Handstand Breakthrough

A couple weeks ago I achieved a bit of a breakthrough with the handstands.  All of a sudden they just seemed easier and more stable.  They haven't progressed again since, and are still an on-again / off-again kind of thing, but there was definitely a plateau that was busted.

I mentioned this phenomenon to one of the team members of my Resolution online coaching group recently.   Just before you make a big breakthrough, you often go through a "long" (according to your perspective) period of feeling stuck.  I find this is often a natural result of the last time you broke through a plateau.  You feel so great when you bust through a sticking point that your paradigm shifts completely.  The problem I have seen again and again is that the paradigm shifts further than it should, like the swinging of a pendulum, and you end up over-estimating your current state.  This leads to frustration because you think that you have lost ground, when really you are just consolidating the gains that you made in your last breakthrough in preparation for the next one.  The advice I gave to my client is to keep an eye on the long term progress.  Keep a log and look back periodically at where you started.  Keep pictures and use measuring stick movements to assess the improvements you make over time.  Ride the waves of positive and negative attitude in stride, and in the end each time you look back at your ride you will be amazed at the progress.

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Training is still back on track.  Today was a Moderate Intensity strength based day in my 4x7 cycle.  Although it was a bit tough (fighting off a bit of a cold and lots of physical work lately), I can definitely feel progress, especially in the Tuck Planche.  At the end of the session I also started doing Coach Sonnon's Clubbell Spiral Flow (an integrative "core" session from one of his SSCC Webisodes).

Strength session included: Tuck Planche on rings, Elbow Lever, One-arm elbow lever (fraction of a second...), HSPUs, Handstand Practice, 15 lb Clubbell Flag Presses, Clubbell Spiral Flow x 1, Corrective exercise for upper back architecture (3 x 10 sec)

Tomorrow is High Intensity Metabolic Resistance Circuit day.  But I think I am going to switch it up a bit from what I did last time.

Voila