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.
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