Tag marcus bondi

I mixed in a couple brief partial front lever static holds into my bicep and tricep routine today.  I was inspired to do so by a video I saw the other day with Marcus Bondi, a very famous Australian calisthenics guy.  He is incredibly strong and owns a Guiness world record for climbing rope with no leg assist.  The most amazing thing is the guy is 50 years old.

Anyway he is in NYC for a few days and was giving a few tips in the video for certain moves, one of them being a front lever.

A front lever is when you hold your body parallel to the ground while holding onto a bar.  As you can imagine it is very, very difficult and puts tremendous strain on your shoulders and core.  I have done front lever raises like pictures to the right but I have never been able to hold the position.

Anyway, Marcus described how you should be trying to “bend the bar” when holding a lever, meaning when you grasp it you apply tension as if you were trying to bend it.  What this does is help you lock your shoulders, scalpula and arms in a more stable position.

So anyway I tried it today but with my legs only half extended.  Without the benefit of a video camera or mirror to check position it’s hard to tell how parallel my body was although it felt decent.  Even with bending the bar I only could hold the position for a few seconds before I started getting spots in my field of vision, a good clue to stop.  I’d like to get back to working both my front and back levers more often.  Doing so without tearing something is the tricky part.

I forgot to mention the embarrassment Flyers fans once again brought to the city of Philadelphia the other night while getting their asses kicked by the Capitals.  The night was a tribute to Ed Snider, a long time owner of the team who passed away recently.  As part of the tribute they handed out these light up bracelets to the fans.

The fans weren’t happy with the way the team was playing which is fine.  Noone expects Philly fans to tolerate shitty play or poor effort without hearing about it in the form of boos or heckling.  However some genius thought it would be extra cool to take his honorary bracelet and hurl it at a Capitals player in the penalty box, hitting him in the head.

In a few brief moments full blown lemming mentality kicked in and hundreds if not thousands of bracelets were thrown onto the ice despite the pleas from the announcer and players to knock it off.  It eventually lead to the Flyers fans earning a penalty themselves, not that it changed the outcome of the game at that point.

To be clear I have not followed the Flyers to any degree since the days Eric Lindros and John LeClair were on the team.  However I will always be a Philly sports fan and find myself disgusted by the behavior.  It’s disrespectful on so many levels.  It is a testament to how at their core, so many people are mindless followers, with a full blown “asshole” switch that can be flipped with very minimal effort.