The genie is out of the bottle, and she ain’t going back any time soon

These last few weeks have been my all-time, fastest–deepest, learning experience (apart from the time I almost died in hospital).

The result of these events is that I needed to think and re-think about why it is we do what we do. If you had been following this blog, you will have seen that there have been a few posts on the philosophical foundations of Stretch Therapy. But it’s not just philosophical foundations: it’s the ethical ones too, and most people who have not studied philosophy as deeply as I have will not be aware, perhaps, that ethics is an area of inquiry all by itself in philosophy-land. Whether or not there is any ethical basis to the doing of what we do is connected to the individual who is doing the doing. This is entirely dependent on what kind of human being they are; their values; and the morality based on these.

As an ex academic (philosophy of science, relevant logic, human ecology), my main concern over ten years of post-grad. research was the limits to scientific understanding (and, not coincidentally, this refocused my interest in traditional Buddhism and meditation). As JimP commented the other day, academic research is conducted in a relatively very open environment (except for Big Pharma’s research): academics present their findings in open seminars; we publish our work explicitly to invite criticism and commentary; we engage with colleagues expressly to both share and to further the enterprise. Publishing means your work is ‘out in the open‘: anyone can access this information and use it any way they like. In academia, all one is required to do is to acknowledge one’s sources.

The general point is that knowledge cannot be controlled: as soon as you publish, in whatever form this occurs, you must let it go. This is what publishing is: the deliberate dissemination of the thing you have created, for criticism and potential up-taking/inclusion in other bodies of work. In our work, we don’t just ‘permit’ this: we encourage it explicitly, and the repayments have been magnificent: everyone involved in our work feeds back their insights to us, and the system grows. As I have observed recently, we have learned more in the last 3–4 years than the previous 20 for this reason alone. In reality, I have become the collator for ST, rather than its originator—and I am delighted with this development. ST is, explicitly, a collective enterprise.

Our intention is to share the info. that we have at the lowest cost to the user that lets us continue, and we want to learn from our students which is why we run our forums, and the manner in which we run our workshops. They are workshops in the deep-meaning sense: interactive, creative, where everyone can have a voice if they want—definitely not a lecture from an ‘expert’. All this is why our system works: it has been tested by many tens of thousands of people just like us. We incorporate feedback quickly and dispassionately, and are happy to acknowledge when something proposed by someone else—perhaps not in the system—works better than what we are using. Anything that does not work is ruthlessly cut. This is because we have a passion for an impersonal objective: more closely understanding Reality in its myriad forms, as this applies to movement, flexibility, and our objective, “grace and ease in the body”.

The genie is already out of the bottle, and it cannot be put back. Let’s hang on to her robes, and enjoy the ride! Let’s see where this can go. Let’s have some fun, do some good, and make some money, in that order.

In our endeavours, we have had extraordinary support from our students and Forum members; and many people have made themselves known to us of the express purpose of offering assistance. Thank you, everyone.

Stretch Therapy™ for Gymnastic Strength Training (“GST”)

Tags

GST, kitlaughlin.com, kitlaughlin.com/forums, master the back bend, master the pancake, master the pike, Stretch Therapy for gymnastic strength training

Stretch Therapy for Gymnastics Strength Training (“GST”)

This two-day intensive workshop is purpose-designed for all men and women pursuing strength training following men’s gymnastics’ strength training protocols. We will present solo and partner versions of most exercises. We will cover all necessary partial poses, progressions, and associated techniques (like fascial releases) to be able to do:

• pike
• pancake
• full squat
• full back bend (the bridge)
• shoulder extension, and flexion
• full hip mobility

Achieving a full pike and a full pancake requires stretching the calf muscles (including the often-neglected posterior fascial line), all three hamstrings, all adductors, and a small muscle in the hip called piriformis which is a surprisingly common (but often unsuspected) limiter of these fundamental movements. Practising the pike and pancake by themselves is relatively inefficient, in terms of results gained for time spent—there are better ways.

The techniques we will use to achieve the pike and the pancake are all partial poses and/or fascial techniques. The core method used is the Contract–Relax technique, as developed by our team over the last 25 years. We will also use innovative agonist–antagonist moving stretching techniques which will actively assist flatter pikes and pancakes, by activating the hip flexors and TFL in their maximally shortened positions—this provides needed strength in the fully contracted position as well as provides the brain with a novel stretch sensation. Fascial releases on gracilis and the inner hamstrings will be done on all attendees, where needed.

