In order to do it more slowly, I need to load more of my weight into my hands, to allow the toes to float over the ground.  Working this way should build the same kind of strength that is needed to lift the knees off of the elbow to play from the Crow Pose like this guy does here:

Starting to feel some muscle soreness in the shoulders from the Crow Pose training but not the kind of soreness to worry about.  What was more disappointing was how the left knee felt after trying out Back Leg Elevated Lunge and Sissy Squat.  It's possible these exercises put too much load on the quad for this knee, or something about the leverage on the knee is just off. 

For tomorrow I will try a reverse partial Turkish Getup.  The idea is to start in the standing position with the kettlebell supported overhead,  work through the movement down to the Tall Sit position, then work back up to standing position again.   This way, I can avoid the Prone to Elbow stage that was causing trouble to the knee in the first place and resume some progress in this movement through this partial practice.  Then in the afternoon, I will practice reverse lunge with the kettlebell racked, to hopefully strengthen the quads without further aggravating the knee, as well as improve performance in the Turkish Getup.

Second session under new Crow Pose fitness program

I don't think I'll post an entry for every single session but since this is a new direction that is evolving to address my concerns, I guess I'll have to record notes.

Prepare

GMB Knee Health routine, then I used today's GMB Mobility session in its 15-minute entirety for Prepare.  Today's mobility focus was on Spine.

Practice

1 min, 10 sec. Crow Pose practice sets for a total of 3 sets.

Play

3 minutes of Bent-Arm Frogger with the minimum 1-second Crow Pose hold.   I landed a 12-second hold early, then managed several 5-second holds for the rest of the set.

Push

1 minute of Bent-Arm Monkey.  This was mainly a test for the suspect shoulder.  It held up ok.

Kettelbell swings - This isn't directly related to Crow Pose but I want to keep up my swing practice because it's been good for my back.  2 sets of 10 2-arm swings with the 32kg. 4 sets of 1-arm swings with the 24kg.  2 sets of 2-arm swings with the 24kg, trying to go for overspeed eccentrics.

Modified Pigeon and Half-Pancake for cooldown.

Some play with the Forward Roll Setup.

Front and Back Scale practice spread through rest of afternoon.

Ponder

Basically it's working on this blog post.  There's still a dull ache in my left knee MCL when I lock out my left leg to support as I practice Front Scale/Front Scale Leg Lift with my right leg.   This is the same issue that led me to halt Turkish Getup practice.  After perusal of GMB's selection of Advanced Leg Exercises, I decided to replace the Scales with Back Leg Elevated Lunge and Sissy Squat.  So now my path to better knee health looks like this:

1. Improve Quad Strength - Back Leg Elevated Lunge and Sissy Squat

2. Hip Flexibility - GMB Mobility program

3. Unusual Movements - GMB Knee Health routine

First session under new Crow Pose fitness program

Today was the first session under the new program to build towards a solid Crow Pose, inspired by GMB's 5P framework.  Here are my comments on each of the 5Ps for today:

Prepare

I used today's GMB Mobility session in its 15-minute entirety for Prepare.  Today's mobility focus was on Hips, which is suitable enough for the Crow Pose.

Practice

1 min, 10 sec. Crow Pose practice sets for a total of 3 sets. The extra 10 seconds is to account for the gradual, back and forth movements as depicted in the Crow Pose tutorial.  For a first session mostly dedicated to Crow Pose, three sets felt like enough, as I was taking breaks during the 2nd and 3rd sets.

Play

3 minutes of Bent-Arm Frogger with the minimum 1-second Crow Pose hold.  I was surprised to be able sustain holds of 5 seconds or more in the Crow Pose, with a maximum hold around 15 seconds.

Push

This doesn't really count as a Push section specific to Crow Pose.  I just wanted to continue progress through GMB Vitamin.  Today's 15-min. Vitamin session focused on the Plow pose.  My spine was already getting some flexion from Crow Pose training and this took it up a notch.  The session called for more than 3 min. of practice of each of the following:  Plow Setup, Sink Knees into Plow, Work into Full Plow.  My hamstrings have always been tight, though slightly loosened by kettlebell swings and GMB Mobility but I also had tightness in the upper back and back of the hips..

Ponder

Basically it's working on this blog post.  For tomorrow, I'll keep the Practice portion as it is, and add 2 min. of Bent Arm Monkey to the Play section.

