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.