The full squat requires considerable ankle flexibility and hip mobility and we will show you a range of exercises that will allow you to do this movement with good foot alignment, preserved arches in the feet, and no support. On most workshops when we begin, only about half the room has a decent full squat, but by the end almost everybody does.

We will cover assistance techniques for hip internal rotation (this will complement the external rotation exercises that work piriformis, above, too).

We will practise all partial poses leading up to a full back bend. To this end we will show you effective partner stick stretches that will open the chest and shoulders, in preparation for full dislocate movements, and then add the hip flexor/quadriceps, passive back bends over supports, and rib-cage mobilisation exercises so that the body is prepared for the full back bend. Solo alternatives will be taught as well. In addition, fascial releases for the diaphragm and rectus abdominis will be done for all attendees.

In the process of going through these partial poses, you will learn exactly which structures are limiting your present movement patterns, so future practise becomes very time efficient. Often, only a small muscle or narrow line of fascia is the restriction—finding and changing these are the keys to unlocking your body.

Experience has shown us that adults following gymnastic strength training regimens frequently injure themselves. We will practise a range of extremely effective rehabilitation–treatment exercises to address these kinds of problems. As well, there are a number of stretching exercise that actively assist in recovery and we will do these, too.

Kit has an extensive rehabilitation background and has worked with many elite and Olympic athletes over the last 25 years. He is the author of Overcome neck & back pain (now in its 4th edition) and Stretching & Flexibility (15th printing). Search for him by name to find his site, his forums, and his YouTube channel.

5 x 10″ free handstands today: a watershed, and thanks Yuri and Charm!

Tags

handstand drills, handstands, kitlaughlin.com, Monkey Gym, stretch therapy, Yuri Marmerstein

I wandered down the street looking for a kids’ playground here in Atlanta today. The two men I asked directions from seemed both friendly and suspicious; and they did tell me where the park could be found. I wonder if the ‘stranger-danger’ POV has tipped too far in the direction that the rest of the US seems to be in these days (able to be experienced at any airport): the state of high alert?

Anyhow, I found a lovely park under a railway line; clean air, grass, wood chips, and ladder bars: everything the non-gym junkie needs for a workout. Today, though, it was all about “HS”, to use Coach’s terminology: the free handstand. I had planned to repeat the series Olivia, Robin and I learned from Yuri at the last workshop in C’ville, but there was not a suitable wall (or tree) to be found, so having had a few days off from the 90-day HS challenge (so, for me the count restarts today), I decided to try to kick up into free HSs.

Before I describe today’s events, though, let me describe the drills that we had practised with Yuri. Many of you will be familiar with the chest to the wall preparation element that Coach teaches: for me, the hardest part is the pulling down of the ribs (lat tension pulls them away from the body in this position), and maintaining the essential hollow and all glute and leg contractions.

But it was Yuri’s approach to the back to the wall version of the same preparation element that has had the most effect on my understanding of how to achieve balance in a handstand. The rule sounds like simplicity itself: simply have your fingertips a few inches away from the wall and kick up into a full handstand. Then concentrate on all the usual cues: pressing the hands strongly away from you into the floor; squeeze the glutes; tuck the tail; and extending the legs up towards the ceiling in the plane of the wall and thereby lengthen the entire line. Once in that position though, Yuri’s approach is then used.

He told us not to try taking one leg at a time away from the wall or even to try to bounce both legs together away at the same time but use a different approach. Once in one’s best, straightest and tightest position, Yuri recommended simply pressing the fingers into the floor while keeping the entire body tight, and using the finger–hand–forearm strength to press the insteps away from the wall, pivoting around the wrists. And if you pay attention in the same position you can simply tilt yourself back into the wall support by pressing the heel of the palm into the floor. This simple technique teaches the body–mind exactly how to use the strength in your forearm to control the critical forwards–backwards whole–body movements when in the air.

It works: I kicked myself up into a handstand using the method I favour (which is to have the shoulders well in front of the fingertips in the kick up position). After a few attempts I got to the balance point and immediately squeezed my glutes and reached my legs up into the air with everything held tight. For the first time ever I was able to move my whole body forwards and backwards and I stayed up in the air I guess somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds—but not by accident; I was feeling as though I was actually controlling the movement for the first time.

