Day Four: Exhilarating!

The "after" handstand photo

Thursday was an exhilarating day! While yesterday was humbling, in a good way, today we were shown what we were capable of. No skill worth having is learned on the first try. It takes work. But it sure is satisfying to see the progress, even if it is only baby steps. That is what happened today with the handstand. More on that in a moment.

We started the day with the Turkish getup. Most of us knew how to do it, but there were issues. Shawn did a really cool test to demonstrate the difference between a packed shoulder and an unpacked shoulder.  We did some pullups using just shoulder shrugs. Feels similar to scap push-ups. And chin-ups in the up position. Isometrics. Then negatives, slowly lowering to the hang position. A good test of your shoulder and full body tension in the hang was to let go with one hand and not have your body rotate. Nice test of your grip strength as well!

You can’t jump past your weak point. If you hope to master anything, you need to work on your weaknesses.

Back to the getups. Lots of practice with progressively heavier weights. With 5 second chin-up negatives in between sets. Tired enough to go for lunch. It was a beautiful day for a walk. The sun was shining and it was not too cold.

After lunch we did pushups. The fatigue must be accumulating because they felt super hard. Holding halfway down, then all the way down, then halfway, then full pushups. Killer!

On to push-up presses with the kettlebell. This exercise prepared us for the clean and jerk. In the clean and jerk, there is a bump up, which is achieved by posting the elbow inside the hip bone, bending the knees and pressing piston-like straight up, then a dip and a quick straightening of the arm as you get under the weight. The double dip takes practice. If you’ve ever seen power lifters clean and jerk and barbell, you have an idea of what the kettlebell clean and jerk looks like. Same mechanics.

Time for the backbend, or back bridge. This requires extreme thoracic spine (T-spine) mobility. We worked on T-spine mobility by standing away from a wall, opening up the chest, reaching toward the ceiling and reaching for the wall behind you, without bending the lumbar spine. Then we did a passive mobility exercise for the t-spine in which you lie face up on top of a foam roller and drape your body over it reaching your arms over and grasping a bar close to the floor.

After that, we did baby handstands with one leg in the air, for the length of the gym followed by knee tuck handstands. Finally, we did handstands with a partner catching your feet and letting go. Their arms stayed in front and behind your legs to help you get your balance. Wrists, shoulders, hips and feet should all be in alignment. This was amazing because I was able to feel the purpose and importance of tucking your ribs in to maintain tension and I actually held the vertical position for several seconds. Now Shawn says if it’s less than 10 seconds, it’s an accident. But this is still progress. I had a big smile on my face after that. Nice way to end the day!