Day 737: slow goals

looking at all my fitness goals for the year, i thought “wow, that’s a lot. am i trying to do too much?” climbing, planche, front lever, muscle ups, splits, handstand, etc. they’re all related, but trying to advance on all of these skills in a single year seemed perhaps a bit too ambitious

one solution to that is to cut out some of these goals and focus on a few. for example, it’d be hard enough to get to climbing v7 problems without all those other goals, and having that as my singular fitness goal would simplify things considerably because i’d focus all my activities and routines around that single goal.

but i’m greedy. i want to do all those other skills too! so i decided to treat this year as setting the foundation: i’d accept slower progress on all these goals in exchange for building a strong foundation from which to continue progressing in the years to come. after all, i’ve been interested in calisthenics and these skills for 7+ years now and i don’t think that’s going to change anytime soon.

and from a training standpoint, taking things slowly and doing it over a longer period of time is also advantageous because when it comes to skills like the planche and the front lever, the weakest link is not how strong your muscles are: it’s how strong your connective tissues are. tendons (tissue that connects muscle to bone) and ligaments (tissue that connects bone to bone) develop at a much slower pace than muscle, and that means it’s much easier to injure yourself due to your connective tissue not being able to handle the stress placed on it. the smart way to train would be to start early and progress slowly.

as a result, i’m lowering the extent of my goals:

• climbing one v7 problem → climbing three v6 problems
• holding straddle planche for 3 seconds → holding frog planche for 5 seconds
• holding front lever for 5 seconds → holding straddle front lever for 5 seconds

the most important thing for these goals is not pushing myself as hard as i can when i train, but to avoid getting injured. a bad injury has the potential to halt progress for months, so it’s better to err on the side of progressing too slowly than to try to constantly push my boundaries and risk derailing my whole regiment

my fitness philosophy is long-term: i’m training for my 60-year-old self, not for me in 6 months. i’d rather feel strong and healthy in my old age than take shortcuts to bust out some move or look slightly better now. (this is also why i’ve never been tempted to touch steroids or other substances that provide substantial gains but incur long-term damage — i have nothing against them or people who use them, but it just doesn’t align with my goals)

freaking stoked to see how much difference slow consistent progress can make over a year

inb4 i get hit on my motorcycle and become paralyzed from the neck down