Hollow. Hollow. HOLLOW.

Back from Day Two of the gymnastics cert. Today, the Boston box was Handstand Central. We started with forward rolls - I heard Tucker say, "Turn into a doodlebug" way too many times. We also worked spotted handstands, handstands to forward rolls, handstand push-ups, wall handstands and parallette handstands.

We did a lot of L-sits too, including some cool L-sit to handstands. Everyone was totally fried by the end of the day. Except Gillian. That woman is a fitness machine. She pulled off some really cool moves today - her control and grace are amazing.

I didn't demo today - just coached and spotted. I talked in nothing but bullet points for eight hours straight. "Kick up. Point your toes. Lock it out. Hollow. Hollow. GO HOLLOW. Push your toes to the ceiling. One, two, three. And come back down." It was really fun to coach today. I tried out various verbal cues to get them into the right positions - in general, it takes a few different approaches before the person "gets" what you're asking them to do. Put that same person upside-down and it's twice as hard.

I had one awesome coaching moment today. My trainee was 6' 3" and weighed at least 250#. He's a big boy with a good looking handstand... except he tends to crank his neck back. So when it came time for forward rolls, I'd say, "Tuck your chin" and he'd move his chin down... but starting from that far back, it was still nowhere near tucked. And no matter how many times I tried to cue him into the right position, he just couldn't get it. And he was starting to get frustrated. So I stood him up and physically pushed his chin down to his chest. I said, "What are you looking at on your t-shirt right now?" He says, "I'm looking at the letter X". And I said, "THAT'S your spot. When I tell you to tuck your chin, you're gonna look right at that X." So he kicks up, I say, "Tuck your chin and FIND THAT X" and he does a PERFECT forward roll. He stepped up and literally clapped his hands, he was so excited. That felt really, really good.

I'll have a ton more cert posts, pictures and video later, but for now, here are a few. That's me and Gillian, and me, Gilson and EC below. Just me, hanging out with a bunch of CrossFit superstars all weekend. Yeah, it's boring, but it's my life.