The Stages of Circus Proficiency

From lowest technical proficiency of a skill to highest

1. "You suck"
2. "Eh, I could do that"
3. "Hey that's neat"
4. "Wow! That's cool!"
5. "Daaamn! That's impressive"
6. "I hate you"

Reading this week

1. Is your Vitamin-D supp helping or hurting you?
2. Joint Laxity in the Female Athlete
1. Interesting points, something for me to keep in mind as I teach in Aerial. Most of our students (easily 80%) are women. 
3. BUUUUUTT Wink

1. Helped me to re-evaluate my squat form. Every once in a while I'll get lazy and start lower back rounding. Most of the time it's no big deal for me, but with the amount of volume/back work I have in my new routine, I really need to dial in form.
2. New cues I've listed for myself:
• Index on rings
• Bar lower than needed on back
• Push up and pull back tight (draw elbows back)
• Tighten bar into place
• Walk out
• Step little wider than hip width
• Screw feet outwards into ground
• Tighten pelvic floor
• Break at knees first
• Squat down, tight core
• Push feet down and out to open hips (notice that I'm not cuing knees out; I find that takes care of itself if I drive my feet out)
• Squeeze butt to drive up\

FIVE THOUSAND!

Last night my buddy Alan suggested that I do a 5K with him in April. Not sure of the exact date at the moment, but I believe it's either the Cocoa Run (which sounds right up my alley) on April 6, or the Martian Run on April 12. The Martian Run was actually the first 5K I ever ran... would be kind of neat to do it again.

I've been trying to decide how I want to run my conditioning training and I think getting back into running may be the way to go. When I was first getting into exercising I ran couch to 5K and starting strength together; that was the leanest I had been in a while. Worked my way up to running 10K once or twice too. At the moment, I feel as though I would not be able to run a 5K straight through. Yet I'm not entirely untrained. So two months... seems like an amount of time that is completely do-able.

I'm not too concerned about my speed, I'd rather just get my endurance up. I'm torn between Hal Higdon's 8-week program and just jumping into C25K. I'll decide by next Monday. This week I've focused on getting some good yoga/stretching sessions in. Even though I wrote out my training plan last week I've jumped into it in stages:

1. Weight Training
2. Yoga/Stretching
3. Conditioning

That way the volume, amount of exercise, and training load in general do not seem too daunting. So much of it is a mental game and changing everything at once can be tough to do. Looks like I'll have to start bringing my chucks and running shoes to the gym next week.

Updated Training Plan.

Oh, hey! A blog I've forgotten about.

Ended up taking End of October-Mid December off from most of lifting regularly. Circus life got too busy. From Dec - January took time to get back into the swing of things. Starting a cut and just rewrote my training plan for the next 12+ weeks. Taking a cue from Paul Carter's base building, I'm doing 2-a-day training sessions + a circus training session. AM is for support work, PM is for heavy work. That's all assuming I'll wake up on time.... we'll see.

I recently read Al Kavadlo's Stretching Your Boundaries. Fantastic book; a lot of it is similar to Yoga, but I like the way Al phrases and lays out everything. As such, I've taken my flexibility routines from him.

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Focus and Goals

Physical	Circus	Brain
Conditioning Cutting Weight Joint Health Increase Flexibility Increase Pressing	5 Ball Cascade 4 Ball Patterns 3 Ball Body Throws Diabolo Tricks Devilstick / Clubs	Website Continue German Clarinet Anatomy Mental Math

Cutting Goal: <198# —OR— 2 belt notches.

Diet

Fat Loss: 2093 (-25%), 2233 (-20%), or 2372 (-15%)

Maintenance Calories: 2791

	Carbs	Protein	Fat	Fiber	Calories
Per Day	123	260	80	45-56	2250-2300
Per Meal	40	86	26	15-19	750

Schedule

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sa	Sun
AM	Joint Routine LBS1 Conditioning	Joint Routine UBS1 Sh Flexi	Joint Routine Back Conditioning	Joint Routine UBS2 Hip Flexi	Joint Routine LBS2 Conditioning	FB Flexi Conditioning
PM	UB1	Limber 11 LB1	UB2	Limber 11 LB2	UB3
Circus	4B	Troupe Practice	DevilI Stick 3B	Troupe Practice	4B/5B Aerial Class	Aerial Class	Acro Class
Conditioning + Flexibility	Joint Routine Conditioning	Joint Routine Shoulder	Joint Routine Conditioning	Joint Routine Hips	Joint Routine Conditioning	Full Body Conditioning

Exercises

Routine	Exercises	Programming
Lower Body Support 1	Adductor Machine Calves Lunges/Goblet Squat Hanging Leg Raise	1 x 100 4 x 12 4 x 12 4 x 12
Lower Body Support 2	Abduction Machine Leg Curl Leg Extension Ab Wheel	4 x 10 4 x 10 4 x 20 4 x 20
Upper Body Support 1	Upright Row Rope Pushdown Curl Cable Crunch	4 x 20 4 x 20 1 x 100 4 x 20
Upper Body Support 2	Side Lateral Raise Bent Lateral Raise Front Raise Abs	4 x 12 4 x 12 1 x 100 4 x 12
Press 1	Bench Chins	3 x 3 @ 80%, 5 x 5 @ 70%. S & R match bench; add weight slowly
Press 2	Incline Dips	5 x 8 @ 60% of Bench 5 x 5 (weighted)
Press 3	OHP Pushup Lat Pulldown	4 x 8 @ 50% of Bench 4 x 20 4 x 12
LB 1	Back Squat Stiff Leg	1 @ 70%, 5 x 5 @ 60% 3-4 x 8-12 @ 40-50% DL
LB 2	Deadlift Front Squat	5 x 3 @ 80% 3-4 x 8-12 @ 50-60% Squat
Back	BB Row BB Shrug Good Morning Backbend	4 x 8 5 x 10 4 x 10 (LIGHT) Unweighted

Flexibility Routines

Shoulders	Hips	Full Body
Shoulder Roll Mountain Crescent Moon Wall Dog Straight Arm Wall Stretch Bent Arm Wall Stretch Standing Plow Deep Squat w/ Internal Shoulder Rotation	Mountain ½ Forward Bend Full Forward Bend Grounded Lunge Down Dog Grounded Lunge (opp. side) Lying Twist Seated Twist ½ Straddle Full Straddle Seated Fwd Bend Butterfly Frog Ankle to knee Pose	Statue Mountain Crescent Moon Warrior I > Warrior II > Triangle Tree Bound Eagle Standing 1 leg foot hold Drinking Bird (Warrior III) Standing Quad Stretch/ Bow Pose Down Dog Cobra/Sphinx/Updog Child’s Pose Lying knee to chest Lying twist Half Straddle Full Straddle Seated Fwd Bend Butterfly Shoulderstand Plow Camel Wheel Corpse

Current Maxes

	Squat	Front Squat	Deadlift	Bench	OHP	Row
PR	435	305	500	295	185	225 (?)
Rep Max	305 x 10	225 x 4	405 x 4	225 x 3		185 x 6
Training	410	305	495	250	175