Changing fitness routine after today

The Simple and Sinister kettlebell training program has been good for me.  My back feels stronger and less susceptible to pain when practicing Squatting Monkey or any other exercise with deliberate reverse breathing.  My shoulder feels more stable, thanks to Turkish Getup practice.  I will continue to practice the swing exercises to keep improving the strength and stamina of my back, as well as enjoying the other benefits.

However, because of all the Turkish Getup practice sessions in which I allowed the knee to collapse inward, the previously injured MCL in that knee is now more susceptible to dull pain during the movement.  I was hoping the knee mobility routines i started practicing again, as well as the Front Scale and Back Scale exercises would help correct the knee issue, but I can't figure out the correct tweak to make to the Turkish Getup movement to eliminate the risk of continued aggravation to the knee. So I have to give up practicing the TGU for a while.  It's a shame because I'd just worked up to 3 singles per side, per session.  The TGU improved my shoulder stability and mobility as promised but I don't want to continue at the cost of potential knee damage.

The TGU, while being a true hole body exercise, was my only exercise for upper-body strength training.  I've always wanted to work on hand balancing skills but haven't been consistent in this type of training, except when I followed the GMB Elements program all the way through.  Elements is not specifically focused on hand balancing, but the locomotion exercises are beneficial for hand balancing.  In any case, my plan is to replace the TGU with hand-balancing work for training the upper body.

The two hand-balancing skills I want to work on are the Crow Pose and the Handstand.  I haven't worked on bent-arm strength for some time, since the TGU was all straight-arm, so I'm going to try the Crow Pose... again.  This time I intend to be more consistent in my pursuit of this skill.  GMB's Crow Pose tutorial is still the same great tutorial I raved about a few years ago, but it does not say much about how to incorporate it into your training program.  GMB's recently updated Handstand tutorial does have a sample training program, based on their recently develop 5Ps concept, so I will draw upon that to create my new program, which tentatively looks like this:

	Session A	Session B
Prepare	GMB Knee Mobility followed by 15-min. GMB Mobility session	GMB Knee Mobility followed by 15-min. GMB Mobility session
Practice	10 minutes total: • Crow Pose holds with attempts [1 minute work set, rest in between]	10 minutes total: • Crow Pose holds with attempts [1 minute work set, rest in between]
Play	5 minutes total: Choose a movement at an appropriate level and explore. Some examples: • Bent-arm Monkey • Bent-arm Frogger with 1-sec. Crow Pose Pause • Bent-arm Bear	5 minutes total: Choose a movement at an appropriate level and explore. Some examples: • Bent-arm Monkey • Bent-arm Frogger with 1-sec. Crow Pose Pause • Bent-arm Bear
Ponder	5 minutes total: Spend some time reflecting on the session and prepping for the next one.	5 minutes total: Spend some time reflecting on the session and prepping for the next one.

Session A and B are the same for the time being.  I was thinking I might do something different on alternating days but that might be down the road.  There is no Push stage because unlike the Handstand, there's no lower-difficulty version of the Crow Pose other than the Crow Pose itself.  I will have to pay attention to how my shoulder responds to all the bent-arm locomotion exercises.  After all, I halted all upper-body bodyweight training because of the shoulder stability problem.

What I will do on alternate sessions after the Crow Pose training session:

Session A - Kettlebell Swing Practice per Simple and Sinister protocol

Session B - GMB Vitamin session

For cooldown this week I started working on the GMB Forward Roll progression and will probably continue. 

For the rest of the day, I will practice GMB Front and Back Scale exercises to continue trying to rehab and strengthen the knee, with practice sessions spread out about 1-2 hrs apart. For today I skipped this practice because my left thigh was more sore than usual from the intense contraction of the quad that the Front Leg Raise with hold on the last rep demands.

Front and Back Scale for the knee, and progress in the Turkish Getup

I haven't been allowing my bent leg to move very much during the Turkish Getup.  I think this is why I'm starting to feel some soreness in my knee, where I suffered an MCL strain years go.  I'm letting the knee collapse inward too much.

