Tag Archives: accomplishment

W10, D5

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Feeling better today blues-wise, though my guts have not been good for about a week. Bubbly. Unpleasant. My workout this week is a little off — life got in the way yesterday so instead I’m doing upper body today, and I’ll do lower body tomorrow. Just scooting these one day over on the calendar. Life. Anyway,  today I did:

Warm up: 20 arm swings on both sides
Warm up: 20 arm-against-wall raises

exercise last time TODAY
2-armed kettlebell floor presses (goal 15 one-armed) 25 2-armed 4 one-armed!!!
plank 75 80
tricep pulls 13 14
Russian twist 30 (without kettlebell) 20 (with kettlebell)
pushups 6 7
side planks 13 14

 

When I was doing the floor presses, my arms looked like the videos of you and Tom when you’re lifting at the very edge:  there is wobbling going on, and it’s SUPREME WORK. And I’m screaming vile prayers out loud during plank with great force, trying to get to the end of each one. :) Today I found that singing along [loudly] to Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother really does help.

I had to sit on a cushion to do the Russian twists with the kettlebell, otherwise it felt (and sounded) like I was grinding my tailbone into the floor. It may have made it a little bit harder, because I was having to work a little harder to stay stable on a cushion. But good me! Actually, this was the first time that a crunch-kind of thing felt hard in the same way the others feel hard.

looking back and taking stock

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me, june 17, 2011. the smallest pants i own, and they're loose around my waist. SUCH PROBLEMS.

Since I always record what I did the last time and the current time, I can see progress — on Tuesday I did 22 kettlebell swings, today I did 25. On Monday, I held plank for 60 seconds and on Thursday, for 70 seconds. That’s always such a good feeling, even if the increments are so very tiny. But they’re always increments, not decrements. I am getting stronger, more flexible, straighter, bendier, all those wonderful things.

I can plot graphs of my physical changes (and you can bet I have excel spreadsheets with beautiful graphs of the change scores). That feels so good. Fat going down, muscle going up. Tiny changes month to month — half an inch here, quarter of an inch there — but changes in the best directions.

Still, even though I am always aware of the improvement, it wasn’t until I looked back at the very beginning posts on this blog that I really SEE it. My starting goals:

strength: I don’t have specific endpoints in mind per se, but I look forward to being able to hold plank for 30 seconds, side plank for 10 seconds; to doing regular squats with a kettlebell; 30 pushups modified, and eventually unmodified. I look forward to being able to walk around carrying bags without being worn out so easily. I look forward to feeling strong.

flexibility: my back is so spasmic and weak, and I want to be able to bend and stretch and pick up things without it going out; I want my hip joints to be flexible and without pain; I want my hamstrings to be flexible; I want to be able to do yoga again.

And I look back at the first recordkeeping I did:

  • modified squats: 3 sets of 10 (the last set was nearly too much)
  • modified pushups: 3 sets of 10
  • plank: 3 sets, 6 seconds
  • modified side plank: 3 sets, 10 seconds but not up yet
  • hip thrust: 3 sets of 20 (really out of breath in the middle of 2nd set)
  • leg raise: 3 sets of 20 both legs (out of breath and shaky in the 2nd set)

Except for the births of my kids and their accomplishments, and getting my education, nothing else makes me as proud as this. I am amazed and so incredibly grateful.  Aside from the quantitative improvements, so much else has changed — I don’t say/think such hateful things to and about myself any more. I think I look pretty great, and I enjoy getting dressed and don’t skulk around, hoping not to be seen. I believe I have never looked better than I do now, at 52, and isn’t that something?!

Thank you Marnie, for teaching me and inspiring me, and encouraging me and being excited with me.

D14

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And I arrive at the last day of my 2nd week! What makes me happiest about it:

  • I’m more excited than I was on Day 1, not less. Now I daydream about doing plank.
  • I can hold plank for 11 seconds, and when I started I could only do 5.
  • I’ve already had to level up on my beginner’s squats.
  • My pants are looser, but my weight has not changed. (YAY!)
  • I’m better able to do yoga, I guess my hamstrings are loosening up from their clench? Would that be why?
  • I feel my abdominal muscles. By which I mean, I do not feel them wobbling around, instead I am aware of feeling them as muscles.
  • I’m wearing a camisole tucked into my jeans (with a little orange cardigan), and a belt. And I don’t feel humiliated by my stomach so much.

What is still very hard, and what I feel like I haven’t really gotten very far with, relates to eating. I’m still not able to eat as much as I should be eating, and after my talk with Marnie this morning I realized that I really do have some kind of eating disorder, though not awfully. But I can’t bear the thought of eating a small lunch — I get kind of terrified by it — because I’ll get fat. I need to look into how this kind of problem is best dealt with. I do think Marnie’s right, though: as I expend more energy, as my training program levels up and expands, I’ll just become hungrier and it will at least partially resolve itself.

Today:

  • ↑modified squats — 3 sets of 12; I did both the 2nd and 3rd set without the chair (back rigid, abs clenched!), thinking hard about form. I have to keep thinking about it, and read more (my assignment), but I did it and don’t think my form was too bad.
  • modified push-ups — 3 sets of 10, similar to the last time (i.e., deeper than when I started, but not more than that yet).
  • ↑plank — held for 11 seconds (!). I held very good form, and it was extremely hard and extremely great. But I need to not expect myself to do it a second longer each time I do it. Today was on the outer edge of hard, whispering into too-hard’s ear.
  • side plank — still not up, held for 11 seconds and my hip still just was a hair from the floor.
  • ↑hip thrusts — 3 sets of 5 held to the count of 10. Very very hard, my thighs were burning and my butt was burning too.
  • leg raises — 3 sets of 15 on each leg.