Monday, April 16, 2007

Bananaman Joins The OAC Club

Firstly, I wish to thank everyone who visited my blog over the past couple of weeks and left comments on my article. The amount of feedback was very unexpected and I'm really glad the post had such a positive impact on so many people in the community. For those who contacted me via Email, Myspace, Youtube, by phone and in person regarding the article, I appreciated all of your kind words. Thanks also to the various organisations who contacted me asking to publish the article on their respective websites, it helped spread the word.

Just a quick update on my training:

Some of you may be familiar with Bananaman, the fictional schoolboy also known as Eric, who turns in to a superhero when he eats a banana. If you are not, please click here.

"...For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs. Eric is Bananaman. Ever alert for the call to action."

I reached one of my training goals yesterday by completing a one-armed chin up through the full range of motion. My secret? Just like Eric, all it took was a banana!

Half-way through the session I took a quick break from training on this new scaffolding tower, had a drink, peeled a banana and took a bite... with the banana still in my right hand I walked around a bit and jumped up to grab a horizontal bar with my left hand. I started pulling and for the first time, didn't stop until my chin was right over the bar. It must have been a funny sight to see my face straining, chewing, smiling and laughing at the same time whilst waving this half-eaten banana around, but it was worth it.

I did 3 complete repetitions throughout the rest of the day and plenty of partial repetitions. Although I could only do a complete one with my left arm, I'm sure the right arm isn't too far behind as I can also do 90% of one with that arm and it felt a little closer than ever yesterday.

So if ever there was a secret to breaking through that barrier and achieving something that is just beyond your reach, think of Eric and consider a banana might be the solution...

The one-armed chin ups have been on my mind since I last visited Lisses and met Thomas Des Bois for the first time. He inspired me to begin training for them and I began the process on Monday 19th February 2007. I started using a belt around my chin up bar and used that to support the pulling arm. This, combined with slow negative repetitions formed the basis for my training and I set a goal to complete one complete repetition with each arm by 1st May 2007. I now have 14 days to complete one with my right arm to meet my goal.

And this was not the end of my banana-powered adventures for the day, later on I rescued a football from a tall tree that some guys in the park kicked a little too hard. I believe that if everybody in the world completed just one random act of kindness everyday then the world would be a much better place. Whether this is helping an old lady cross the road, retrieving a ball from a roof or pushing a old man and his wheelchair up a steep hill (Nice one Jin - hahaha), we should be using our skills and training experience to aid others as well as ourselves.

Tune in next week for more adventures of Bananaman!

-Blane

11 comments:

The Saiyans said...

Haha i haven't seen bananaman in ages!!! Nice one on the OAC, you seemed pretty close last Saturday! You'll be on the one armed muscle up in no time!

Leicester Parkour Association said...

Ohhh yes, the facial expressions were rather ammusing :P Nice one mate.

See you on Weds.

Julian said...

Great man! Thats awesome, you progress so fast at these things! Congrats on the skill, very tasty benchmark indeed. Haha, forgot about that guy in the wheelchair!

joe said...

Good work bananablane :)
Great to hear you have succeeded in your mission (almost aha) by now you've probs got the right arm anyway, keep up the good work.
i wish you well for the OAMU
peace

Anonymous said...

haha, i still havent put the effort into commenting on "dilution", I honestly think it would take me at least an hour to do so lol, maybe I could ring you sometime. Well done on the one arm chin, you got it pretty damn fast, so you must have beeen training hard for it.

Peace!

Hopefuly see you soon

Daniel Wood said...

It's a great concept to do one act of kindness, dilution is potentially life changing stuff, great writing, Dan (Sheffield parkour)

Ben Nuttall said...

Fantastic. Go Eric!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananaman

Anonymous said...

haha, nicely written...

just out of interest, did you, at any point, get tendinitis in your elbow?
because apparently the OAC is impossible to get without acquiring it at some point...

just wondering...

but very good work, I truly look up to you. :-)

Anonymous said...

I've grown to love bananas too!

I've been having them in the morning at breakfast regularly, and the slow release carbohydrates really keep you going!

As I told you last time I saw you (Too long ago!) I'd put the OAC training on hold because my elbow joints didn't like it, but I've been free of comlaints from them for a good while now so I reckons it's back to training them soon...maybe on hell night on Wednesday....

You've written some awesome stuff on this blog mate, I've been working hard to try and my make my movements instinctual, but PERFECT and instinctual is a whole different kettle of fish lol!

Speak to you soon mate!

DAN!

Unknown said...

Hey Blane,

Hi, i'm totaly amazed by what you've done! Just recently i have began taking an interest in parkour activities. Within the last month alone i have doubled my strength and my endurance training is going ok. But i live in Gretna Ne, and i don't really know anywhere decent to train, let alone anyone around here who does, and im looking for a teacher or club to join, any refrences?

Thanks for you time

Chris 'Blane' Rowat said...

Hi Alex, I've had a quick look around for you and although I can't find anything specifically in Gretna, I did find some success in Nebraska itself...

Try these links:

http://parkour.meetup.com/cities/us/ne/omaha/

http://urbanfreeflow.yuku.com/topic/5251/t/Nebraska.html

http://www.americanparkour.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=5eeab3430d370d765528fa9d4fbd1515&board=126.0

Sorry I can't find anything closer to you!

But don't become disheartened if there's nothing around you, you can always begin to practice on your own using videos for guidance and reading lots of articles. It might take slightly longer this way than having someone teach you but this is how I started and you will find after a while other people will see you training and take an interest. Before you know it you'll have some people to practice and improve with.

Hope that helps! Any more questions, just fire away. ;-)

*B*