A number of things amazed me in this first attempt. The first was that, of course, compare to someone experienced like Yuri, my corrections required much more strength and of course the timing of them was nowhere near accurate enough so I used too much strength backwards and forwards many times (so, too much correction and over-correction). I remembered Yuri mentioning that (just like when one is shooting a rifle or pistol) there is no such thing as a still fixed balance position; there are only more and more subtle movements around the balance point. I competed in the Olympic pistol event over a number of years and this was my experience with the sight picture perfectly: no matter how good you become the pistol is always moving. The better you get, the circle simply become smaller and smaller, exactly like the handstand.

In the space of the next hour I repeated this hold, about six or seven times. In the last two I made myself say aloud the “one Alabama, two Alabama, etc., etc.” mantra out loud to make sure that I was actually breathing properly. I was able to get to ‘three Alabama’ or ‘four Alabama’ both times. How ever long the hold was (let us say around 10 seconds) the biggest lesson for me today was not the length of time held, but that for the first time in my own body I could feel how to balance, and felt the balance. What a rush!

And as I sit here looking at my hand I can see that the whole heel of the palm, from the base of the thumb to about halfway up the side of the palm, has been quite strongly abraded by the concrete I was working out on. Another thing that I have noticed is that the fingers and the palmar surface forearm muscles have had the most tremendous work out. And in a couple of the balances where I was just about to lose balance (going over backwards) I could feel that I was pressing my fingertips into the concrete with literally every gram of strength that I have. Now I understand part at least of why Yuri’s forearms are like Popeye’s!

As well as I was becoming a bit more tired I found that I was letting my elbows bend and yet I was still able to push myself up into a straighter handstand once I had achieved that critical balance and I could feel that the elbow bend is an emergency correction of the position as well.

Of course today could be a complete fluke and perhaps when I try again tomorrow I may find I can’t balance at all! If I do find this I will immediately go back to the to the wall drills that we have spent so much time on.

So closing today, may I simply publicly thank Yuri for his magnificent handstand tutorials during the last workshop we ran in Charlottesville and also thank Olivia for the hundreds of repetitions of the floor preparation drills that she has made me perform. It is all the floors drills that allow one to feel one’s body’s line once in the air; I am certain of this.

Issuing the 90-day goblet squat challenge: notes from Vancouver

Tags

Cossack squats, goblet squat, lifting stones, Skandasana, speed skater squats

ONLY in California

Seen on the air bridge: could there be any more useless, sign-of-the-times sign than this? If it is accurate, what is a rational response, I wonder—sue the Californian legislature? What were they thinking?

When Linda picks me up, we always go to one of the Earl’s chain of restaurants: great food, wine by the glass, pleasant waitresses, and a relaxed ambience.

Matt, Linda, KL

I stay on Prospect; I like this sign mostly because it reminds me of that priceless line from the moving “Flying High”: Leslie Neilson exclaiming “Nice Beaver!”

Prospect is the highest street on the mountain

The 90-day goblet squat challenge:

The challenge is to goblet squat (or some variation) for the next 90 days.

Here are some images taken at the Lynne Creek (I believe) yesterday. I realise that what I am showing here is not, strictly speaking, a goblet squat, so named because the weight, often a kettlebell, is held in the upraised palms (think heavy pewter goblet!) with the elbows locked into the ribs, but this stone was relatively heavy (about 30–35Kg, I think) and I decided to hold it the way McGlashen stones are lifted (and sometimes carried).

Starting position

First, one must ‘address’ the stone: weight evenly on both feet, and a firm grip taken. I used a hybrid clean movement to get the stone into this next position; this means a combination hip drive and, once the stone is moving, bending the arms and getting the stone into position for the squat. A breath is taken in, and:

Setting up

Down into the bottom position. I do not let my lower back round at all (you keep an extension tension in the lower back to do this, and this tension and the resulting position means that the glutes are maximally activated for the drive out of the bottom position). The only effort I feel is in the glutes.

Bottom position: note straight lower back

I have been goblet squatting with multiple sets for the last two weeks, with a minimum of 50 reps being the goal: here is a typical workout:

5 x 10 reps, 16Kg KB (day one)

3 x 10, 2 x 15, 16Kg (day 2)

1 x 20, 4 x 15, 16Kg (day 3)

5 x 10, 16Kg, (deload day); I have a light day if my hip joints feel at all sore.

Since I have some to Vancouver, I have been using river rocks and stones I found in the back yard (granite, similar to the river stones, but rougher in shape). Yesterday, in addition to doing sets of five with the stone shown above when we walked the river, I used a smaller stone to counterweight a Skandasana and a Cossack squat sequence; I will ask Mash (Matt, above) to film this next week, assuming the good weather holds.

