Moving Forward... or just moving

2013 turned out to be possibly the worst year of my life, with my mom getting sick and passing away. On top of that I suffered a very serious groin injury that has made it very difficult for me to move without pain. 2014 didn't start out very well either, with all kinds of stresses and my grandma also passing away. Don't worry, I'm coping and I know that I need to keep moving. Like the song says "Ain't nothing gonna break my stride, ain't no one gonna hold me down, oh no, I've got to keep on moving!"

Well, it's Easter and that means new beginnings. So...

I've been doing physio for my hip and back trying to get it strong again so that I can play squash, but it seems that every time I play, the pain gets worse and my mobility post match is deteriorating. Sure I've had some decent matches this year, but for the most part, the frustration of playing through pain makes it almost impossible to have any fun while on court. Training has become close to non-existent with the exception of Monday night lessons that I have to be coerced into going to and the odd hit around that puts me in a world of hurt.

Well, it's not like I had any kind of great epiphany on life, I'm just tired of feeling shitty. So I've spent the last few weeks doing research. I totally get that there is this new wave, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tole, self help, metaphysical secret that people have been preaching for years now. I think that positive thinking is definitely more beneficial to my well being than feeling depressed and wishing for things to be different. But I don't think that reading about it, or listening to special sound waves while I sleep is the answer for me. So the first thing I need to do is come up with a plan for how to become happy again, and yup, it starts with me.

So going forward, I need to set some goals. These goals are going to be specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time based. That's right, SMART goals! It sounds silly, but by setting these goals, I hope that I can keep track of my life and set myself on a path to becoming happier.

So in order to set goals, I need an objective. First, I want to be able to move without pain. So the research I've been doing is about movement. There are a handful of websites out there that attempting to revolutionize the way people think about fitness. It first caught my eye, when someone posted a video about this guy named Ido Portal. The guys seems super intense and hardcore, not someone that I think I could learn from. But his passionate quest to become a better mover really peaked my interest. It seems that he only does online consulting and only coaches people willing to pay to be verbally abused about being weak and lazy. I'm not sure of the background of the people making testaments to the Ido Portal method, but it seems that these people were already ninjas prior to Ido's tutelage. So I delved deeper into movement training.
I found websites called gymnasticbodies.com and goldmedalbodies.com and that's where I was somewhat inspired to start setting my goals to meet the objective of moving without pain, all of which have a deadline of May 31st, 2014.

My first goal to be able to sit comfortably in a squat position for 30 minutes.
My second goal is to be able to do 12 chin-ups in a row.
My third goal is to be able to hold a wall assisted handstand for 5 minutes.
My fourth goal is to be able to hold an unassisted handstand for 10 seconds.
My fifth goal is to be able to hold a back bridge for 1 minute.
My sixth goal is to be able to do 50 pushups in a row.
My seventh goal is to quit smoking cigarettes.
My eight goal is to be able to do a back hand spring.
My ninth goal is to play guitar for at least 15 minutes twice a day.
My tenth goal is to practice drawing for at least 3 hours a week.

So, I've put together a training schedule and I'm gonna keep a daily log in my little notebook, that I call the Secret book of secrets vol.8. I plan to track my progress to becoming pain free. I plan to update my goals at the end of May.

1st week - Daily schedule: (starting today)
Wake up workout-
5 cycles, finishing with one of the different lettered options:
2 minutes static squat followed by 10 deep squats
30 seconds hollow body plank
30 seconds of wall assisted L handstand
1 minute of wall assisted hand stand
30 seconds head bridge
10 burpees

A: 5 chin ups and 20 Cossack squats
B: 12 tricep dips and 10 push-ups
C: 20 single leg calf raises and 10 push-ups
D: 10 side deltoid lifts and 10 read deltoid pulls
E: Static Squat, full bridge and wall assisted handstand for as long as possible.

Stay tuned for progress reports.