A few months ago we went to Canberra. Being spring in Canberra we took the kids to Floriade. For those who don't know, Floriade is a spring flowering bulb festival that is held in the capital city of Australia each year. I have only been a handful of times, and Floriade seems to have less flowers and more market stalls each time, but I digress...
When I am around, my kids seem to take every opportunity to demonstrate incredible feats of strength. Not surprisingly the kids took this opportunity at Floriade to demonstrate their strength.
It was cold, noisy, and my kids didn't perform at their best, but they still did really well!
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| Benches are great for elbow lever |
My son found a painted 'Floriade' sign and found a place in front of it where he could do elbow lever.
Only his hands are touching the ground. It kind of looked like he was falling into a hole!
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| Elbow lever - as easy as falling in a hole... |
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| Once he starts he is there for a looong time |
I love these next shots, they show how long he stayed up and how he really isn't bothered by people watching (or buggies driving past).
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| Step 1: begin elbow lever |
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| Then the cart is in view |
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| The cart is crawling along slower than walking pace |
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| He is still holding elbow lever |
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| Still holding - remember to breathe |
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| Finally the buggy had driven past and he could relax |
I can't remember if these are the same benches as above, or different ones a little further along the path. My kids did a lot of strength exercises at Floriade, I only took photos of some of them.
It doesn't really matter, a lovely walk in the park among spring flowers is the perfect time for quiet exhibition of incredible strength!
I am super proud of my kids and impressed by how strong they are.
Falling doesn't mean that you are weak, falling doesn't mean that you failed, it only means that you are trying hard. If my son gave up early he would never fall. He would also never progress.
Fall, but fall safely. Safely falling can be a good thing.
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Falling is inevitable (unless you aren't trying hard enough)
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My daughter is also very good at these strength exercises. She wasn't really in the mood on this day so didn't do them as much as my son.
That's ok by me, I am incredibly impressed by her.
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| Elbow lever at Floriade |
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| I wish the bins were not in the background |
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| This is far too easy for her! |
As well as benches, my kids found some poles. These are far harder to use, and they are thin and were wobbly. It takes a lot of strength to be able to do such things using a pole like this.
Both my son and my daughter did strength exercises off these poles. My younger son's hands and feet can be seen on the left as he also tried to get involved.
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| Floriade strength exercises |
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| Don't pretend this isn't impressive |
You may notice that there are no photos of me attempting to do anything impressive like this at Floriade. There is a very good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with me being the one holding the camera. The reason is: I am not strong enough.
I was training to do elbow lever, and bent arm planche. I started to be able to do them again. While I was not as good at them as my kids are, I started being able to do them again.
Then I got hurt and lost condition. I am no longer strong enough to do elbow lever very well, and am not currently able to do bent arm planche.
I will do more training and hopefully be strong enough one day to be able to keep up with my kids again.
If you are unable to do these exercises you should do strength training. Be strong - byt' sil'nym (быть сильным). Don't ever 'work out', that is inefficient, if you are to be strong you must 'train' and you must train often. These exercises build whole body strength, they build functional strength, they help you be better able to do other everyday things, and they help you be less prone to both injury and illness.
To quote Pavel Tsatsouline: You can be anything you want...but you must be strong first.
