Juliebarkley gets flexy

[Sloth the Enduring]

Stupid laundry.

[juliebarkley]

21 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Stupid laundry.

A sentiment shared by all people across time and space.

 

I did not end up feeling good enough yesterday to exercise, so I did it first thing today instead, and will do it last thing tomorrow. Good enough I hope.

 

The weather did not cooperate with my parkour rolls: not just raining but pouring off and on, often with thundery accompaniment. I did not even consider going outside. I really must give some thought to how to continue my outdoorsy stuff indoors. In only three short months I am not going to be so keen to practice outside in the snow and the freezing. I will be sad to leave my perfect handstand tree though.

 

Stretching ... is a thing I should probably think about doing right about now.

 

I have spent an ungodly amount of time deleting emails over the past few days. Around 6000 over the last three days. It's frying my brain. I ran into a bunch of notifications for NF challenges back in the early 2019s (sorry it took so long to read your updates!), featuring lots of names that I haven't seen around in a while. It's interesting - and kind of sad - that I didn't realize how many people have been missing until I saw their names again. It's so hard to notice an absence. A large wave of people disappeared right around the start of the lockdowns. I hope that they are doing okay.

 

It is also finally dawning on my how much my routines were disrupted by the return to work. I knew on an intellectual level that they would be, of course, but that is not the same as seeing things fall apart in real time. And also of course, the things that are suffering the most are not the things that longterm-planning, thinking-about-your-values-and-life-goals me would be choosing to shortchange. Managing my time better is going to have to be my challenge focus next time around. I dearly wish that I had some idea of how long I will be on my current schedule and whether I will be permitted (or required) to pick up extra hours, but that is just not how things roll in this pandemic time.

[juliebarkley]

All of my exercise was very late in the day today. I went for another night walk, dodging puddles on the road in front of my house. It was too muddy for rolls though. Scheduled exercise happened nice and late, as planned. It was also the will-I-move-up-or-not day, so here is where I am currently sitting (all will be 3 reps of 4 to start at the next session):

 

Squats: Assisted One-Legged Squats - sticking with it, but with less assistance next time around. Instead of one hand on the seat of the assisting chair and one on the arm, both will be on the arm.

Pullups: Eccentric Pullups - new, and I think it will be okay but we shall see

Handstand Pushup: Decline Diamond Military Presses - new, and since I found the regular decline military presses pretty easy, I don't think they'll be a big challenge

Leg Raise: Hanging Knee Raises - new; the previous variation was so easy that I am hoping this one is challenging!

Pushup: Diamond Pushup - sticking with it. I plain forgot this part of the program a few times, which didn't help.

Dips: Elevated Leg Bench Dips - new. The previous variation was one-legged, and I was doing the full number on each leg, which was probably overkill for my arms. This could potentially be easier than what I was doing.

Horizontal Pull: Inverted Rows Legs Straight - repeating this one for sure. It's still pretty bad.

Plank: Arm and Leg Lift Plank - repeating. I am getting more stable and less like I am balancing on a fun house ladder, but I still detest this plank variation. It does not even feel like it is working my core, just making the supporting leg and arm extra tired. Meh.

 

There was no stretching today. However, I was pleased to note that I have some muscle soreness in my back/shoulder area which feels like the muscles I was trying to activate for pullups (lats? maybe? Naming muscles is not my superpower). That is a hopeful sign for future pullups.

[juliebarkley]

My challenge goals have been sucking this week.

 

Tuesday - no walk, no rolls, no stretching, no nothing. It might have started raining shortly after I got home - I seem to recall a storm warning. It has been raining a lot lately.

Wednesday - no walk, no rolls, no stretching, no exercise day, no nothing. This time though, it was a simple lack of time and energy. I got home, ate food, had a last-minute Scout meeting, half hour break, then D&D for another three hours. I was feeling pretty tired physically and mentally by the end of that session and exercise seemed utterly impossible.

Today - nothing yet. It has been raining a lot, so no walk or rolls, but I WILL get the stretching done.

 

I really wish (for entirely selfish reasons) that whoever is going to quit or retire due to Covid would just hurry up and do it already so that work has some idea of how many people they have to work with. I'm finding it mentally wearing having to be always prepared to be uprooted and shuffled around without warning. At least my work itself is low-stress by design. I can only imagine how hard it is to be one of the ones figuring out how to open libraries or plan out how to provide services right now.

[juliebarkley]

Did exercise today; yay! It was a close-run thing; I got distracted by cleaning out the bathroom cupboard and drawers, and tried to tell myself it was too late, but resisted.

