June 6th, 2006

Well, I had a blast at the (B)East Coast Parkour Jam over Memorial Day weekend (May 27th-28th), which was held right in my own backyard of Washington D.C. and beautifully organized by the guys at AmericanParkour.com. I improved my technique a ton, thanks to great advice and coaching from a lot of people at the jam. There was a bbq on Saturday, a gym outing Sat. night, running all over the DC area on Sunday, then another bbq Sunday night!! (complete with watermelon)

Here are a few pics courtesy of AmericanParkour.com

And the simple fact that I'm reporting on this a full week and a half after the fact should clue you in to how busy I am at the moment. I've actually taken all the pictures for three different tutorials and hope to get them posted whenever I finally get them written.

May 1st, 2006

Finished the tutorial for the no handed one arm chin. There are some additional points of advice that some may find useful. I'll try the no handed pull-up soon and post up if I manage it. I'm suspecting the pronated position is going to be a pain to deal with.

I also updated my links section. Check it out, the only place where T-nation, Dragondoor, and Crossfit coexist peacefully.

And finally, I managed to win April's "Move of the Month" at House Gymnastics with a year and a half old picture that some may recognize from my old blog.

Now I'll just have to submit a petition to the committee over the lack of a 5-star difficulty rating. Hahaha...

April 27th, 2006

Look ma, no hands!

Well, I've never heard of this skill before but I managed to pull it off Tuesday night - a no handed one arm chin.

I'll throw this in the tutorials list when I have the time with some more pictures and discussion, but there's really not much to it - simply hook the bar with the crook of your wrist like such:

Given that the hand isn't gripping the bar like usual, a "no handed" OAC seemed like the best name for it. With the arm in position, just pull up!

It's got a slightly harder feel because you can't rely on deathgripping the bar to create more muscular tension in the upper body, you just have to flex your forearm extra hard to get things going. I like this variation though, as it adds more difficulty to the movement, as well as sounding totally bad ass.

April 15th, 2006

    Whole mess of new stuff. New one arm elbow lever tutorial, as well as the one arm elbow lever to handstand combo.

I also added a "recovery/maintenance" section that I'm already planning several additional articles for, but for now enjoy contrast baths and callus removal.

And finally, I updated the long forgotten training section. Training has been going great and I'm feeling about 10x more organized then I have in the past. Good things to come.

Enjoy your weekend. File your taxes. Have a happy Easter.

April 5th, 2006

    Much love and congratulations to the Maryland Women's Basketball team for winning the NCAA Championship, beating Duke 78-75 in overtime last night.

And speaking of the University of Maryland, if you're in the Maryland/DC area, I'd suggest catching Gymkana's end of the season home show - This Friday and Saturday (April 7th and 8th), 7pm at the Comcast Center (located on the UMCP campus). If you've read the FAQ, you know this is the gymnastics group I was a member of during my last two years of college. It's going to be an incredible show!!!

April 2nd, 2006

    Hope everyone had a nice April 1st. Hoping to have the new tutorial done by today. this week?