None of these routines are taken anywhere near failure; they are more like a weighted mobility sequence. Nonetheless, this short time has put noticeable weight on my glutes. When I get access to a bar, I would love to combine these with glute-ham raises; in the meantime, I will use Speed Skater squats as a variation.

I will shoot a proper goblet squat instructional video using Linda’s heaviest KB, a 12, some time next week. Try these; they feel great in the body and are the perfect antidote to a sedentary lifestyle.

Playing around in the Melbourne Monkey Gym last night

Lester, Nate, Ben, Olivia, Jason and I had a great little workout last night: handstand drills, some tuck holds and pullups on the rings, and (my favourite) Speed Skater squats, done the way we demonstrated on the recent YT clip.

Others may chime in here, but for me (and I should say as an ex-power lifter and ex-Olympic lifter, though average at both!) the SSS is the best glute activation drill on the planet.

Cherie, SydneyStretchTherapy.com senior teacher, demonstrates a much easier, two-leg version HERE, but after trying it, I feel that its effects are much enhanced by having, and keeping, the shins vertical, and not letting the shins move forwards at all, as she demonstrates. This alteration means that only glutes and hamstrings work (as the ankle angle does not change) and, to facilitate this version, I recommend that you face a bench and rest the front of shins on the edge, making sure that the shins are vertical. If you do this and you try the exercise, you will find that only the hip can hinge—and as a result, only glutes and hammies contribute.

What I love about Cherie’s version is that balance is not a problem at all, the desired activation takes place, and the pattern is established. As well, there is an even easier version that she does not demo, which we all played with last night: instead of holding a stick out in front (which adds load and a balance component to Cherie’s version), you can ask your older/less able clients to let the arms hang down below the shoulders with the index fingers extended, and hinge the body until the fingertips are hovering just above the floor—this way any imbalance can be corrected, and the load is less too.

So, the progressions can look like this:

1. Fingertip version

2. Two leg version with shins against bench; arms out to the sides (easiest), then the holding-the-stick out the front in the handstand position (arms and body in same line) version

3. No stick, fingertip version, starting with two legs and assume the body parallel to the floor position, then transfer your weight carefully onto one leg (your weaker one), folding the other under you as THIS video demoes, then play with moving your weight backwards onto the heel of the support leg, to take the strain out of the knee and to emphasise the glutes and when in position, hold for time (30″, and try to go lower!!!). Then to transition to the stronger leg, stay down and transition in the full depth position. When the second leg is done, being the first back onto position (so you are back in the two-leg version), and only then stand up. Do this for time (10″ to begin; we are working on 45–60″ presently) and five repetitions on each leg is great, if this is the emphasis of the workout.

4. Final version uses the stick: same get into position on two legs start, then transition to one, stay down and get as low as you can with the stick held out in the handstand position and the body and arms parallel to the floor, and repeat all the transition directions. I am going to reshoot this progression; it is very important I believe.

5. Following day, when you get up, try the two leg version—can you feel your glutes? 🙂

How choices constrain options: the arrow of time

Tags

"Pay now, cert. III, cert. IV, choices constrain consequences, or pay later", Personal Trainers

In this life, there are choices and consequences. A relevant folk saying, from Mexico:

“Pay now, or pay later”

The point is we pay for our choices, somewhere, sometime, and without exception. And this sentiment is not negative, for me—it describes the unfolding of our lives, and in terms of the choices we make now constraining future options. The thoughts came as a result of  reading Nate’s comments on my post yesterday, and my further comments.

Isn’t this what exercise (training, play; your choice of terminology) is all about? A choice in the moment with consequences in the future (today I am paying for showing off at the end of the workshop!), in both excellent and other ways? Same about food and relationship choices, too. How much of what we perceive and experience as ‘bad luck’ or misfortune is really only the unfolding of past choices?

So, back to yesterday’s post: what sounds like my criticism of the PT industry needs to be tempered, in this way: currently, there are few alternative training options available to people who want to do this vital work—past choices by government and interested parties created the Cert. III and Cert. IV options; these equally are constraints. Historically, the fitness ‘industry’ and these certifications came out of the aerobics groups classes of the 70s; and the aerobics boom of the 80s.

Part of what I want to do is enlarge these options; and I will develop this theme in forthcoming posts.

