Gymnastics: A Basic Class

Lately, I have been neglecting my gymnastics posts. There are various reasons, but the main one is I have been in pain and therefore my gymnastics has become sporadic and reduced to complete beginner.

The coaches for my classes lately have been Zak, Randy and Damir. Until today, mostly Damir and Zak worked with the advance beginners while Randy worked with the rank beginners. Since about August or September, I have been in Randy’s class. Staying in a mild state of fitness while giving my joints and muscles a bit of a break and time to recover.

I don’t think I have given a decent rundown of how classes progress, so this time around, allow me to illustrate my basic Adult Beginner’s gymnastics class.

The class I attend is at Chelsea Pier’s Pier 60 Field House in Manhattan. The Adult Beginner Gymnastics class officially begins at 12pm and lasts for 1.5 hours. At 12pm, one instructor(coach) starts the class with warm-ups. Sometimes, the warm-ups are actually pretty physical and other times the warm-ups are just enough to make the student sweat. It depends entirely on the coach.

After the warm-up, a large circle is formed on the mat and the stretching begins. My favorite style is more akin to yoga or pilates, but there are some coaches who do the kind of stretches I remember having in gym class, and every coach does something completely different. Although the styles and methods are different almost all the stretching ends with handstand practice before we take in some water and return to the Floor area for Conditioning and skill practice.

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Gymnastics: Injured List

There is no real injured list in our gymnastics class. It is a class and not a team so the people and the numbers fluctuate drastically. I am one of the few regulars in the class, and I am on the injured list…. that doesn’t really exist. It seems I continue to forget… if I don’t do anything particular with certain muscle set in a month, those muscles go away. I was traveling and the preparations before and after made it so I didn’t attend any gymnastics classes for a month. This resulted in my knee regressing to unusable. It may be the joint, but I doubt it. It is the muscles around my knee that need strengthening again. The knee issues are genetic. This time it was aggravated by not having the right kind of shoes as well. Bad shoes + no focused conditioning for a month = injured. Fail.
Read more…

Tags: injured

Gymnastics: Vitamin D

Its been a while since I updated the gymnastics info. As a matter of fact, I do have a gymnastics post in draft format. I never finished it and I am sure I will get back to it soon. In the meantime, I just got back from my class and checked my twitter account. I found in my timeline a note from ChelseaPiers referencing a New York Times “Well Blog” article about how Vitamin D can improve your athletic performance.

I took a quick look at the blog post found here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/phys-ed-can-vitamin-d-improve-your-athletic-performance/

I found it completely interesting. I have been looking for which vitamins I have been getting deficient in and I suspect that I need to add vitamin D to my normal B-Complex and Nuun electrolyte drinks.

Gymnastics: One Surprise After Another

Today I feel amazing! Though I almost forgot that once my foot started hurting. Note: Get new shoes! Today was a day of surprises and successes for me.

During stretches and warmup today, they actually offered to press us closer to the floor while doing our straddle stretches. Lately, I would’ve normally declined that but this time around I was feeling limber so I relaxed into the farthest I have gone yet. When he let up, I was able to stay down while relaxed by holding onto the floor, it was very invigorating and encouraging. My front splits are getting closer to the floor, but as my legs are changing size, the thing I most worry about at the moment is staying aligned. I should remember these things and work to make sure I imitate them next week, as I think it helped later.

I still can’t do a handstand properly yet. It isn’t that I am not capable. The reason now seems ito be disorientation. Now in addition to getting to the pause moment, I have to get over the disorientation of succeeding. Once I realise I’ve succeeded, I get dizzy. Damnit. It is quite a bit annoying. I would like to know how others get past that part. I remember not minding to be upside down when I was a kid — true, I never succeeded then either, my upside down was always propped feet on a wall or headstands — but really, I don’t understand why it makes me disoriented. This is what all those practices have been for. Very annoying. Despite all that, I am very satisfied to be able to start a cartwheel and stop in a handstand. Apparently I’ve done well since the concept was introduced, but today it was better. Once I get over the disorientation, I will be very happy. Also noteworthy for the day was my amazing success in the bridge. I not only got up, but I was not in any pain and I could move my legs and to the extra stretches. I was so surprised, I didn’t even think about turning it to a back walkover. It probably wouldn’t have worked, but I felt very successful.

