Today was my first session following the free Planche Mini Course taught by Eduardo Orihuela, a fitness coach who I first saw in GMB Fitness courses as a Lead GMB Trainer.
Practice A focuses on achieving a tripod headstand - which is the headstand with both palms on the floor, instead of with the forearms on the floor - then working out of the headstand into a Crow Pose.
The last time I attempted to work on a tripod headstand, I struggled to get my knees on top of my elbows or triceps, as shown in this video. I eventually made the typical mistake of putting my hands too close to my head, which resulted in falling over and straining my neck. Later I saw FeetUp trainers were on sale. I was intrigued by the idea of resuming headstand/inversion training with less stress on the neck, as promised by FeetUp advertising, so I ordered one. I could have just used a pair of yoga blocks to move some of the load away from the head to the shoulders, but I don't regret getting the FeetUp, as I've found it useful for butcher's block stretches as well.
The planche mini course teaches the headstand without a FeetUp, but it doesn't say you can't use one either. So I followed the instructions in the official video:
It was easy enough to park my my shoulders on the FeetUp cushion, with the head and neck in a comfortable position just like in the video. I then walked my feet towards my head, to raise my butt further into the air. Then I tried to lift a knee to my elbow but my leg or thigh was too short. I realized I would have to jump into the headstand, just like in the video. I attempted a few times to jump but failed. I then stood up, shook off the tension, and did a bit of walking and breathing to calm down. I then made a few more jumping attempts, and finally jumped into the headstand. I think fear of falling over from possibly jumping too aggressively was holding me back, even though I set up the FeetUp next to a wall. The wall would have stopped me from falling forward.
Once I got into the headstand, albeit with FeetUp assistance, I just took a few seconds to enjoy the sensation of being upside down with little effort, almost as if I were hanging with a string attached to my tailbone. When I first heard Killian in the FeetUp video above say relax your shoulders and arm, I was skeptical, but when I got into the headstand on the FeetUp myself, I really did feel the arms having to do little or no work. Most of my bodyweight was spread through the traps and shoulders that were in contact with the cushion. I spent the rest of the 10 minutes of Practice A playing with straightening one leg while keeping the other bent, then switching sides; then playin with shifting weight more towards the hands to try get more of the feel of a headstand with hands on the floor, and taking an occasional break.
After Practice A, the schedule prescribes a Play session. The starting level for the Play portion of the mini course is working with Frogger, a locomotion exercise familiar to those who have worked with GMB Elements or certain other GMB exercise routines. We try to lean further and further forward as we initiate a Frogger rep, which allows us to drag our feet more and more slowly across the floor. Eventually we will lean so far forward that we can pause with the feet in the air, demonstrating progress towards the Tuck Planche. Today I did 3 sets of 5 reps, and then my shoulders felt like enough work had been done. I was able to drag my feet for at least 3 seconds per rep. Next time I'll try turning out my palms more, to allow a greater lean. I didn't feel any strain on my wrists when I did Frogger reps with the palms straight, but I did feel there was a limit in how far my wrists would bend.
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