AWF Iceland Day 8

Workout of the Day

Ring Skill Session

Day 8 was mostly a rest day for the crew.  After a really long couple of days that left most of us battered and bruised, we needed a low key day to lick our wounds.  Luckily for us, the ski lodge where we were staying had a 15 inch television set circa 1983 on which we could watch the Olympics.  Through the snowy resolution we got to watch Iceland topple France in handball, the men’s shotput competition, and bits and piece of the heptathalon.  Not bad for a cozy couch day.

In the afternoon we rallied the troops and took a short trip into town to collect souvenirs.  The town of Isafjordur is the definition of a blue collar port town, but it had it’s share of touristy spots where people could buy all things traditionally Icelandic.  On the way into town I spotted a building that appeared to have been abandoned while under construction.  All that stood was a steel skeleton on a cement pad.  Naturally this would serve as a perfect location to hang rings and practice muscle ups, skin the cats, etc.

Using Carl Paoli’s kipping muscle up progression on the bands, we worked as a group towards more efficient general movement patterns.  Quite a few in the group got significantly better and spent the remainder of the time working on stringing their reps together more smoothly.  Others stayed with the bands and simply tried to improve their kip. 

For those who needed a bigger challenge, we began working on forward rolls to support and back rolls to support on the lower rings.  This was a lot of fun as well.  We even pulled out some human flags on the uprights.  All in all this was about an hour of technical and creative play time with no real rules.  It was great.  Everyone helping each other, offering personal advice on “how they got their first muscle up,” or “what they think about while doing a flag.”  I think it was a welcome lull in the action from the past few days that we needed before heading into the swamp soccer tournament on Day 9.