Imagine my surprise, along came the time to do front tumbling, and the very first dive roll I performed was perfect…. and behind Zac’s distracted back. Yay and Damnit. We do dive rolls to prime for everything else. I did a total of five dives and only the first two — neither of which Zac saw thank you — were any improvement over my usual. The third, I am not sure what happened, but I was completely surprised when I ended in a perfect tuck, but not enough moment to stand. Shocking and bizarre. I felt my hips on my heels, but I fell back. Then I returned to normal. Just barely average dive rolls. Oh well.

The barrels for the handsprings keep changing size depending on my frequently changing issues. Lately its been the knees. I was avoiding landing and hurting myself, so we moved back to the medium barrel. Today, however, I surprised myself again. I did five or six handsprings and the only thing Zac had to remind me about was my arms, which kept bending or staying behind all in the landing. Several of those particular successes I found that I probably could have done without the barrel! I felt my legs land and my body was bent nicely… I think I was only touching the barrel those times because there was no room not to. Then I started getting tired and started incurring Zac’s comments again. It made me feel better to be getting feedback. That is a dangerous habit to get into. Feedback. I might not improve if I stop getting feedback when I do. Stupid me. I didn’t suggest changing barrels, however. There was another student in the class who was using it and I didn’t want to bother Zac with two different barrels to pull onto the mats. At the end of front tumbling, with me not actually failing a single handspring for the first time ever, Zac told me that next week the smaller barrel is to be the one we use. Yay! Back to the smaller barrel!

Off to back tumbling… and a crash. Ok, I didn’t crash, but I did surprise myself. I got in three back handsprings over the giant barrel before Randy took the rest of the class to the trampoline and rigging. The first one was awesome! Yes! I just didn’t expect the floor that soon… so I didn’t whip around like I would’ve liked. Again with being stunned and disoriented… again upsidedown. The next two weren’t quite fail, but they weren’t the best. It was great while it lasted.

While the other beginners worked in the rig, I turned my attention to a bit of equipment I hadn’t visited in a while. Not since my knee started being kind and letting me practice back handsprings had I visited the balance beams. The floor-level beams were covered with mats and I wasn’t so against the next one up that I wanted to clear the mats. I mounted the beam unconventionally and found my balance was off. Drats. Three feet off the floor, I practiced walking backward and forward and then spent the rest of the time balancing on one leg while the other took a tour around the world. I don’t know what the official term is for that, but the leg would start at the back, move the side, then go forward. All in slow motion and holding for a while at each point. I made my arms do funny things too varying between out to the side, up in the air or out in front. Only when I was going to sit myself on the beam to practice holding still and getting a nice mini-abs/whole body workout did I fall. I didn’t fall off the beam while moving to sit, but I did fall when was attempting to hold still. Class ended at that moment, so I took my defeat and thanked the coaches again.

The ladies room and the locker room were under a renovation, so I was worried about my shower… would I have to go home and be late getting back to work? I asked the staff and got permission to use a shower at another location on the premises. I felt weird walking around in my workout clothes (stretchy loose pants and an oversize t-shirt) and soaking wet with sweat and even more weird when I walked into the fancy locker room (Private Club Room!! Whoo!). Despite the awkwardness, I showered, dressed and left without donning my jacket. I didn’t have my brush with me, so I finger combed my hair out. As I left the area, people kept giving me odd looks. I wonder what they were about.

Oh well. whatever.

Tags: gymnastics

Gymnastics: Interrupted

It has been a few weeks since I updated about my gymnastics class. I have been busy or ill and not really had time to get to my posting. I am working on finding a schedule that will allow me to update weekly without having to resort to a couple weeks bunched into one post.

Gymnastics has been going well. I have discovered, however, that what I am doing during the rest of the week can negatively impact my class. For a while, I wasn’t eating three or more meals a day. I just wasn’t that hungry. I just ate one and maybe two times a day. I would drink coffee all day long and not drink water. I know, I know. Drinking water is important, but I really thought I was getting enough liquid to stay hydrated. I would stay out of my apt until Starbucks closed, then go home and play video games or watched DVDs. I wasn’t getting enough sleep.

