Gymnastics

I’m a little sore from gymnastics last night; mostly where I overextended a few joints or muscles: my right shoulder, my right middle finder, my left thigh…

So how’d I end up like this? The other day I saw this video of Jack Black performing clap push-ups while in some crazy muscle suit (as part of his promotional work for Double Fine‘s Brütal Legend):

It made me wonder how difficult clap push-ups really are. I gave them a go; turns out not that hard since I can do them. I messaged Tone to let him know how awesome I am. He replied saying that I should go down to the gym the next day, and I replied “alright”.

The gym in this case is a casual gymnastic class held in a gymnasium kitted out with all sorts of trampolines, mats, ropes, springboards, and other fun stuff. It’s $10 per session, and the session lasted for a few hours.

When we arrived, a few dozen people were already there – taking turns jumping off a small trampoline onto a mat. After around 15 minutes, the equipment was cleared and we did a bunch of stretches and warm-up exercises. After around 20-30 minutes of that, it was basically “do whatever you want”.

My previous elation at being able to perform clap push-ups was quickly depleted after seeing someone perform crazy v-snap push-ups (push off and touch your toes, while keeping your arms and legs straight, between push-ups). However, it all just made me want to work harder!

I tried out most of the equipment with varying degrees of success. I almost managed a front-flip (off a trampoline), a wall-spin, and a one-handed cartwheel. Good enough for a first time I reckon, but I’ll try to be more bold next time. 🙂

Thanks to Rowan and Tone for inviting me. It was awesome!