a reasonable success

For the last few weeks i've been getting in a lot of massage therapy practice, since i can't legally get paid yet, my program director said i could take donations for charity instead, as long as 'I' wasn't the charity. So I've been taking donations so i could do a big shop for toys for tots...i figure i should at least be able to get the fun of toy shopping out of the whole situation. So the results of all my practice sessions resulted in 3 shopping carts full of toys; all sorts of games, stuffed animals, balls for various sports, and all sorts of things that encourage a kid to use their imagination. Talk about fun. I plan on continuing to keep doing this but just pick different charities for a while.

not a great picture but check out the giant playground ball...

I've been slack...

at least on here, a few things have happened. Beginning of last week i was starting through the second time through of the second circuit of the second part...yes that's a lot of 'seconds'...but it gets better on the second round i felt something go in my back after the second pistol on the second leg...i swear i'm not making this up...so i stopped and for the next couple of days i did nothing but mobility and took a complete rest, i slept, i ate and i went to work.

Now the back feels better, actually it feels normal. And i decided to start over with a new cycle to focus more on some specifics that i feel that i'm lacking in climbing, since the goal of me doing circuits is to improve my climbing i don't feel too bad about not completing the second. On the whole i'm happy that i achieved about a 50% improvement in my recovery time and i look forward to improving it further, but for now it's time to move forward some.

So I've started through some new things my main goals are two fold: improve my ability to generate high levels of tension especially in grip and total body tension when fatigued and to strengthen my body in core flexion and rotation. I'm seeing these two things as my major limiting factors in climbing. I still keep improving and thanks to there being a new climbing gym that opened up last week motivation should be high.

I also decided to do some pseudo tests...they weren't all out so hence the 'pseudo'...snatches with the 24kg 90 in 3'30" not a rip roaring pace but i value my calluses and it's more important for me to be able to climb than to PR most of the time and Mills with the 25lb club 40/40 i know i have more in me i just need to condition my skin to the different pull the clubs and bells give in high reps. I'd like to do 100 snatches in 3'20" or less and a minimum of 60/60 in the mills. I may start up a density cycle with the mills later on to boost the numbers but it's not too bad for now.

So my new circuits for the next two weeks are:

Hack Squat 24kg * 3
C-n-P 28kg * 2/2
1arm lock off 5sec/5sec
Leg raise to feet above bar * 3
rip phonebook * 1


Overhead Lunge 32kg * 3/3
swinging plank 8/8
floor wipers with 2*24kg * 4/4
Renegade Rows 24kg * 4/4


Snatch 24kg 10/10
Swipe 2*25lb * 10
Mill 25lb * 10/10
Hammer Throw 25lb * 5/5

So far I made it through the first two circuits this week and I've gotten in a decent bit of climbing so far about 5 hours this week...

Circuit 1 - 4 rounds in fifteen minutes

Circuit 2 - 3 rounds in fifteen minutes

For what it's worth i usually get in at least 30 - 60 minutes of Z in each day and lots of extensor work with the rubber bands or doing hand resisted finger extensions.