Suzaqu gets flexy

[Suzaqu]

So this has been my jam recently. It's what has prompted several of my dance parties in my last challenge, and it feels quite appropriate for the current situation:

 

 

I'm not quite sure what my goals are for this round yet, but I want to stay positive and keep dancing. So I wanted to start my challenge off with a song.  This is going to be an eventful challenge for me - I'm turning 30 during zero week and will start a new job at the beginning of challenge week two. I'm expecting our current "stay-at-home" order to stay in place during the whole thing, so I want some structure to keep me motivated and engaged, but will probably keep it flexible (get it, flexy, like the challenge title) to allow for the big changes coming. More concrete goals will come next week.

 

For zero week, I want to keep up my same habits of S&S and yoga, but I will relax the kettlebells to twice this week (keeping yoga at 1x per week) because I have 2 main goals this week: complete the MyFlex assessment and bake something new and fun for my birthday.

 

Happy zero week everyone! This is a stellar community that I'm honored to be a part of, especially now! 

 

[Elastigirl]

Fun way to start your challenge

[Sloth the Enduring]

Here for the S&S.

[Mad Hatter]

Dancy party approved!

[Suzaqu]

23 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Fun way to start your challenge

Thanks! I'm trying to stay positive when possible. Getting to listen to the song while reading and posting on my thread puts me in a good headspace, so it's partially a selfish choice on my part

 

23 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Here for the S&S.

Welcome! I promise there will be some S&S, though I am nowhere near the simple or sinister goals

 

20 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Dancy party approved!

Whoooo! I'm glad my music has met your dance party standards  If I find any other dancy gems I will share

[Suzaqu]

Week 0 Day 1:

Yesterday was a dreary rainy cold day, so no walks happened. But I did do a yoga video in the evening to keep moving. I expected it to be a flow, but it was more static poses and some restorative work at the end which ended up feeling pretty good. And my copy of Animal Crossing arrived! So I got my island going

 

Week 0 Day 2:

It was a very hectic day of work, full of tough decisions and overlapping video conferences, so I was thoroughly exhausted mentally by the end, though my mind was racing. Thankfully my supervisor encourages lunch breaks so I did take a lunch walk, and my husband and I ended up doing an extra long post work walk, which helped calm my mind a bit. Post-dinner I couldn't find the motivation to get moving in my body or brain, so decided to listen to what i was feeling and take the night off. Ended up watching Tiger King on netflix, which was a perfect distraction, which I think I needed. My work and home time started to blend today, at least in my head and it didn't feel good, so I want to work on that.

[WhiteGhost]

Here for all the flexy

[raptron]

I hope your bday this week is splendid! I am a big Janelle Monae fan. ❤️ 

[Suzaqu]

On 3/25/2020 at 10:20 PM, WhiteGhost said:

Here for all the flexy

I hope to bring the flexy!

 

On 3/26/2020 at 11:42 AM, raptron said:

I hope your bday this week is splendid! I am a big Janelle Monae fan. ❤️ 

Thanks it was! Yes, I really like her music (and other awesomeness)! My husband got a record player and has bought several of her albums, so listening to them all the way through I'm discovering more of her music that I hadn't heard before.

[Suzaqu]

Week 0 Day 3

Started working on actually transitioning my duties away at work and gave official notice (though my boss knew it was coming) which was sad and exciting at the same time. Had a productive day though, and did my first round of S&S after work, with 60 heavy swings and 60 TGUs and felt pretty good.

 

Week 0 Day 4

My birthday! Took it as a rest day other than walks, but I did do 30 swings to celebrate my 30th after remembering they are a thing and that I like them after seeing them in Sloth's thread. I made some delicious pretzel cookies while on a seminar conference call and ordered tacos for dinner. So a pretty good celebration for being at home! I also made sure to get some dancing in

 

Week 0 Day 5

Did my last round of S&S for the week, with 60 heavy swings and 6 TGUs. The swings felt the best they ever had, but the TGUs were quite hard, I had trouble getting off the ground for that first "sit up." I'm guessing (hoping) it's because I'm working really hard on engaging my abs extra in the swings, so they were worn out for the TGUs. I wanted to push to get the S&S done so I could spend the weekend on my MyFlex assessment

 

Week Day 6

Had a very lazy morning, but I'm happy to report that there are no weeds on my Animal Crossing island  Managed to sneak in a walk when our all day rain lightened, and used that as warm up for my MyFlex assessment! I got 3 of the 4 sections done (all but shoulders/upper back). It took a while to watch all the videos, figure out how to film and then measure my angles, but I learned a lot about the physiology of the movements, which is what I was hoping for out of the program. Those tests were quite humbling, but it definitely confirmed some things I suspected, like I love to externally rotate my hips whenever possible (thanks ballet) and I have great external rotations, but basically no internal rotation in my hip joints. I was surprisingly worn out by the end of the assessments, so I'm looking forward to the actual program! 