In the meantime, when gymnastics came around, I would stop the coffee for the day and drink water. I would make sure I ate plenty that day and took some vitamin supplements. I still didn’t get enough sleep. I am a nightowl, I am more awake at night usually. In hindsight, I can see all this was illogical thinking and even while I was doing it, I wasn’t truly fooling myself.

When I was at the gym and actually trying to do such things as cartwheels, handsprings and backtumbling, I was getting weaker and weaker. Now don’t point this out and say, “See! You should’ve known from this!” because the problem is it happens regardless. Usually it is my signal to take a week off. Usually when I get back, I’m fine. I still have the problems with missing a week, but generally, it is usually one of my best days. You see, I am extremely overweight. I have a tendency to push a bit harder than I should and then my muscles tighten up and start constricting movement and weird things like that. After that break in working out, my muscles have generally relaxed into a more normal shape and they are ready to go at it again. I also have strange advantages such as I can see a visible change in body shape.

All these things are what I am supposed to see. But while I was doing all this other less healthy stuff, I was simply getting weak. So that when the warm weather hit, I instantly dehydrated. When I took a week off gymnastics, I returned to find nothing had changed and I was still as weak as ever. And then I tripped and landed on the knee that has been giving me issues for the last two years. Yay for clumsy me. I was ill, I was dizzy, I was worried about myself. I immediately hit the two or more meal a day regimen I had been on, with a focus to try for three (breakfast is my weak point, I don’t eat it), started stuffing myself with vitamin supplements daily instead of weekly and cut back on the coffee focusing on having more water daily.

When I went back to my class today, I found I was energetic and ready to tackle my issues again. I didn’t get weak and I was simply amazed that my knee, though it hurt, didn’t cripple my attempts for the most part. I may not have the visible body shape option this time around, but I can certainly tell that I really must remember not to do this stuff again. I finished the class with a lot of energy. I could probably have taken a slightly longer class with no issues today.

As a class update: I have not progressed much in my handsprings. I have to keep switching back and forth between the medium and small barrel because I keep regressing. In the back tumbling segment, I feel I am going back a bit faster and am completely amazed that I am not collapsing on the back end. I will still need the giant barrel for a several more months, but I feel like I am getting closer to both answers.

Gymnastics: Exhausted

Zak, Brian, Damir and Randy were all coaches again. I was sluggish today, but also determined to not let it bother me. I lost. I forgot to take my vitamins and I was nearly finished by the dive rolls.

During warm-ups, lead by Brian this time. I stretched nicely. Missed the first part of course, but the stretching was there. The second half of warm-ups, Zak pulled me out and made me practice backward rolls. He was getting tired of seeing me fail all the time. He watched and instructed and adjusted. I missed the cartwheels segment because of this, but that is probably why I didn’t give up on class later.

The issue with my backward rolls is actually a little annoying. When I was in martial arts back around the turn of the century, I relearned my backward rolls so that I could roll with items in my hand or to just stand and defend or attack empty handed. When the class suddenly cut out from under me, the roll was one of the few moves I cold practice anywhere. I didn’t realise I had lost my original rolls until I joined this gymnastics class. Besides being drastically overweight and unable to keep my knees tucked in a roll because of extremely weak abs, I also have a tendency to roll the shoulder and I cannot keep my left arm and hand in a useful position. Zak spotted that I tuck my elbow into my side when I roll, apparently another hold over from martial arts. Whee. The wedge he had me rolling on allowed me to actually rolls quickly enough to keep from going to the shoulder for the most part, but now I have to practice keeping my elbow out.

• Work on abs to keep tucked.
• Practice keeping the elbow out.
• Push off faster to get more tumbling speed.

So now, working on getting the backward rolls down. This will help the rest of my gymnastics too. I know from experience that I will get there. If I was not as big as I am, I would not be using the little cheats and tricks I use for some things. I know this because when I started martial arts, I had lost all ab structure and it took about a year to get there. At that time, I was in fair physical shape. With the slow but steady work I am doing currently, I will definitely get there eventually.

