I’m not as awfully sore today as I thought I’d be after yesterday’s return to exercising. I’ve been dreading this one. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 40 | 35 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 14 | 10 |
| side knee kicks | 36 | 32 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 15 | 15 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 0 | 0 |
For some reason I’ve had this song in my head the whole time:
It’s been so long, I’m starting my week counting system over. What a terrible feeling this is, having let this go. I lost my focus after the broken rib then the back-to-back terrible colds followed by all the traveling. It became too easy to say I’ll start again after x thing happens, and here I am, having gotten so badly off-track. But off-track only, not stopped.
It’s very hard, doing this all alone. It gets boring, and uninteresting. I think it must be great to do it with someone. But at the end of it, you have to do it for yourself, so here I am. Today, I just pushed myself as hard as I could on each one, to reset my starting point.
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 13 | 13 |
| plank | 90 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 18 | 13 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 40 | 40 |
| pushups | 12 | 10 |
| side planks | 19 | 15 |
I’m going to be very sore tomorrow, I can tell. Part of my new routine is a daily 20-30 minute walk, to get sunshine (+Vit D!), fresh air (plus a rounder life, indoor and out), plus aerobic exercise. Ten to fifteen in any direction, then the return trip. As fast as I can. Maybe that’ll help my soreness a little bit.
wt: 139
mm-mm, back on the chain gang! Today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 13 | 14 |
| plank | 90 | 95 |
| tricep pulls | 18 | 18 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 40 | 43 |
| pushups | 12 | 12 |
| side planks | 19 | 21 |
Trying so hard to get back in the committed groove of upper/lower/rest, upper/lower/rest rest. I’ve been doing the first two days, but my last couple of weeks have been so difficult I just don’t have what I need to finish the week. So here’s hoping I’m doing today’s exercises again on Friday! Today I did:
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 40 | 42 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 14 | 15 |
| side knee kicks | 36 | 38 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 15 | 15 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 0 | 2 |
I didn’t do my 2nd lower-body workout last week. Right now, I’m doing all I can to do all I can, and I’m ok with this for now. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 12 | 13 |
| plank | 90 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 17 | 18 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 35 | 40 |
| pushups | 11 | 12 |
| side planks | 18 | 19 |
I felt excited about doing this today, for the first time since before I broke my rib. That was a good feeling itself.
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 38 | 40 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 13 | 14 |
| side knee kicks | 35 | 36 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 15 | 15 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 0 | 0 |
I didn’t do my 2nd lower-body workout last week. Right now, I’m doing all I can to do all I can, and I’m ok with this for now. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 11 | 12 |
| plank | 90 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 17 | 17 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 30 | 35 |
| pushups | 10 | 11 |
| side planks | 17 | 18 |
Did it again, and some days, that’s a lot.
Yesterday was a really shitty day and I fought to go ahead and do my upper body workout but the shittiness won. So today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 10 | 11 |
| plank | 90 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 17 | 17 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 30 | 30 |
| pushups | 10 | 10 |
| side planks | 16 | 17 |
Did it. Some days, that’s a lot.
It’s funny, the disparity between looking at the routine (doesn’t look so bad! Should be easy enough!) and actually doing it (strain grunt aaagh). My first day back to lower body, and today I did:
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 37 | 38 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 15 | 13 |
| side knee kicks | 35 | 35 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 15 | 15 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 2 | 0 |
BOY. It was hard, even the hip raises which I usually look forward to. I’m nauseous and shaky and glad I have a rest day tomorrow. The muscles along my sides hurt me just enough during the night to wake me up when I moved. But it’s not a bad hurt at all, just a ‘hello there!’ kind of hurt. So glad to be back.
After a too-long break due to my broken rib, I’m back at it today with eagerness. It was hard to wait as long as I have. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 10 | 10 |
| plank | 90 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 20 | 17 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 30 | 30 |
| pushups | 10 | 10 |
| side planks | 15 | 16 |
HOTDAMN. Didn’t lose the ground I feared I had. By the end, I could feel the ache where my rib pain had been, but it was nothing more than a little ache. I think I’m just fine. Pictures and measurements to come.
I get to learn a lot this week and next, maybe even the one following.
Sunday’s Catskills hike was physically exhausting, so I’d decided to skip the Monday/Tuesday exercise, and pick up again for Thursday/Friday. Then, Tuesday morning in a very bizarre twist, something happened that at a minimum badly bruised something in my rib cage, but more likely broke a rib. I can’t breathe, can’t move, can’t find comfort in any position, can’t lift anything with my right hand without a lot of pain in my rib cage. And so I’m sidelined.
Of course this is life, and so is my workout part of life. I’ll lose ground, probably, I’ll have a setback in what I can do, but the deal is that it isn’t a race up up up up a hill, to some specific endpoint. The deal is that it’s part of the way I live my life, strength training, and so it goes as my life goes. I feel disappointed to have to take this break, but not more than that.
