Crow Pose Program Session 25

Prepare
Prepare section from GMB Vitamin

Practice
Today's Vitamin session focusing on Tornado Kick variations. Quality: Rough, Ease: Solid

Elements Core Conditioning Beginner Circuit - 2 sets of 2 reps. Quality: Smooth, Ease: Solid

Play
Crow Pose out of Bent-Arm Monkey #3 spread through the day.  Best time about 14 sec.

Push
2 sets of 1-min. of Crow Pose Practice (forehead on ground).  Was going to do 5 sets but changed my mind after noting how my arms and shoulders started to feel from the effort of pushing against the ground to raise my face off the floor.

Ponder
After all the training I did yesterday, it felt right to take it easy today.

I found this article on Building Quick Bodyweight Workouts. The first example workout just happened to be focused on Inverted Press, which of course is a skill I've been focusing on to prepare myself for Handstand Pushup training.  I thus got some ideas to tweak the Handstand Pushup focused training sessions.  The paragraph mentioning trimming the fat to focus on essentials also got me to reconsider including L-Sit practice in my current training program.    No question that L-Sit is a great skill to acquire but do I really need to work on it now when I'm pursuing hand balancing skills - specifically the Crow Pose and Handstand?  The answer seems to be "no".

These are the current focus areas of my training, and the reasons I focus on them:

• Handstand Pushup - Working on Step 1 of the GMB Handstand Pushup program should give me a big boost towards achieving the Handstand Pushup, Crow Pose, and Handstand all at once, as well as make my shoulders a lot stronger and less vulnerable to injury.
• Shrimp Squat - My left knee has been temperamental and this is the one single-leg exercise that seems to strengthen it without irritating it.

Thus I'm going to stay with Handstand Pushup as the focus of my Mon-Wed-Fri workouts, structured this way:

Prepare
Standing Knee to Chest and Single-Leg Deadlift from GMB Mobility GMB Knee Mobility routine Wrist prep from the Handstand tutorial Bent Arm Chest Stretch

Practice
Main circuit
Handstand Pushup Step 1 Progression exercise - 20 second set
Reverse Row Sit Back on rings - Compensate for all the pushing work - 20 second set
Shrimp Squat Progression exercise - 20 second set
3-6 rounds with 2-3 minutes of rest in between rounds

Push
One rep - and only one rep - of the next progression in the Inverted Press, which currently would be Inverted Press with feet on a chair and knees bent.
3 20-second sets of Pushups (on knees), with one minute rest between sets.

Elements Core Conditioning Circuit - 1-3 reps for 1-3 sets

If there's time I'll slip in a GMB Vitamin session here or do it in an afternoon session.

Finish with GMB Shoulder Mobility routine, a bit of Backward Roll practice, and brachial hang.

I will continue the pattern of playing with Crow Pose out of Bent-Arm Monkey #3 throughout the afternoon.

For the Tue-Thurs-Sat training, I plan to resume Turkish Getup practice, supersetting with Windmills.   I'll just have to pay attention to form to avoid re-irritating the knee.  This is mainly for "shoulder insurance", as these movements improved shoulder stability like nothing else, but the improvement seems to fade if I stop practicing them.  I'm not going completely back to Simple & Sinister as the Elements Core Conditioning Routine seems to make my back feel better and challenge my core more than kettlebell swings do.

Some cool tips for Turkish Getup:
http://zackhenderson.com/turkishgetup-expert-tips-pt-2/