Looking ahead: video and stills interrelationship in the 21st C

Tags

HMC-152, kitlaughlin.com, NEX 6, progressive scan video, still frame sizes progressive scan video

But first, check out THIS must-have item…

Probably a bit chunky for tight pants (not that I ever wear tight pants, but just sayin’)—I’ll wait for the slim-line, water-proof cased model that—no doubt—is on its way. I shall be looking at passers-by more carefully from now on wherever I am, you can be sure. Adds a whole new dimension to being aware.

Now, to the subject of today: Miss O an I have been looking at footage out of the Panasonic HMC-152 cameras. For those whose eyes glaze over re. matters technical, you might want to skip ahead, but if you are still here, the video images out of these cameras  is designated ‘p’, for ‘progressive scan’—this jargon means that all frames are complete image frames. Any frame of video can be used as a still image. Shooting at 25 frames per second means that, potentially, thousands of useable images in any clip.

Digging deeper, the frame size of the 720p setting is 1280 pixels on the long side, and 720 on the vertical; accordingly, just under 1MP total pixels (921, 600). What does this mean for the size of an image?

Well, it all depends: if we use 72ppi (pixels per inch, or a standard PC screen display resolution, then a single frame from a video will display almost 18″ across; bigger than most displays. If printed at the standard setting of 300ppi, the same images will print at just over 4″ on paper—and that’s big enough to see plenty of detail, but you couldn’t get a cover image from it. On the other hand, if we select a printing resolution of 180ppi, that same image can print at 7″ on the long side, almost twice the size.

What’s the point? For our kind of books and products, it may mean that we do not need to shoot stills, from now on: we will record a workshop, for example, and simply scan through the footage for the stills we need. Scanning can happen as quickly as you need, too, with QuickTime, the viewing utility I use (the footage moves as fast as you move the cursor). Will these pulled-from-video images look as good as purpose-shot stills—no, but probably good enough for the purpose. As a commercial photographer for 30-odd years, I realises that—today—I have been overly concerned with visual technical quality.

Now to the last part of today’s post: I used the HMC-152 as the exemplar—but from now we will be shooting on the two NEX 6 bodies—and it has “true HD”: 1080p. This video is also progressive scan, but at a larger frame size: 1920 x 1080, or 2,138,400 pixels, almost 2.5 times the area of the Panasonic cameras. As well, the shallower depth of field for any given aperture (a function of the focal length and aperture) means that the larger sensor on the NEX 6 will yield more ‘film-like’ images in any case, and all the fast, old, and cheap manual focus lenses that I own can be used, too, for their own rendering style.

Doing the same calculations on the 1080p frame dimensions yields:

Display (on screen) image sizes: @ 92ppi, almost 21“; at 72ppi, almost 27″

Print size (for a print on demand book, for example): @300ppi, 6.4″ (so, 50% larger than the 720p video frames) and @180ppi, 10.6″, large enough for a cover.

Of course, if I were shooting a cover, I would shoot the stills as still, and at the full resolution of the sensor (16Mp), but the take-home message from today’s post is that not only are pro video cameras dead, but pro stills cameras are too, for certain kinds of work.

The Single Leg Squat progressions

Tags

Coach Sommer, Craig Mallet, Dave Wardman, kitlaughlin.com, Monkey Gym, Monkey Gym Fundamentals, Simon Thakur, Steve Maxwell

I have edited and posted the second part of the lower body ‘Monkey Gym Fundamentals’, a project Dave and I have been working on for a couple of years now, ably assisted by Olivia and Merryn Brown, in particular, but the fact is that John Travers, and the newer students/teachers like Simon Thakur and Craig Mallet, have all made their unique contributions—as have the many students themselves.

Please view the video HERE.

Do viewers of Youtube videos look at the descriptions? Here is a précis, and I will repost an expanded version over at the Forums, too:

This excerpt from a recent Monkey Gym workshop shows a combination of techniques (some from Coach Sommer, and one from Steve Maxwell), with a few refinements of our own.

I will be writing a post on the Forums describing ‘sets and reps’ for all elements in the next week or so. In the meantime, watch this video and see how all the movements are approached.

Speed skater and Cossack squat combination

Tags

Cherie Seeto, Cossack squats, Dave Wardman, glute-ham raise, hip hinge, kettlebell swing, Monkey Gym, skater squats, speed skater squats

I uploaded a 13′ segment (so, a live-like-you-are-there, unedited segment) from a recent Monkey Gym 24-hour workshop run over four days; and I will get to a broader description in a moment, but in the meantime, you may watch the video HERE. For some reason I forgot to load it to Facebook (head slap).