 

I got some rolls done too! And one set of stretches.

 

I did a little cleaning as well, and now I am once again an allergic mess. Dumb dust allergy.

[WhiteGhost]

4 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

but resisted.

Woohoo!  You show those brain weasels who's boss!

[juliebarkley]

17 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Woohoo!  You show those brain weasels who's boss!

I'm having trouble thinking of a witty reply, so let's just pretend the weasel ate it.

 

Only one session of stretching, but it was a lot of fun! In a few of the stretches that have come up more often, I do feel like there has been progress over the course of the challenge. Tomorrow is benchmark day!

 

Rolls were good at the time, but left me feeling off for two hours afterwards. However, this is the first time in a long time I have been so badly affected. Not so long ago, this much rolling would have made me feel bad every time, guaranteed.

 

Today has been a load of frustration (broken website, boo) followed by a series of boring but necessary administrative tasks. Time for some board games, then bed.

[juliebarkley]

Goals!

 

Daily posting was excellent. I missed maybe 1-2 days. I did not manage to exercise every day I was supposed to, or do rolls every day, or do all the stretching I planned to every day. The rolls were not too bad - I mostly missed due to weather. The others though, bleah. I mostly have no excuses. I have not even done my exercise for today yet and probably won't.

 

Now for the fun stretching and pullup benchmarks! Spoilered for length.
 

Spoiler

 

Chinup:

     Start: I got through all four levels of the challenge benchmark test, but cannot to do a full chinup. I can get about halfway up with hands in supine position, and very nearly all the way up in neutral position. I am using rings, so my pull work is done almost entirely from neutral position.

     End: I can do a full pullup from the base position with my knees on the ground with both pullup an chinup grip. From a dead hang, I can still not get myself up, though I can at least bend my arms a little.

Toe Touch:

     Start: about 37cm; I measured with a knotted string, so it may not be perfectly accurate. I could touch the ground with fingertips pretty flat.

     End: 45cm. My hands are a little flatter than the first time though, so I suspect my measurement was off the first time.

V Sit and Reach:

     Start: 1cm.

     End: 13cm.

Forward Splits:

     Start: 126cm left, 129cm right

     End: 146cm left, 147cm right

Centre Splits:

     Start: 128cm

     End: 149cm

Trunk Rotation:

     Start: left 46cm, right 46cm; this was hard to judge as I had to keep my arms the same distance apart and back as straight as I could, but moving out of position was very easy.

     End: left 35cm, right 37cm; this is probably more accurate than the first time as I was not measuring myself. I still think this one is very hard to measure accurately.

Trunk Extension:

     Start: 44cm

     End: 48cm

Back Scratch:

     Start: right 10cm, left 5cm

     End: right 11.5cm, left 4cm

Shoulder Rotation:

     Start: 85cm

     End: 77cm. However, I could not return to the front again. I don't remember if that was a requirement I put on my first measurement.

Straight Leg Raise:

     Start: left 80cm, right 80cm - but I don't trust my measurer's measurements.

     End: left 83 cm, right 84 cm. Done with pointed toes both times. I am not certain that we are measuring from the same place as last time. This time we used the convenient crease that runs across the top of my feet to the ankle bones. The improvement seems about right.

Butterfly Stretch:

     Start: 6cm, but I don't think it's physically possible to go farther without cutting pieces off of my thighs. My legs are flat against each other along their whole length.

     End: 6cm. As I said before, I don't think improvement in the heel-to-groin distance is anatomically possible. So I tried a new measurement: I kept my back straight, leaned forward, and measured nose-to-floor distance: 51 cm.

 

 

I was ... not expecting such an improvement in the leg stretches, but they were all consistently much better than the start, so it can't be faulty measurements. I was not even putting very much time into it. Wow. I'm really happy with the improvements!

 

Next challenge I would like to continue improving stretching and pullups, plus working on exercise consistency. But I really need to give myself a schedule and work on my time management. It's been terrible since I went back to work. I'll have a new challenge up soon - maybe tomorrow even!

[raptron]

Those stretch improvements are huge! Woo! 

[juliebarkley]

12 hours ago, raptron said:

Those stretch improvements are huge! Woo! 

Thanks! It's got to be easier to make improvements from a low baseline, so I don't want to get too excited, but at the same time I was pretty excited to see the numbers.

 

New challenge up!

 

https://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/117335-juliebarkley-plays-with-time/