I've started practicing GMB's Knee Mobility routine to help recover.  I've also started practicing the Front and Back Scales to try to strengthen the knee and hopefully improve the alignment between the hip, knee, and foot to make it less susceptible to collapsing inward.  At first I was feeling the hip flexor work hard in the Front Scale leg lift, but lately I've been feeling more intense quadriceps contraction and not so much hip flexor work.  The knee health article recommends anything that will strengthen the quads to go with the mobility routine.  I looked into the pistol squat first, but the questionable alignment between the hip, knee, and foot seems to aggravate the knee in that movement.  The scale exercises are probably a better choice for me since they not only work the quads and balance but also apply a bit more directly towards the L-Sit, a feat which has long eluded me.

I finally did 3 Turkish Getup (TGU) singles per side in one session of Simple & Sinister.  Just one TGU was burning out my CNS just a few weeks ago.  I'm working more often with the 32kg kettlebell for 2-handed swings.

Exercise Update

I've integrated GMB Mobility with my Simple and Sinister sessions by replacing the prescribed warmup with a 15-minute GMB Mobility session.  I have also been practicing 30-min. GMB Mobility sessions on days that I haven't felt like doing Simple and Sinister.

GMB Mobility is organized into 42 sessions. Each session focuses on range of motion for a body area (hips, spine, shoulders, etc) or a cardinal direction (extension, rotation/sidebending, flexion, etc.). Each session has Prepare, Practice, and Play portions, all of which have exercises chosen for the topic of the day.  GMB's Ultimate Guide to Bodyweight Exercise describes their 5P Framework in detail.

The Prepare portion is what I guess you could call a warmup.  The Practice portion gets into deeper stretches under a simplified version of the Focused Flexibility protocol.  The Play portion has a selection of locomotion exercises which you may recognize from Elements - this is where you get to play with the range of motion you worked on increasing in the Practice portion.

GMB recommends that you take breaks if you get tired during any of the Play exercises, because Play is more about trying out your newly increased range of motion and observing how your quality of movement has changed. Play is not meant for conditioning - this is a major difference compared to GMB Elements.   I like bringing my iPad to my workout area and running the session on it. It did interrupt on several occasions to ask me permission to let it use some iPad space, but lately it hasn't done so. I like how each exercise has a looping video for explanation/instruction with cues beneath the video. I like how all the exercises are timed for you, yet you have control over when to start the exercise. With Integral Strength I had to manually enter times into a timer app on my phone.

One change I've noticed is when I work on the kettlebell Turkish Getup with the KB on the right side. There's just a wee bit more restriction/tightness, somewhere between my right shoulder and my left glute, on this side vs. practicing the TGU on the left side. This movement restriction seems to be going away. As for the TGU itself, I'm glad to be able to work on the full-range movement now with the 16kg kettlebell.

I've been wanting to work on something different for the upper body.  GMB recently updated their Handstand tutorial, which led to me taking another assessment of how far I can walk my feet up the wall.  My shoulder stability and strength has improved enough from TGU practice that I can walk my feet up a little further than before.   However for now I'm going to give their Crow Pose method another shot, since I feel like I'm already getting plenty of work on my straight-arm supporting strength.

Violin Double Stop exercises for violin

Double-stop exercises are helpful for improving intonation and control on the violin and viola.  This video shows some really good ones, including some cool polyrhythmic stuff

Chad LB channel for Jazz Music Theory

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV17kvWvljT0Zw_5CZ4CFcA/videos

K-On! My Love is a Stapler clips

One of my favorite songs from the anime K-On! is Watashi no Koi wa Hotchkiss, which literally means "My Love is a Hotchkiss".  Hotchkiss was a brand of stapler, so the song title is also translated as "My Love is a Stapler".  Click the linked article to see the lyrics - it'll make more sense.

This is a clip of Yui practicing the song by herself.  It's from the opening episode to Season 2 of K-On!, which reintroduces the viewer to the characters and their world in ways that remind us of the passage of time, in particular reminding us that 4 of the 5 members of the Light Music Club (K-On) are now high-school seniors.  It simultaneously draws us into the beauty of the moment, time and place that were are in, as of this opening episode, and reminds us that it is a fleeting moment.
Yui practicing "My Love is a Stapler"

This is a clip of the same song being played by the full band, when there were only 4 members of K-On.  What I find remarkable is how they made the band sound like they're actually playing in a high school auditorium.
The band playing "My Love is a Stapler"

Eugene Friesen Cello Looping Lesson

Nice lesson by Eugene Friesen, which mentions accompanying sheet music: