Those who train with me know how much I love finding a new “fit trail”! Imagine the delight in finding a fit trail AND a large open field full of mostly soft grass, but not chemically treated to the point of the local soccer fields (those make me itch and that’s freaky… and scary because… chemicals!). While this requires a little “scouting” to make sure no hands end up in ant hills, I always scout out the ground where I will be flinging myself around anyway. No nasty surprises, please…
Anyway, in honor of “Monkey Bar Monday” below is a workout video that I finally got around to editing for you! The circuit includes pullups, kettlebells, cartwheels, and of course the monkey bars!
It takes courage to do cartwheels as an adult… watch how bad they are on my non-dominant side! HAHAHAH!!!
There’s 3 rounds of this in the video! 🙂 Hope you enjoy!
4 rounds of:
- 5 strict pull ups
- 10 double kettlebell swings
- 10 double kettlebell squats
- 10 double kettlebell presses
- Down and back on the monkey bars, any way you choose
- Cartwheels practice, minimum 4
So, why cartwheels? After Kirsty mentioned them in our recent podcast, I decided to give that a go! I had been really stalled on my freestanding handstand practice, but since adding cartwheels, and letting my brain know that cartwheeling OUT of a handstand is a definite possibility, my progress has skyrocketed.
Amusingly enough, this extra practice has also even further proved my theory that the handstand is not really a strength move… it seems to take more strength to do it incorrectly than to balance it up! Of course it requires a “requisite” level of general strength, which is soon surpassed especially if you’re already conditioned to reasonably heavy-ish overhead pressing with kettlebells, barbells etc. You will also need to take some time for your wrists to adapt. But the requires strength is really not as much as you may think, and though it may have some crossover to other things, handstand pushups against a wall ARE however a much better move for raw upper body strength. But keeping the arms locked out? Nah… I mean, how many of us take a break and catch our breath during the kettlebell snatch test with the kettlebell locked out overhead? Same thing.
It’s a weird sensation when the balance is right, it’s completely weightless and I almost feel like someone is pulling upwards on my toes… anyone else get that? It’s very strange. Either way, I’ve been able to work on handstands daily along with my normal heavy-ish power-based workouts and have had no issues at all. Going to be very happy to get long freestanding handstand holds and walks into the regular anyday, anytime, anywhere repertoire.
What are you working on these days?
ALSO!!!! Big sale over at Healthy Skoop! Their stellar plant-based protein powder is 25% off with the code STRONG25 . While I’m not a vegetarian or vegan, this protein powder is so good that I love it anyway! 🙂 One of my ovo-lacto veggie clients absolutely swears by it, and is probably in the process of ordering a case worth of it right this second. HAHA! 🙂
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