Bryan's Blog

Three months ago I started going to an adult gymnastics class once a week. I figured that it would be a good way to increase my strength, coordination, and balance. One of the first things that I learned was standing back-tucks (flips), and round-off back-tucks. I have a good vertical jump, so these were not terriblly difficult for me. However, I quickly learned that my ankles were not ready for the impact forces generated by landing these flips. I landed a few of them poorly and experienced severe pain down in the joint on the top of both ankles. For the last 8 weeks or so, both ankles have still been quite tender if I push on the tendons running down the top of the ankle joint.
Today things felt healed enough to attempt some more high impact stuff, so I decided to try learning back flips off the wall. I have read a bunch of pointers on the web and watched several video clips, so I figured I had the general idea down.

First I practiced running 2 steps up the wall and pushing off hard trying to get the most height possible.

Next I pulled a big crash mat over near the wall and practiced pushing off and landing on my back on the mat. After doing about 20 of those, I was getting very comfortable and getting good height coming off the wall (horizontal 5-6' in the air) before landing on my back.

The gymnastics instructor came over to spot the first attempt. I ran up, pushed off, and flipped over! He ended up just barely putting a hand on my back as I rotated. He immediately stepped back and told me to just "go for it".
I was a little freaked out, and just decided to pretend I had done a ton of them and just go do another one. Turned out that it was much easier than I thought it would be. I ended up doing 18 of them before my ankles started hurting bad enough that I had to stop.

With standing back tucks on the floor, I find that I have to concentrate hard on both getting a high jump on the take-off, and also on tucking hard for rotation. With the wall flips, the rotation feels almost automatic. The extra height from the run up the wall combined with the fact that I am already leaning back horizontal make the rotation a no-brainer. I noticed that the best flips were the ones when I just focused on getting UP the wall.
Doing these has been "on my list" for a long time (since I was in high school). I still need a lot of practice, but it feels really good to have done a few of them.

Well, I figured that it makes sense to post some physical stats so that I have a reference point to work from and track progress. When I started going to the gym in July (age 32), I weighed in at 137lb and 5'8" and 9% body fat. My weight had been the same within a pound for the last 12 years.
I did keep good records of each workout and wish that I could post stats regarding how much I could lift for various exercises, but my workout book was recently lost.

Today after six months of screwing around and experimenting in the gym, I can at least lay claim to some improvements. I had my birthday this month so I am now a big 33 years old. I weigh in at 145lb and still 9% body fat--that's 8lbs of new muscle! Whooot! Unfortunately, those early gains are going to be the easiest. I fully expect that I will have to work quite a bit harder for the next 8lbs of muscle...
I also did some testing today to determine 1 rep max and max number for a few common exercises. Here are the numbers:

Squat - 240lb
Bench - 180lb
pullups - 10 reps (good form on these--I can get a few more if I get sloppy)
dips - 20 reps (again with good form, nice and low on the bottom and locked out on the top)

I have no doubt that this is much better than I could have done 6 months ago. I also have no doubt that I can improve these numbers significantly.

As the new year approaches I find myself reflecting on this year (2005) and the changes and challenges it brought. One of the biggest lifestyle changes that occurred this year was a decision to get in better physical shape. Luckily, my fitness urges happened to coincide with both my wife and best friend Dax also starting new workout programs. The additional encouragement and inspiration provided by them has helped me stick to my plans, and I am already in much better shape.
This blog entry attempts to describe my current state of fitness so that I can properly track my progress through the year: