Feeling Like a Kid Again (and Doing a Muscle Up)

"Recommended fitness program that makes you feel like a kid again"

- Mert Hampton

"Childhood is a disease - a sickness that you grow out of"

- William Golding

Our Time In The Playland
As you can see in the video, we spent half of the time goofing off - launching into the foampit (not goofing off it you're a pro skier/boarder), and the other half working on some basic strength and learning some a skills - rope climbing and the muscle-up.

The place was like a giant playground filled with padded obstacles, trampolines, and suspended apparatus. The class is run by a gymnast who puts you through a fun and low intensity warmup before releasing you to go wild in this wonderful land.

The best part is - if you really want to learn something in-particular, the instructor is often just hanging about and is more than happy to teach you something cool. The guy running our class had extensive gymnastics competition experience, and could teach you a whole bunch of cool stuff.

That was the first time I ever used a tramp and a foam pit, and there really is nothing quite like it. Being able to launch yourself into whatever manoeuvre you like and not having to worry about the consequences of the landing is an unreal feeling. As an adult, there are not too many ways we can revisit a time when we had a naturally lower sense of self-preservation. This is one!

This was at Pittwater Sports Centre in Narrabeen, New South Wales. $20 for a 2 hour free-for-all. Well worth it in my opinion.

A note for the Sydney-siders: I'm pretty sure that Homebush Olympic Park and Five Dock Leisure Centre have very similar facilities and run the same classes for adults.


Rings Muscle-Up Tutorial (as i was taught)

False Grip

*I am not even sure that gymnasts have a name for this - its a pretty basic move for those guys...

Transition from top of pull to bottom of dip

1. start with a false grip (this will help transition into the second phase of the movement)
2. keep the forearms parallel and as close to each other as possible.
3. with the forearms in this position, pull upwards ensuring the elbows and forearms track close to the body underneath the armpits. (steps 2 & 3 are integral to nailing this move - you can see in our video that i didn't follow these steps in my first attempts, and thus bombed out)
4. as you approach the top of the pull, roll the shoulders and head over the rings - this move, combined with the elbows and hands pulling and tracking underneath the armpits will enable you to reach the bottom of the dip movement.
5. extend the arms and press upwards (visualising pushing the rings straight down into the floor helps increase strength and enables you to maintain a more stable top position)
6. Then progress to this:

I'm kidding

Then there is this kid:

Then there are these guys who are just ridiculous:

Thanks Hampton, Knighty and Timmy!

Joe