Ah, another point to work on. My shoulders got weak again. Well, technically not true as stated. My shoulders are way stronger than they used to be. But the fact that I am having difficulty with supporting myself and being able to push up into a bridge is proof that I need to make more adjustments in shoulder strength. Couple that with the backward roll exercises and now I feel like a weakling again.

In the front tumbling segment, I did ok. I didn’t do the spectacular dive rolls I had been doing. We discovered the mat wasn’t helping because it caved in easily, switched the mat and it worked. However, the damage had already been done. The three rolls I attempted took a lot of my energy away. I got exhausted. It was strange. It also pointed out that I wasn’t doing as well as I thought I was. However on the handspring front, the barrel is wonderful help. We skipped the medium barrel. If you look back a couple posts you will see that Zak had a plan for me to use the medium for four weeks, then move the small. But thanks to a medium being absent, we moved to small on the first week. When I tried to use the medium this last time around, it was too high. We moved back to small and it seems to be working better. I apparently can’t land properly still. I end up in sitting squat, which Zak tells me is something normal for someone like me. Fine, I will take that. With the small barrel below me, apparently Zak was pushing the barrel so it rolled beneath me as I landed, which resulted in my sitting on the barrel a bit. Just enough to keep my from crashing. And I was able to stand. Not a full sit, just a minor support on the way to standing.

What I noticed is that I am gaining a little more power, but my knees can’t take the full pressure yet. I am fine with that. I also noticed I am not leaving my left arm behind anymore and it is actually going over my head. My hips don’t twist every time in mid-execution. They still twist, but I am working on it. After I landed six times in a row with the help of the barrel, Zak and Randy congratulated me, then Zak started pulling the barrel away. My legs still didn’t hold me, but this is when I realised my arms weren’t sticking on the mat. Very cool. I mean, still a bit miffed that I can’t land the handspring, but really happy all the same that Zak fixed my other issues.

By this point, I was exhausted and back tumbling was still to come.

Instead of working with Randy, Damir or Brian learning to do backflips, Zak set me up to work on getting my backrolls working. When it comes down to it, until I can do a successful backroll the way the gymnastics class needs it done, I won’t be able to work well with the other part of back tumbling.

It cannot be stressed enough. I need way more ab work.

Tags: gymnastics

Gymnastics: Improvement?

Although the last couple classes I have been feeling great, I felt that I was just getting better slightly. However, today I noticed that I heard a LOT more encouraging words from Zack. I am beginning to be concerned. Is he learning to be less harsh? Or am I truly improving? I had the opportunity later to test the thought. I messed up something. Not just a slight mistake, but something that ended up looking like I hadn’t had all the training I’ve been having lately. And there was Zack with his notes and his frowns. Yup. I am getting better. {High Five!}

I missed half the warm-ups again, but this time I stretched a bit more on my own before joining. It worked. Well, it worked well enough. I still had problems later. But this time it didn’t incapacitate me and I was able to participate in much of the class.

Zack told me to do the medium barrel each week for the next few weeks, but when he went searching for one today, he couldn’t find one available. So we went to the small barrel. I have to say, it works better for me. I am not looking for it at my shoulders and I am actually doing well. I have to work on my arms and shoulders and probably the abs as well. I don’t get any push whatsoever from them. Zack told me I need to get a bit stronger and until then, my landings from the handspring will be in a crouch. I don’t mind that. I am actually quite happy. My legs are learning to stay extended, my body isn’t twisting as much and my landings may not be the best, but I am getting so very close. After a while the barrel ended up under my hips at the end so that while I was pretty much sitting on it, I was also that much closer to standing. I don’t know if Zack moved the barrel as I went over it, but it was encouraging when I finally did all I was supposed to do and ended standing(w/ the barrel’s help) I called it the end of that part of the session since my legs were starting to give way. I only had to wait 5 minutes or less.

