Double Chins, Flab Packs & Freezes.

Elliot – Handstand.

Seeing as the Monday’s fitness session had been a total washout due to the intense rain, the plan had changed to going out today (Tuesday) as it was predicted to be a sunnier day weather wise. Which meant it would be time to get a decent training session from the day with no interruptions of rain. Sark was set to be out, that was until he messaged me a little before I was ready to leave the house saying that he might not be able to be out today after all. I was unsure if Kezza would be out training, as he always says he will be, but then is never out due to sleeping into the early evening… So it was a pleasant surprise to find him already at the park once I arrived a little before two, he had been there thirty minutes before I got there only because he got a lift to the Park. Speaking of early Brendon had been there since half past ten this morning, training on his lonesome!

It was a lovely, warm, sunny day and the park was packed with kids who too were out training and so it looked like we wouldn’t get much time to train if it remains that way. The kids in the area littered the place with their scooters and bikes, some sat on the obstacles, generally being in the way which is annoying in itself when you wanted to use objects. I have no issue with people training, but be realistic when others are using it to train and use a different area to loiter. One of the things which amazed me today was seeing Brendon do a kong precision on the small stumps in the area, that blew my mind as I hadn’t seen anyone do that as of yet. It had opened up other possibilities, kong related now too. Kezza was equally in awe and we both tried to do them ourselves, ending with us doing a straddle vault over them. It was a total mindfuck to get our brains around how to do the movement and not deviate from straddle vaulting, likewise for doing diving kongs to them too. Brendon left around 3pm just as Ben was riding across the field with his windswept hair, shortly followed by Elliot and Fernando who were walking across at the same time too. The group was slowly growing, unlike how it was when I first arrived.

Elliot – Human Flag.

While Ben warmed up I decided to get a few photos of the guys training along with some portrait shots of Elliot, who always brings his unique ‘gheyness’ to the shot and times that by ten sometimes. I mean just look at some of the shots of him below… Don’t get me wrong he makes for some great, serious images too. Like the B-boy freezes and Parkour movements, but overall he can make for some really provocative ones too. I captured some shots of Ben doing a running upwards precision, who didn’t enjoy the fact he had double chins in the shots as he landed the movement. Some of my favourite shots from today are those of Elliot and him holding a human flag against the sunny backdrop so he was silhouetted (one which can be seen above) and some of the Spiderman poses on the bars were great too, along with the pole swinging images. We also did a spoof shot of Elliot being ~~Kezza~~ Conor Maynard’s number one fan because Kezza keeps getting called Conor due to him growing his hair out, rather than being a skinhead like he has been for many years. Though, I’ll let you see the images below and make up your own mind of what you think to his hairstyle choice…

Later on I was surprised to see Captain Blackbeard Phil out for some training, I remember him saying he might be out later, but was also very busy with editing so might not be out at all, if only for an hour if he does. No Denis though or Stefano who both said they might be coming out later on, most likely they instead stayed in town to train. There wasn’t a glimpse of Jonathan to be seen either, he did said he should be out! Surprisingly enough David wasn’t out either, which is unusual as he is always at the park most days training hard. It was a good fun of training though with both conditioning challenges and Parkour ones alike. We spent absolutely ages doing gibbon swings one after the others, until our arms and shoulders became so sore, elongated and like they would come out of socket and we could no longer grab the bars. We did muscle ups too, which had me doing some strange technique now I would get my arms above the bar even before my head and chest was and then lifted up like some extremely, awkward upright row motion to above the bar. It looked like my shoulders would pop out or my arms break from how strange of position I was in, and yet it worked for me.

I really should address that issue with them and correct my form, I used to keep my arms at my sides and go over the bar with my chest like a press up, I guess with plenty more practise I will be able to straighten them out. Near the end of the day a small child was mimicking what we were doing and Phil helped teach him a few movements and got him to part take in some of the challenges we were doing. As always at the end of the session, I would torture myself by doing so many sets of pull ups, dips, press ups, sit- ups, climb ups and other exercises until I could no longer use my body any more to wrap up the day. Myself and Phil took it in turns doing exercises while the rest cooled down and called it a day. It had been a fun day of training again and I had tired myself out totally, I know my flab pack of a belly would be feeling it tomorrow as I could already feeling like it was pulled when doing a few movements. We finished with doing some different grips for climb ups and when I tried I couldn’t do any at all, my body had finally given out and with that I decided to head off home and call it a day.