My friend Hazel is currently in training to become a personal fitness instructor. Today she introduced a bunch of us skaters to the ‘Bring Sally Up,’ exercise. You perform squats, going up and down in time to the lyrics from the Moby track ‘Flower.’ The song lasts 3:26 and includes 30 repetitions of ‘Bring Sally Up, Bring Sally Down,’ and 4 Down holds.. This ‘game,’ can be done with other forms of exercises such as press ups, pull ups, etc,.. (probably drinking games too!). When eight skaters did this, one dropped out. Another did momentarily too, but we made it to the end of the song. Hazel said this was the first time she did this as a group and it was the first time she’s completed it. So a bit of peer pressure can motivate each other, especially during this somewhat sadistic game where the song just seemed to go on forever! After saying that does it make me a sadomasochistic that I tried this again at home?! Only this time with press ups and again with chin ups. It was much tougher doing this exercise with the arms instead of the legs. Holding the positions seems to really work those muscles more than just ploughing through a heap load of repetitions. This is my current scores for Bring Sally Up: Squats: Complete. Press Ups: 2:10. Chin Ups: 0:55. From my google ventures I've found that the song is based on an old plantation slaves song. Where the lyrics are actually: Green Sally up. Green Sally down. last one squat got to tear the ground. Ole, Miss Lucy dead and gone. Left me here to weep and moan. If you hate it fold your arms. If you love it clap your hands. ‘Green,’ referring to the clothes they were wearing. It was a little spontaneous when we did our attempt in Battersea Park's cafe picnic area. Therefore there are no videos of us doing it, but found this video (one of many) instead:
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Had some friends over for the weekend and we had a brief go at some of the yoga poses I've tried before. It was fun as we tried to help each other out. My friend Dan managed to do the Crow on the first attempt which is very impressive.
I got them to photo me so I could see exactly how my posture is. Seems like it's never quite as well poised as you think! The official name is 'Hellings Street Open Space,' but to me that sounds just a little bit pretentious. It's a park. More importantly it has inclining hoops which will be nice prep for one of the Tough Mudder obstacles. It even had water beneath you just like the real deal. I’ve got a run buddy, Naomi. She was one of the team from when we did the Survival of the Fittest and we have both signed up to the Sports Relief 6 miles run around the Stratford Olympic Park in March. We ran for an hour today with a short stop at the outdoor gym. The run route was the same as I had done last December but it definitely felt shorter by having some company today. Shortly after the successful Survival of the Fittest events I got another two invites from my friends for more obstacles runs. Rough Runner and Tough Mudder in 2014. - The first is game show inspired which sounds really fun. - Second event looks like hell, but it's really well recognised now and would be awesome to be able to complete it. Both events are over twelve miles and I've never done that kind of distance which put doubts in my head. As a kind of trial run I decided to just run for a solid hour and see how I feel. I felt good, I could have kept going. I'm in, for both events! Chin ups and pull ups have been something I do on the odd occasion when I visit the park's outdoor gym. Ten is about the most I can manage. It's difficult to really progress much if you're not doing it more frequently. With the Survival of the Fittest obstacle race coming up soon I thought installing one in my home would allow me to practice more often.
Hopefully this will prepare me for final obstacle at the event which is an eight foot wall, aka the Wall of Fame. Last month a group of skaters started this abs challenge. The task was to complete a series of sit-ups crunches, legs raises and planks. Each day the repetitions increased. It was instigated by one of the skaters Ann Marie who wanted to see if social networking (Facebook in their case), can be of benefit to each other for working out.
In Ann's group a lot of them pushed through to the end. They also did some of the days together in the park which reinforced their motivation. I missed the start of their challenge but another friend Amy organised different group via Whatsapp. Social networking did help in getting people going in the first place. I only gave it proper consideration to start after Amy automatically added me to the group. I'd been previously put off from after doing the 100 pushup challenge as fitting into someone else's regime is difficult, as everyone is built differently. That said, a little peer pressure and the challenge was accepted. With constant messages throughout the week of individual's progress it did help spur people on. The trouble is when people start missing days I do think it also gave people a reason to lapse as well. With about nineteen people in the group, who would notice if you went missing? You could tell people were dropping off slowly just by the fact less and less people were updating their progress. I was already doing a load of situps before the challenge so I did feel it was pointless for me to start from day 1. My challenge started on day 9. Individually each of these exercises can be done without too much trouble, but when they're done back to back in this format you really do feel your abs work. The leg raises however seem to ache for me even if they're done on it's own, they're my nemesis. When I was attempting day 30 I had actually skipped straight from day 10. My motivation was 'I just want to do day 30.' So if I skip the build up and just go for it I'll experience less days of pain! I did need quite a few interval breaks to complete the tally of moves, more specifically those damn leg raises. One of the biggest efforts to deal with this challenge was boredom. It was so dull as it took 40 minutes for me to complete. Since then I try to complete the whole set again once a month. With a smaller variation of it all once a week. The challenge certainly keeps the tummy trim and am glad to say I do this much quicker now (20 minutes) with fewer intervals. Leg raises are still a killer but more manageable. My motivation now is to keep in check for those obstacle runs lined up… (I recommend using some kind of sports back support if you're starting out. Don't push yourself too much if it's at the cost of poor technique, as that is when you're likely to cause injuries). Ten months since my friend Rene showed me two yoga holds and I’ve managed to sustain the positions long enough for the camera! My poses don't look as clean as when the pros yogis do it but I'm really happy to be able to hold these positions now. I have been trying every now and again, when I could build myself up for another potential faceplant. A cushion is essential! Surprisingly these poses do not require as much arm strength as you might think. When you’re in the hold it actually feels quite nice and you can hover there for quite a while.. (It’s worth taking a photo of yourself as initially I thought my body was straight but in fact was curled up). While we were relaxing in this park in Berlin my friend Rene showed us some yoga poses. It looked very impressive but I was a bit scared to try it on the concrete surface. This has since become a park party trick back in the UK. I've also been faceplanting since in my living room. (Cushions out first!). |
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"Any tips, reviews and advice are my own opinions and are not to be taken as professional view points. The information on this site is what has worked for me and is here for guidance only, but I hope you gain insight into the various activities I partake in." Jonathan Chen Archives
December 2019
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