I am certain that the combination of these two squatting movements is simply the most important combination of glute activation, and active mobility exercises for the hips and legs on the planet today, and active balance: this is a massive call I know, but I am in a position to offer some commentary in support of this, and I will be writing on side splits, in particular, in a forthcoming segment. Perfect execution of both of these movements (and especially if combined; do the SS first for time, then do Cossack squats to follow) will align your feet and activate the muscles of the arch and the posterior compartment in the lower leg more than any other activity that I have tried so far, apart from the single leg squat. For many though, the single leg squat is still a bridge too far and I can only do a single repetition on a good day—this tells me that I need to spend more time on the two exercises taught in the video above.

And I heard from Olivia while we were working out yesterday that Cherie Seeto has come up with a very nice two leg version for beginners, or people who are simply not strong enough or haven’t got good enough balance to work on one leg yet. I am going to video this today because when I saw it, it reminded me immediately of something I learned on a Steve Maxwell workshop recently that I want to share with you, and that is his approach to learning the hip hinge. And then (and this is no accident either) Anthony Linard, in his kettle bell section on the recent Monkey Gym workshop had a number of drills that stressed exactly the same movement.

I was practising this yesterday by standing square on to a bench (making sure that my shins were completely vertical and the front of my shins resting on the edge of the bench, and I was holding a short stick overhead). Now try to bend your legs: as soon as you do you will find that the hips hinge and move directly backwards instead of the knees going forward which is usual when you squat or dead lift. And this is the big part: the only muscles that are actively relaxing and contracting in this movement are the glutes and hamstrings, and the rest of the posterior chain is used to hold the spine straight. This hip hinge is the foundation of the kettle bell swing: when you see this done properly the hips move backwards and the shins stay vertical. It is a beautiful and economical movement and completely different to what the swing looks like when most people do it (it ends up as a partial squat plus partial hinge). If done properly, 100% of the force comes from the glutes and hamstrings only; there is zero quad involvement.

When my brother came round to pick up the projector he needs for his workshops the other day, he made the comment that the second tuck (what he calls the “double tuck”) in the glute–ham raise (sometimes called the glute–ham bridge) was the most important cue of all for this exercise and one that completely change the experience of doing exercise for him. The other cue that he thought was amazingly effective was to slightly try to straighten the legs in the final part of the action (you ‘slide the feet away from you) in order to activate quadriceps and turn off the hamstrings, if you feel the exercise too much there. I did teach this on the Monkey Gym workshop too, so I’m going to find that segment and make a YouTube clip  from it as well some time this week.

Finally, I have designed a push-up that is immensely difficult, and when I first tried it, I could not hold the start position for longer than 5″… you will love this one!

Bumping out the Monkey Gym

Tags

ANU Monkey Gym, bumpout day, kitlaughlin.com, Pipe climb

It’s a wet grey day here. So, from the ‘reset the internal mood-o-meter department’ comes this image:

GPL and KL cutting down the pipe climb

It looks as thought we are cutting the chain that holds the platform up in to the ceiling, but no: we were able to borrow a brilliant mobile scaffolding from a friend (picture carrying 3m+ aluminium poles up four flights of stairs, not to mention the platform we are standing on—it’s heavy), then erecting it, then doing all the cutting/unscrewing, and doing it all again, but in reverse; that was bumpout day. The whole job only took a morning.

This image shows Greg using a cutting wheel to slice through the chains that held the pipe climb onto the girders in the ceiling. The pipe climb was like the Phat rope: much admired and speculated upon, but not that often used.

Dave’s wife, Hanh, was the most elegant climber of the pipe, IMHO: she was the first to traverse the entire 10m from fully brachiated arms (the centre two poles formed an upside-down ‘V’, too, so you needed to climb and descend that section, in addition to each pipe being thicker than the preceding one), using a gently whole-body sway as the propulsion agent. When men climbed this apparatus, it was all arm muscles and little grace—but Hanh showed us all a different approach.

For the record, Geoff Fraser climbed the full 10m four times on one go; Pierre three (from memory), KL by one, and Olivia (using the same graceful approach pioneered by Hanh) by one, too. We will be offering ‘underground Monkey Gym workouts’ in the months to come, too; when we have worked out the most efficient way of alerting interested folks, we will advise. There is a set of ladder bars in Kambah, for example, that are almost 10m long, and we will be playing on these for sure!

Relaxing after the job