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| Box-assisted handstand pushups |
By way of recap, the Level II certification requirements – 5
out of the 7 of which are bodyweight skills – are highly challenging. For most
of last year, I worked under the tutelage of Sara, Senior instructor with
Agatsu. Then in November, I started following the Agatsu Advanced Online
Training program, which is intended to help people develop a solid foundation
of fundamental skills in a wide range of movements. Agatsu believes that being
a good generalist is a worthwhile goal, and that being well-rounded results in
the healthiest functional physique, a concept I agree with. As such the
workouts are varied and never boring.
Since January I have been doing these workouts 5 days a
week. Each one takes a minimum of 90 minutes but most often between 2 and 3
hours. This includes mobility, stretching, locomotion, strengthening,
conditioning and more stretching. Like me, you might think that this volume of
work would yield fast results. But I was mistaken.
Progress has come at a snail’s pace; however, I have a few
minor milestones to report. Last month, I had a breakthrough on my back bridge.
An exercise called wall walking requires you to bend backwards toward the wall
and walk your hands down the wall to the floor and then back up for 5 reps,
holding the lowest position for 10 seconds. There was a measurable improvement
from my hands stopping at 30 inches from the floor to 8 in a couple of months;
I can now get all the way to the floor.
The next goal will be to bend backwards from standing without the wall
there for support.
In terms of endurance, I can now hold the back bridge for 3
minutes which is one of the requirements.
In March I took 2 weeks off training travel to Morocco, so I
experienced a small setback but I got back on track right away. I continued to
stretch and do mobility exercises while I was there but did not do any strength
training.
Today, I had another milestone. I have been working hard on
handstands, the kind where your whole body is straight as board. Today, on my
first set of handstand holds, I found my feet coming away from the wall without
making a conscious effort to do so. I could only keep them off for a few
seconds at a time but it was a breakthrough nevertheless. Shawn Mozen says that
any hold under 10 seconds is a happy accident. This accident made me very happy
and I am sure it will happen more often as my body begins to figure out where
it should be in this inverted position.
This same day, I had one more achievement. While I have been
doing endurance holds facing the wall for some time, the ultimate goal is a
free-standing handstand. One of the progressions is a forearm supported
handstand with a box. I started on these very recently and today, managed to
find my balance – with the help of the box – and take both legs off the wall
for almost 30 seconds! This may seem small but I feel it was a major
breakthrough because I was able to experience what it felt like to hold myself
upside down in the air, albeit with assistance from the box.
By sharing these details with you I hope you will see that
progress sometimes comes slow. It will not be the same for everyone. Some
people would be much farther ahead than I am currently. But if you are
confident with your training program, only persistence and effort will get you
to where you want to be. Although my patience is being tested, I am hopeful
that the effort will continue to pay off if only in tiniest of increments.
[Note: This post was written in April but not posted until June. Next update coming soon.]
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