Update: July 2010

I can't believe I've been offline for so long, or at least off of urbantricks. Let us call it one of those unplanned hiatuses. I've also been slacking with my exercise plan. Okay, there were no proper exercise plans, but I had goals. My goal in Feb 2010 was to do 10 full push ups. I got to 5 then stopped my push ups training. I've kept up footie though (aka soccer). In fact, I'm in a Monday 5-a-side women's league and we came 3rd last season out of 8 teams (I think there are 8 teams). The company I worked for also put on a 5-a-side football team and the main rule was 2 women on the field per side. Well, that kind of mucked it up for some teams as they couldn't find any women to play for them and had to drop out. In the end, 13 teams participated and my team got the finals and WON! Shocking!

Finger Hanging & The Bodyweight Culture

I skipped push ups to do finger hangs in my doorway. It started because I wanted tips on doing the L-seat. So I wrote an email to bodyweight guru, Jim Barthurst of beast skills. Amazingly, he did get back to me and offered advice that I should try hanging leg raises. That sounded great until I realised I had nowhere to do the exercise. That wasn't entirely true. Between my doorway at the top is a small wooden pane big enough to fit half the length of my fingers. I could barely hang there for 10 seconds, let alone do hanging leg raises. At this point, I conducted a little google based research which pointed me towards rock climbing, bouldering, indoor climbing, grip exercises and forearm strength training. I also probed the BWC guys (bodyweightculture.com) about grip training at http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15726) and they were more than helpful. Check it out if you want to know about improving grip training. I also decided to put 2 chairs together and work on the L-seat that way.My core is definitely getting stronger.

I'm a 200m a minute woman

In the 5K race that is. Hey. Okay. I know that's slow. But that's 5km in 25 minutes if my calculations are correct, and it's faster than my previous time of 40 minutes. I hope you didn't think it took me 1 minute to run 200m flat out. Maybe it does, but I've never actually tested it. I should add, that 200m a minute is my goal pace. I will start training soon. I'll let you know how I get along with that too and what info I find on effective training methods in for new runners.

There's a Little Less of Me

Well, I weigh a little less at least. As of Feb 2010, I was 9kg. Strong boned as someone so kindly pointed out. “You'd be great in my judo team,” he added. He was serious though. He then asked me my age and displayed a short moment of disappointment as I was 21 at the time and he hoped I'd be younger. He said, “we can still prepare you for the Olympics.” I should be flattered. He thought I'd be good at Olympic level judo just by looking at me. I wonder why I had no problems going through school lol.

The Future of Urbantricks Blogspot

Isometrics will be the theme for the next couple of months. I still want to make urbantricks a one-stop-shop for all these bodyweight exercises. Once I do that, I don't know. Also, I'll be adding regular posts about urbantrickers aka advocates of bodyweight sports and exercises as well sharing resources that I discover. I'd like urbantricks blogspot to house those too.

x, AnonymousJ