Nov '24 • Intros 👋
Introducing myself
I grew up uncoordinated and the last to be chosen when playing team sports at school. But I was a natural tree climber, and my parents enrolled me in gymnastics as occupational therapy. I still got chosen last, but I had good running endurance, and I could do 20 pullups on the Presidential fitness test easily. I enjoyed gymnastics and did it until I was old enough that kids my age at the gym needed to go the competitive track or quit. I wasn't good enough on floor/vault/pommel, so I quit. In high school, I finally found a team sport that I was decent in, ultimate frisbee. After enough sprained ankles from poor-quality fields and my inability to throttle how hard I wanted to play, I gave it up. In university, I got into climbing, especially climbing long routes in the mountains. I stopped climbing when we started a family, not necessarily from the danger, but rather from the amount of time it required, even just driving to the mountains and back. I then took up longer distance road cycling, as a way to explore around where I live, where I could start exercising as soon as I left my front door. I enjoyed it for a while, as a supplement to bicycle commuting to work and back, but it felt one-dimensional, and I was getting tired of close calls with angry people driving cars.
When the pandemic hit and remote work was mandated, I discovered calisthenics / gymnastics strength training (I had heard of Crossfit from back in the days of Mark Twight / Gym Jones, but preferred self practice and quality over quantity). I liked it because it was multi-dimensional and kept with the theme of exploration, just inward rather than outward. I could be mindful, keep it non-competitive, and enjoy the progress of the journey. My first foray was via GymnasticBodies , which was needlessly rigid, but for fundamentals, comprehensive. I got some good "beginner gains" but then hit a plateau. I remained a remote worker after the pandemic subsided and transformed my home office into a gym. A friend connected me with Paul Tracogna (whom Yuri knows from circus), and Paul has been coaching me since. I'm now an intermediate with handstands (having fun with shapes, a few inches away from a straddle press) and have become much stronger, especially in my weak areas like overhead pressing. Flexibility is coming along too, with the primary challenge being the demanding desk job.
Anyway, I'm here because I like Yuri's philosophy, and I never want to be told that I'm too old to do something. I like learning different people's approaches / perspectives (I also follow Handstand Factory/M3).
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Introducing myself
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