My Stupid Back

So, yea, I hurt my back a little bit on Friday. Not with weights, like last time. Well, not free weights. My bodyweight did this. I held a shoulder lockoff, overhand grip, with my pullup bar and planned to descend slowly. Wahoo, I can hold this! sometimes. On that descent, something pulled and hollered. I had thrown my back out. I was face down in my bedroom doorway, unable to move. My husband had to step over me to get in the room to fetch a pain killer. Except I couldn't sit up to chase it with any water, so I waited until I could.

Much ice, heat, and a painkiller later plus a few hours, I was sore but no longer in pain. I am so over throwing my back out. I decided to skip lyra on Saturday. I ran some shopping errands instead, and yet I had to actively stop my car from driving to the studio.

I also skipped Monday night. I'm no longer feeling any pain or soreness. I just decided to hoop instead. I have a couple of hoop workshops coming up. I'm really trying to improve my skills with my 32" hoop. It's quite difficult coming from my 37". And that requires practice. Besides, this week is class week. I have class both Tuesday and Thursday. Someone ELSE is going to tell me what to train.

Tuesday's class was a bit of a downer. Yea, I'm grouped with the more advanced students. But the teacher kept asking what we wanted to work on to promote to intermediate. I'm nowhere near, still, promoting. Yes, I can do all my inversions, badly. They're not passable. These girls were virtually promoted. I wasn't. It's just easier to not want what you can't have. To realize I'll be forever stuck in this inbetween limbo of fundamentals and intermediate. Thank goodness for private track, or I'd be so bored only working on fundamentals moves.

But tofu hook was fun, super solid with just one hand. Just wish I'd remembered to point my toes...

Upside Down

New things! I love learning new things in my private lessons. Especially upside down things.

Straddle back balance transition into bird's nest. My teacher likes that I can do this slow and controlled.

And behold, shoulder stands! These are awesome. I thought they'd hurt. But my shoulders aren't bony, so they don't. Can't wait to play with these in practice. Not to mention, the cool transition to reverse lion at the end. That's fun!

Sad News

Saddest news ever! They're closing the satellite studio. I is sad panda. Everything will be uptown. Traffic, distance, big open space, lack of decent practice times. There's lots to like about uptown but also lots to dislike. I'll need to wait and see how the practice schedule lays out. Right now, there aren't a whole lot of evening times. And by evening, I mean after 7pm. That 5:45pm time they all like so much? Forget trying to drive into uptown at that time. Ain't happening.

Here are some videos of my mini sequences. It's a neat way to practice a bunch of moves at once while also working on stamina.

straddle, angel, dragonfly, reverse lion, transition to hip hang, front balance, transition to open delilah, release to single knee cinch, loud thudded dismount. oy.

profile straddle, arrow, pike arrow, tofu hook (awkward, needs work), vine climb rollover

straddle, gazelle, leg block, hip hang, transition to open delilah, pike, bird's nest, ankle hang, straddle dismount

Here's an attempt at momentum to ball with my grip outside the tabs.
It's supposedly harder there but easier at the same time. More room to fit through but a wider grip requires more lat engagement. It went well. I need to practice ball dismount to seated that way. I have tried before. I can't hold the lockoff, so my butt never makes it back to seated.
Followed by arch back, from my private lesson last week. This LOOKS easy to do. It's crazy hard. This is actually an improvement, ever so slight, over last week, but I cannot push the hoop out fully.

Ended session with some variations on front balance.

Idea

Quickie post re lyra. I had a FAB session today! Didn't take any video cuz this teen was in her first silks class, her father was there in the "waiting" room. And this studio is so small, the couch is just a couple feet from my lyra, so I kinda felt on display. Was he watching me every moment? Naaaa. But I do feel like he was watching me a bit. Along with his other teen daughter sitting with him. It just made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

But I had a genius idea how to structure my practices. Instead of just a long list of moves to practice...mount, do a move, dismount...I broke them up into 4-5 move mini sequences. Hit nearly the whole list of moves I'm working on lately. I felt so strong and fluid moving around the hoop. Now it's nap time...

Praise

Does it ever get old? I say no! I'm so far out of danger of ever getting a big head. Hearing little bits of praise is just lovely. My teacher told me I had strong legs and also pointed out I have a strong core. I'd heard this from my derby coach, too. I'm like, how can you tell someone has a strong core? I certainly can't tell if mine is strong. But it was nice to hear.

We worked on a gamut of difficult stuff mixed with some easier stuff. I'm getting better at crossing my legs in ball inversion (under the hoop). I learned ball basically from silks. So no "lyra feet" necessary. Now I'm having to retrain my body to cross my feet in order to fit under the hoop.

Ball to the top felt better, higher. I still have to massively catch my foot. But the negative ball tucks are helping. Just keep practicing.