Then we were off to the Backwards tumbling things. Unlike the last few classes, I didn’t exactly join the beginner’s class. It MAY have helped, but the motions they were doing was first step backwards. If they weren’t having people just layback on the Large barrel and let the teacher roll them, I prolly would’ve joined the class. However, the reality was, it was not something that could realistically be done. The teacher doesn’t have the strength to do that for me at the moment. Not until I lose more weight, but before that happens, the beginners class will be way below. Oh well. So I was in an intermediate place with another classmate — Alicia. She made sure she introduced herself

Anyhow, that is actually going a little better than I expected it would. Damir assisted me. He didn’t bother with the pushing back of the barrel. At this point, I am working on pushing the barrel back on my own. So, he had me practice jumping back onto the barrel a few times. I am really bad at it. I kept jumping to the side. Dangit. Well, on the bright side of all things. I can get up a bit, not enough to go over the barrel. I have a feeling that is a good thing. Later, Damir had to go to a different station, but Zack came over the help. After viewing my repeated failures to go over the top of the barrel, he set me a drill to practice jumping back up onto a mat. Not a full body jump back, just stand in front of a stacked mat, swing arms properly, but hop onto the mat from that position. Entertaining.

I am not sure what is in store for me, but I do know that I am looking forward all week to my gymnastics class again. I am thinking things over, wondering how I am doing. Thinking of things to try and why it will work or why it won’t. If I am not mistaken, these are the kinds of things that are supposed to happen. I really wish I could go back to the gym everyday. If I did that though, the classes would be impossible to keep paid up. Well, until next week.

Tags: gymnastics

Gymnastics: Zekojo!

Coaches: Zach, Bryan, Damir and Randy
Arrival: 12:15pm

The Class

Today I missed the first part of warm-ups again, but that didn’t really bother me at all. A new addition to the class, Bryan (Brian?) was warming everyone up in a new manner, which allowed me to pretty much catch up and warm up all the parts I needed.

I am a little leary of new additions… they usually signify another change coming along shortly. I don’t want to lose any of my teachers because I haven’t gotten all I could from them yet. It is a bit frustrating, but for now I will just accept that we have four teachers with varying talents.

I was ON today. Zekojo! (not sure if I am spelling it correctly) is Japanese for all cylinders firing, or top of the world or more simply, I am on! I had almost no problems at all. I did all the tumbling, still working on my backward roll, I can’t push with my hand yet and I still roll to my shoulder, but I am getting better at it. I did some decent round-offs and was stalling in handstands. I was amazed! There was one where we were supposed to move in our handstands and I was able to shift about! That was exciting!

My dive rolls were awesome today too. I stood up all but once. I need to learn to switch gear settings in my mind faster though. I had to let a few people pass me while I tried to convince my body I was switching to handsprings from dive rolls. My teacher got impatient for me and I tried before getting the settings correct…. and landed nearly flat on my back. Fun. However, after another attempt, I was a little better.

Zack has laid out a plan. Since I have a problem with twisting midair and not pulling my hands up behind me properly, we are taking a few steps. For the next four weeks, I am to do my handsprings over the medium barrel. Then for the four weeks following that, the small barrel. The point is to get me used to going over and properly standing at the end… for now. He says over this time, I will be getting used to it so when the barrels are completely removed, I will be doing it without thinking. I can hardly wait. I have wanted to do proper handsprings for a very long time.

To make matters better, I joined the beginners in backflip training. Usually I go off on my own and do something else because by the time the backward stuff comes around, I am usually stretching some kink or another out or my hips or knees are already sore. Not so this time.

For a perspective, let’s jump back to January 2007. I had just arrived in New York. I was way more overweight and undermuscled than I am now… though I didn’t realise how weak I was at the time. After years of trying to get back into shape, hurting myself, resting too much and never going back to things, I had learned how not to push myself beyond my limits. I had no power. I had no muscles, but my body remembered some things. Warmups and Tumbling were fine. Eventually, I adapted to handspring training…. but backflips were almost beyond me. We had the giant barrel only, the other barrels hadn’t arrived yet. Rene, well muscled and a great teacher, pretty much tried to wrestle me over this thing. Yeah, not good. I couldn’t even jump back onto it. When I DID get over, I couldn’t hold my own weight on the otherside and nearly hurt myself. Later that year, as I was getting into shape, I would sit strangely for for long period of time after a nice painful workout and do something to a nerve that cobbled my ability to jump back without being in pain. I would not be able to do anything involving jumping back until over a year passed.

