Today I went for a gymnastics strength workout to the park near my flat. Nothing fancy, just a warmup routine and a short assessment test, I hope you guys forgive me that, as the outdoor temperature is just -6°C/21°F.

todays equipment is optional but recommended

It's been a while since I trained on the bars. Last year my focus was on handstand skills (balance, one arm, lowering, planche, presses, hollow backs, scorpion push-ups,...) which interestingly developed my rhomboid muscles the most.

I did my yoga accompanying body weight strength trainings and yoga practice mostly at home, and since I have the whole apparatus there, I even did my occasional muscle ups, though on the rings.

That's a little of my background, now lets head over to the park.

home sweet home, excitement builds up

Then my first shock, not one human soul, back in my days next to last winter, the park was always well occupied by street workouters, no matter the weather conditions. One can not leave them unatained even for one season :)

at least no waiting time at the equipment

I give you a short tour through my outdoor gym. First we have the obligatory parallel bars, you guys gave me nice memories, like last summer when I held my first 5 second handstand on you.

height is a little low because they were already there before the new street workout gear came

Then the parallel bars, where I did my personal best of 14 muscle ups in a row, I worked out even in the winter time at night with nothing more than a t-shirt on.

i was so happy when one day i came to the park meeting a construction area and seeing this babies wrapped in foil :)

We pass by the nice cage with its always changing mise-en-scène ideal for the exercises on the mat like v-ups.

if you look closely, you can see the climbing wall in the background

Last but not least the founding fathers of the bars, although they've been around the block a few times, this bars are still frequently used, with angled legs even for muscle ups.

often used for australian pull ups to build up the strength for the strict ones
don't let you even lure into kipping pull ups, if you see such people, run away :)

Warmup

Lets start with the training, I brought some equipment with me, a mat, a theraband (resistance band) and a pack of blowrags as I am still recovering from a cold. The gloves are optional but in the winter time and when it rains you are happy to have them.

i use the blue theraband which has a good all around elasticity for warm up which you can ajust by lengthening/shortening the grip

Usually I start with warming up the shoulders with a 5 minute sequence. For that I use the theraband, a must have for shoulder health, mobility, and range of motion.

All the gymnastic, or in this case street workout exercises put a lot of stress on the shoulders so I wouldn't skip this step and recommend doing it on a daily basis, you will get a speech of thanks from your shoulders later.

just showing two exercises here, inner and outer rotations of the rotator cuffs on one side, for the full sequence which lasts 5 minutes see this video

Shortly after the sequence my mobile phone died because of the freezing temperatures, I had to warm it up again under my armpit, hope you guys appreciate the effort I put in here :)

Assessment Test

Now I give you the assessment test, lets see how much I can do.

• 10 strict pull-ups
• 35 push-ups
• 1 minute dead hang
• 10 strict dips
• 30 second handstand hold

Pull ups are the hardest, so obviously I do them first. Challenging, but this is a beginner test so even without specificaly training them for a long time, I can do them somehow, the form however can be always better :)

no kipping, completely down dragged by gravity

Next on the list are the pushups, I do what feels like hundreds of them daily as part of my ashtanga practice (have to count them one day to know exactly), so no problems here either and always working on the form.

completely down and straight arms, elbows to the ribs, nose touches the ice

I used to hang over four times the time in the german variant, also known as skin the cat, with supinated grip, so no challenge for me with the next exercise. The grip strength build with years of brazilian jiu jitsu finaly payed off :)

didn't realize that it's that windy, everyone loves a fresh cold breeze:)

The dips are an excellent exercise using a wide range of motion of the shoulders which you don't get with push ups, also through the vertical position you put the emphasis on the trizeps and get a good stretch for your pecs.

to train the chest more, especially the lower part, just lean forward

For the handstand hold I have to admit I made a mistake here, normaly you hold it with your chest to the wall which is much harder, for 30 seconds though It makes no difference for me.

normaly i would press into the handstand, time to resume the drills :)

All in all a nice fun excursus, the workout took me 50 minutes (including warming up my mobile phone) with an 1.5 km/0.9 mi walk from and to the the park.

Heading home now for my ashtanga practice, this short workout was more of a cool down than a warmup :) You served me well my dear park, there is also a climbing wall along the side of the 47 m high flak tower, maybe I check it out one day...

and that is how it's really done, barefoot with just a cloth around you

As allways thank you for reading and watching and my gratitude goes to @sweetsssj and @healthsquared for hosting and reviewing this challenge, which must be a challenge on its own.

Until next time,
Miron