Instead, as my precious trainer suggests, I’ll spend this time thinking about and working on food-related stuff.
Not feeling it, but doing it anyway. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 8 | 10 |
| plank | 90 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 17 | 20 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 25 | 30 |
| pushups | 8 | 10 |
| side planks | 12 | 15 |
I didn’t try to up my planks, because next week (I think?) I’m changing to the one-arm-out version. Which is a little bit scary. Otherwise, yay me today!
Today I did:
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 35 | 37 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 15 | 15 |
| side knee kicks | 30 | 35 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 14 | 15 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 2 | 2 |
Happy 4th of July! Today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 6 | 8 |
| plank | 85 | 90 |
| tricep pulls | 16 | 17 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 22 | 25 |
| pushups | 8 | 8 |
| side planks | 11 | 12 |
Yeah. This was my general tone today: “Yeah, let’s see if I can do 25 of these motherfuckers.”
Remember how my stomach was in bad shape when we talked on the phone? It never got better — in fact, it got worse. So I postponed this one day. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 32 | 35 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 14 | 15 |
| side knee kicks | 30 | 30 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 13 | 14 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 2 | 2 |
I love the side knee kicks, especially. I imagine people who have pissed me off or hurt me — it makes it even more fun.
A mental ‘nah’ today. I was making eggs this morning and thought I’m bored, nah. Maybe I won’t. Maybe I’m done, I did this longer than I ever dreamed I would. So anyway, today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 5 | 6 |
| plank | 80/77/80 | 85/85/85 |
| tricep pulls | 15 | 15/16/16 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 21 | 22 |
| pushups | 7 | 8 |
| side planks | 10 | 11 |
Yeah.
Yesterday was blessed rest day, and today was my upper body day. Again this week, as last week, life is in the way so I’m going to bump it to tomorrow, and do my lower-body day on Saturday. That’ll give me Sunday to rest.
But Marc and I took a one-hour very fast walk this morning, because it’s a beautiful day and he’s trying to get more exercise. That’s so great! My heart rate was up and I was drenched in sweat by the time we finished. So it wasn’t strength training, but it was good exercise, so I’m very happy.
He is interested in continuing some yoga with me, perhaps, so that makes me very happy too.
Maintenance day, for sure. Still extremely sore from Sunday’s crazy yoga class, but the pain is primarily upper body. Today I did:
Warm up: 20 leg swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 spider man lunges
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| kettlebell swing (goal 50) | 30 | 32 |
| slow crunches | 30 | 30 |
| kettlebell squats (goal 15) | 13 | 13/13/14 |
| side knee kicks | 25 | 30 |
| hip raises (goal 15) | 12 | 13 |
| leg raises | 15 | 15 |
| burpees (goal 10) | 5 | 2 |
When I did the first burpee, there was this weird tearing electric crinkly feeling around my hysterectomy incision. It hurt. So when I did the second, I planned to pay extra attention to form during the pushup part to be sure I wasn’t goofing it up. It hurt in the same way, so I just stopped. Something was very wrong and I was afraid I’d hurt myself.
Looking at my week, I really need to do this today instead of tomorrow, or I’m not going to be able to make it work. I’d rather have taken a rest day, but I’m going ahead with the idea not to push myself too hard. I don’t want to hurt myself……..So anyway, today I did:
Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises
| exercise | last time | TODAY |
|---|---|---|
| 1-armed kettlebell floor presses | 4 | 5 |
| plank | 80 | 80/77/80 |
| tricep pulls | 14 | 15 |
| Russian twist w kettlebell | 20 | 21 |
| pushups | 7 | 7 |
| side planks | 14 | 10 |
Yeah. I was trying hard to figure out the line between pushing through and being stupid. I really didn’t want to hurt myself.
Well! Mother of god/goddess, namaste, kick my ass. The class was described as yoga and meditation, and I knew it was scheduled for 2 hours, but I thought the meditation part would be more than 5 minutes, divided in half for the beginning and end.
I’ve been doing strength training and yoga for 10 weeks. It kicked my butt. And poor Marc went too, he who doesn’t do any exercise beyond the occasional walk. He who has done yoga a time or two in the last lot-of-years. He who feels pressure to do what the others are doing. He who has to deal with fatigue.
So there we were, the two of us, in a class with 8 others, I think, and the teacher. We were the only new ones. I hadn’t thought to tell Marc that whenever he wanted or needed, he could just stop and sit, or do child’s pose, or whatever he wanted. I think I kind of had said that, but not clearly. Sweat was dripping off my body, down my arms. My hands were so slick they were slipping on my mat. We did a headstand pose (the alternative for Marc and me was to do downward dog with our heels touching the wall, and then to walk our feet up the wall behind us. Don’t think that was easy.
My entire body hurts. I could not have done it at all if I hadn’t been working so hard for 10 weeks, and I have no idea how Marc did what he did. Today was supposed to be rest day and it was anything but that!
Still. Yay for living.