Fast-forward to today. This time I participated wholly in the class. It was overpowering. I couldn’t believe I was doing what I was doing. I was jumping back and my knee wasn’t killing me. I was going over the large barrel and landing on my arms which held without my needing set my shoulders. By the end of the class, Randy was helping push the barrel less and less. It seems that all the various things Zach and Damir had had me doing all year were building exactly the muscles I would need when I joined the rest of the class. Cheers to Zach and Damir!

According to Randy, I will be joining the rest of the class in no time. He informed me I had good form and such. I am not going to be that optimistic, but this blog will definitely log the time I start doing backflips without a barrel. Two weeks ago, I would’ve though this was impossible. Things definitely can change at the drop of a hat.

Other Notes

I don’t know why, but today I felt really good. I didn’t stop to do stretches or balance on the beam. I suspect it is because I have been taking vitamins for the past couple days. I will be be sure to double check that next week. I need to find a multi-vitamin I can design myself. Everytime I find something with the levels I want, there is always an unwanted element.

Tags: gymnastics

Gymnastics: Muscle Pains

Posting for two weeks in the post, but that’s ok because the main part is the same. Same coaches, same arrival and pretty much the same departure.

Coaches: Zach, Damir and Randy
Arrival: 12:15pm (Yikes!)
Departure: 2:00pm

The Classes:

Last Week

This week really stood out for me. It was the first time I heard Zach tell me I did something correctly. No, I don’t mean like: “The kick was good, but watch the knees, don’t bend them until here.” kind of thing. He says that to me weekly. It is how he encourages people. Other class members have considered him to be cold and too strict, but the advantage of living through a few decades is you meet all types of people and learn to get along with them. However! This week, I successfully did two — TWO — good dive rolls! He complimented me, told me I did good then told me I could work on handsprings again!  This excited me and made me feel really good. That is another advantage to having a strict coach. If you can get along with him up to that point, his good opinion is weighted more.

Zach isn’t the only coach I have. Damir generally does the warm-ups, gets me well stretched. I was happy he was back this week and he added a few other conditioning moves. I am not sure why he changed it up so much, but I am happy about it. I used my abs more than previously and I wish I could remember which things helped more.

Randy usually runs the drills and runs the beginner’s portion of the class. I am not in the beginner’s section. I am a floater. Zach runs the intermediate group and Damir helps. When we move from handsprings to backflips, then I truly float. I still cannot jump backwards, though the pain is slowing diminishing from my knee. Instead I started working with wedge practicing putting my hands down for the backward roll. Normally, I am roll over my shoulder and I can’t keep my left arm back. I usually have to reach down. Working with wedge is helping me to practice that.  My left arm and shoulder are killing me.

This Week

After a warmup, not so great as last week, I had a great time! Not only did I do well on my Dive Rolls, but I am getting better at Handsprings. I guess the slow build that Zach kicked me down to is helping alot. Now I have to concentrate not just on kicking fast, but losing the left arm plant (my left arm is taunting me!!!!) but I also have to stop twisting mid-air when I DO succeed in powering over the top. After a satisfying time when I ended up trying to vault my twisting legs and such over a ‘tootsie roll’, we went to back flips.  Or rather, they went to backflips and I worked on my backward roll again. I was off balance. After doing several backward rolls trying to get my left arm down pr0perly, I walked the balance beam. Usually a simple task for me. This time, I kept falling off. Guess I need to recenter too.

Today my left arm and shoulder are killing me again.

Tags: gymnastics

Gymnastics: First Post

I have decided I need to keep a record of my gymnastics. I am losing track of what happened when and I want to be able to keep track.

Up until now, I have been attending gymnastics at Chelsea Piers. Usually once a week on Wednesdays at noon. I will probably add more details later about Chelsea Piers gymnastics programs, but right now I just want to get on with today.

Coaches: Zack and Randy (Damir was absent)
Arrival Time: 12pm (mostly ontime)
Departure Time: 1:30pm

The Class: Today it was a more or less typical class. Since there were rock climbers today, the floor was reduced in size. The warmups and stretching were short. Since Damir was absent, the group only broke into two teams. There were about even Beginner and Advanced Beginner.

However, today my injury was more that usual. I strained a hamstring and spent my time in alternate muscle group conditioning. I found there are a lot of movements that use that blasted hamstring.

Tags: gymnastics