 

Tomorrow I'll do the shoulder/back assessment and take my progress photos. If I'm feeling brave, I'll share those here!

 

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

Happy Birthday!

Tacos and KBs are the proper celebration.

[Elastigirl]

Happy belated birthday!

Yes, please share the photos. Even if you aren't where you want to be, it is fun to see peoples phots before they worked on something as well as after

[WhiteGhost]

[Mad Hatter]

Happy birthdayyyyy!

 

5 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

Those tests were quite humbling

The whole program is quite humbling.

[Suzaqu]

On 3/28/2020 at 9:50 PM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Happy Birthday!

Tacos and KBs are the proper celebration.

Thank you! I figured I should start my new year with what I want to have throughout the year!

 

On 3/28/2020 at 10:41 PM, Elastigirl said:

Happy belated birthday!

Yes, please share the photos. Even if you aren't where you want to be, it is fun to see peoples phots before they worked on something as well as after

Thank you! I think I will share, even though they aren't the best.

 

On 3/29/2020 at 1:38 AM, WhiteGhost said:

Thank you! Tacos are the best cake

 

On 3/29/2020 at 3:04 AM, Mad Hatter said:

Happy birthdayyyyy!

 

The whole program is quite humbling.

Thank you! By the end of the assessment the program informed me that I'm basically a wooden robot with no joints whatsoever and it's a miracle I don't fall down when I walk 😂

[Suzaqu]

Week 0 Day 7:

Did some more walks and completed my assessment! Now begins the waiting for my program! 

 

Week 1 Day 1:

Took 3 walks today because one work phone call I had to take outside, the joys of sharing a townhome with two people working from home. I think I'm going to mimic Raptron's challenge style and set weekly goals, because the weeks are all so different.  This week I want to do 3 kb workouts, 1 MyFlex module (assuming I get my program by the end of the week), and I want to work on staying hydrated, as turns out I'm really bad at that when I work from home. Not sure how I'm going to track that, but I'll work it out. I think I'm going to try to do S&S tonight, but not sure if I will or not, depends on what else comes up.

 

 

[Suzaqu]

MyFlex initial assessment photos! (3/29/20)

 

Splits - I swear my legs felt straight when I was doing them  I'm an open splits kind of person, so this was a new, painful experience

 

Middle splits- never really could do these

 

Pancake - really never could do these, with my lack of ability to touch my toes and lack of middle split

 

 

Bridge - my head is still on the ground, I never have been able to push up into a bridge, I'm guessing shoulder strength/flexibility is probably part of it. From looking at the picture, I'm definitely beyond my active shoulder range, so it makes sense I couldn't push up.

 

[Elastigirl]

Thanks for sharing the pics! Interested to see your progress. Isn't it weird how you can swear your body is doing something, and then you look at the video and you weren't?

[Sloth the Enduring]

If it’s any consolation, you’re flexier than me.

[Suzaqu]

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

Thanks for sharing the pics! Interested to see your progress. Isn't it weird how you can swear your body is doing something, and then you look at the video and you weren't?

Thank you for the encouragement! It's funny, I've always thought of my left split as my better one because it is lower, but now I'm wondering if that is all due to sacrificing form on that side...camera never lies. At least now I feel pretty good about my right split, which is a new feeling and my middle split is honestly lower than I thought it would be.

 

1 hour ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

If it’s any consolation, you’re flexier than me.

Thanks  I'm just excited to have some new things to try as I feel like my flexibility has been stalled for so long, I might make short term progress, but it never seems to stick.

[Suzaqu]

Week 1 Day 1 continued:

I am not going to get S&S in today, took this as a cozy evening instead, but I did realize I want to share a fun dance-y song for each week of my challenge, because another one struck me today.

 

[WhiteGhost]

8 hours ago, Suzaqu said:

MyFlex initial assessment photos! (3/29/20)

THANK YOU for sharing those.  

[Mad Hatter]

I would absolutely not call those robot joints! Especially your hips. Great starting point!

[Suzaqu]

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

THANK YOU for sharing those.  

It was thanks to the encouragement here that I did! 

 

10 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

I would absolutely not call those robot joints! Especially your hips. Great starting point!

Thanks! I'm excited that I have so much room to grow. I have a bunch of nerve tension, so I'm glad that I will soon have a way to work on that, and hopefully make productive progress.

[Suzaqu]

Week 1 Day 2:

I worked on my hydration by keeping my water bottle at my desk full and by thinking of my plants  I have all my work plants at home right now, and so whenever i look at them and think about watering them, I used that as a reminder to water myself instead  

I also did S&S tonight. The first 20 swings felt so good, I decided to try doing 80 heavy swings and did it! I then figured I should try 8 heavy TGUs and also did it! (I figured I'd do 2 light, 6 heavy, and then 2 light if I was worn out). Whooo, leveling up! I'll probably go back to 60 and 6 for the rest of the week, but this was fun.