Crow Pose Program Session 22

Prepare
P1 Warmup

Practice
2 sets of 1-minute GMB-style Crow Pose practice - best hold time around 15 seconds.

P1 Level A Week 2 Day 5 session

Play
GMB Knee Mobility routine, then GMB Vitamin session focusing on Star, 180, and 360 Jumps

Push
2 sets of 16KG kettlebell waiter walks for at least 40 seconds per set.

Ponder
P1 Assessment:
Plank Side to Sides - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid

Assisted Shoulder Stand Raises - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid

Jump Throughs - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid

Inverted Press - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid

Swing Sets - Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid

I increased the volume to 6 sets per exercise except the Swing Sets.

For tomorrow's training, I'm looking at more cartwheel fun with Vitamin, and Elements Core Conditioning, unless my core feels really beat up from today's work.  There is quite a jump in difficulty in the Hollow Body portion of the Elements CC routine, from the Beginner version to the Intermediate, so I reviewed the Hollow Body progression as taught in Integral Strength.  So for tomorrow, if I do practice Elements CC, I'm going to try the next step for Hollow Body, which is arms and legs straight in the air, and slowly working them away from each other towards the full Hollow Body.

I searched on Google for opinions on whether one should learn the Crow Pose or the Handstand first.  It seems some think the two handbalancing skills are different enough that it doesn't matter and the main reason to recommend Crow Pose first is it is less scary than Handstand.  Crow Pose practice would build wrist strength for Handstand of course, but then again it seems that working up the Handstand progression would also build up the wrist strength - at least if you follow the GMB tutorial because you'd be starting out of A-Frame and just working on gradually elevating the feet.  Anyway, after all that searching I stumbled upon a post about a "half au cortado" exercise.  Au Cortado, as it turns out is a variation on the Cartwheel, which is the same sort of movement that Vitamin is going to make me do tomorrow:

http://idoportal.blogspot.com/2009/07/floreio-workout-number-2.html

Browsing further into Ido Portal's blog, I find an article recommending static strengthening of the QDR (Queda De Rinns) position, which to me looks a lot like the Pilot Freeze taught a few sessions back in Vitamin:

http://idoportal.blogspot.com/2009/07/sequencing-movements.html