Rings

I left the park but I forgot my rings. When I came back, someone was training on them.

@verretor Lord of the Rings

@pete There’s actually a gymnast that is known as “Lord of the Rings”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBmy9JWyCS4

You’ll notice that he’s quite short. Ring specialists are never tall. I’m 5’9”, almost 5’10”. Too tall to be a ring specialist.

@verretor ha, that name totally doesn't surprise me.

Gymnasts are amazing. I nearly took gymnastics as a kid. But I was too shy back then. I really should have.

@pete My mother didn’t care when I told her I wanted to do gymnastics as a child. I did acrogym later and I actually gave classes but that’s more like circus stuff.

@verretor @pete Ya'll should try parkour if you have a gym in your area. Lots of crossover with gymnastics and acro. I was always angree at the gymnast/acro folks because they rolled up and could do most things day 1.

@Corydoras @pete Government keeps closing gyms here. I also like rock climbing but I haven’t practiced since the first lockdown.

@verretor @pete That stinks, I'm sorry. Things are opening up in my area but a bunch of good gyms didn't survive the mandated shutdowns. Sometimes you can find meetups to train parkour on the street but I always found that intimidating. Unsurprisingly, rockclimbing also has a lot of crossover with parkour (that grip strength tho.) I'll always shill for parkour lol. It's a great sport.

@Corydoras @verretor Parkour is a lot scarier than climbing. I used to do what was basically traditional parkour as a kid before I even knew about it (there was a large boulder breakwater near me). If I did it now I'd be taking pretty big risks, as falls are so much worse when your fat...

OTOH, even as a kid I made almost no mistakes.

@pete @verretor I guess it's all a matter of perspective, ha. I don't do big gaps because I'm old and scared and love my knees lol. But I still feel like I can do a lot with parkour - focusing on techy movements rather than big, showy stuff.

I've tried climbing a few times and liked it a lot. I'm cheap though so I've never worked myself up to investing in the memberships/gear.

@Corydoras @verretor Climbing is unusual, because it tends to either be very safe, or deadly. It's fairly uncommon for people to even sprain ankles climbing, especially with top rope. OTOH I've seen someone fall 30ft due to a belaying mistake - had they not been in a padded gym, or had just fallen awkwardly or on someone, they'd have been killed instantly. Fortunately the thick padding the gym had installed left them with nothing more than a sprained back.

@Corydoras @verretor I personally got dropped about 20ft due to a belaying mistake myself. I was lucky that the grigri locked up before I actually hit the ground at full speed due to the belayer letting go. I stopped climbing with them...

But actual injuries? Other than some blisters, I really can say nothing at all.