An Off Day

I've actually had a few off days since my last entry, but prior to that I trained but not in the gym. Behind it actually, in an alley. From a fire escape I rig or hang my circus prop, that being the aerial straps, which I believe I've referred to at least once. See the picture above. That's what's going on there. I started doing this a couple of years ago for one main reason, cost. I don't have to pay the gym anything extra and I don't have to rent a truss or space with a cieling point. I get to work on the basics, and I can't actually do much more than that because of the space restrictions so I adapt to the venue and get my work in.
Up until a shoulder injury occured over a year ago I had aspirations to develope an act that I could shop around and make some money performing. I did, in fact, develope and perform an act but only once as it worked out-then got too busy with other things. Now it's sort of been downgraded to hobby status, but it's a good workout nonetheless. Some of my upper body gym excercises came about specifically to support this activity and they're okay but there's nothing like the real thing. I've been training on straps off and on for about 6 years now.
Depending on my schedule and the weather I often do two-a-days, that being gym earlier in the day and straps later (on these days I crave a lot of protein). Some days I work a series a strength conditioning type of "academic" excercises and other days are a little more "artisitic".

My last day out there I worked 2 completely seperate muscle groups. I alternated 5 minutes or so pressing handstands on the straps and doing inverted crosses and front plange handstands with an excercise for that other muscle group I referred to. The handstands are good overall upper body type things that rely heavily on the front and side deltoids. The inverted cross really brings the upper pecs into play. It's very similar to a gymnast doing rings, only easier. That's good and bad. It's easier to achieve these positions on the straps when you're supporting your body weight at your wrists, forearms, or elbows compared to your hands with rings in them at the end of an outstretched arm. It's bad because since you can cheat and spot your balance upside down with your feet on the straps themselves, bad habits and bad technique can creep in. That being said you can be strict with yourself and hold a correct handstand. No sag in the back....
The other outdoor activity that I alternated in that day was walking, tight wire like, on a length of PV piping that I found out there. I had been doing this in the gym on their barbells unbeknownst to the management. This is an excellent excercise for all those little stablizing muscles in the feet and ankles. Specifically, I think this helps stave off injury to those areas that jumping (and landing) could cause. I occasionally have to jump to try and get a job, or even tumble.
A second benefit to this "pipe walking" is that it's a cheap alternative to keeping a skill that would otherwise require a practice wire to walk on. They're not cheap. There does exist such a thing as practice wire. It's a cable about 2' to 3' off the ground that you learn high wire on. One should realize that in order for a cable to support one's weight it needs a couple thousand pounds of tension on it to do so. The PV pipe is so very light, however, and it rolls under your feet so that walking it is a lot harder than what I remember the last time I was on a wire and it's also harder than the barbells that my gym managers never saw me walking on. After spending some time on this I'm curious as to how I'd do an a wire again.


Next Blog I'll start tweaking Day 1