Dancezwithkittehz - Metamorphosis

[dancezwithkittehz]

Aaaaah I do not have time to finish this right now so this is an in progress draft-y sort of thing with almost no formatting. Soorrrrrry. Will do later!


In news... I HAS NEW JOB YOU GUYS!!!! I am trying not to go to nuts with goals since I know transitioning to new job could add to stress levels in and of itself (I officially start on the 15th but will have a few half days next week split between current and new department so that I can come back and train whoever they hire to fill my spot later!)


Goals this round:

GOAL 1, Circus abs, 3 times a week - I'd really like to actually increase to 2 circus classes a week I don't know when they are launching the new schedule that will supposedly have more night classes. For now Monday class plus two intense ab workouts at home per week will do just fine. And I'll make Friday class when I can but it tends to conflict with traffic as well as evening plans with work people. #commuterproblems

GOAL 2, Pull Ups, I want to do them!, pull up work 3 times a week -

Where I'd like these to be by the end of the challenge is:
 

Part A. My progress on this seems to go slowly so if I can get to where I can do just ONE assisted pull up (not just an assisted negative) by the end of this challenge I would be thrilled
 

Part B. Dead hang chin up with no assistance by end of challenge would be AMAZING, but I will settle for being able to do a set of 10 assisted chin ups (I can only do 2-3 in a row right now. If these were 10 dead hang and not from ground that'd be even awesomer!)

Goal 3, Push up! MOAR PUSH UPs! push up work 3 times a week -

By the end of the challenge I'd like to get to where I can do a set of 10 in a row (long term goal is 30, but I think that's going to take more than 6 weeks!) I can currently do about 5. My progress on these seems to go faster than pull ups so I will adjust this up if need be!


Life Goals:

DEBT PAY DOWN! - I'll be making more money now. I want to pretend like I'm really not making more money and pay down my credit cards first before fun timez!

Re-arrange the bat cave - some serious decluttering needs to happen ya'll!

MORE MUSIC - try to listen to new music once a week at least and try to make it to a concert at least every other month (pending I find ones I want to go to.) I already have Coachella tickets ready for next year and I will be doing Lightning in a Bottle again and I am going to Low End Theory Festival in August. Soooo if I don't find something for June/July I'll be OK with that!

[Lilith]

Congratulations with your new job! I'm excited for you and I hope you will have a great first day the 15^th!

 

Your debt idea sounds good and sensible, you are already used to the income you have now, so it won't 'hurt' you to pretend you don't have more for a while. And debts can definitely hurt you! So good job on working on those!

 

Also yay for circusclass  

[dancezwithkittehz]

I am also totally going to buy myself a portable aerial rig so I can practice at home but once again that is going to wait until after more debt pay down. Yay, adulting!

[dancezwithkittehz]

WOOO CHALLENGE TIME YOU GUYS!

 

No challenge specific news yet today (but aerial tonight woo!)

 

I would however like to share that planning for my 31st birthday is in progress and I have decided to have a unicorn kitten themed karaoke party (at a dive bar, naturally.)

 

[Lilith]

 

Sounds like the BEST party theme ever! 

[dancezwithkittehz]

Ugh. This week has been crazy times. Last week at my job of six years and trying to wrap up ALL THE THINGS and I worked half and half between my new and old offices for half the week. Exercise definitely got thrown on the back burner a bit to avoid totally overwhelming myself. I still got in 2 out of 3 of the workouts I wanted to do but not as intensely as I would have liked!

 

Also, they added more classes at my aerial studio woohoo! But the new late enough for me advanced beginner is on dance day, and dance = my happy time so, for now I will have to skip it. They switched Monday classes a bit so I am going to try to do back to back 6:30 and 7:30 classes. The 6:30 will be advanced beginner and the 7:30 is an adv beg/intermediate people combined choreography class. I would love to do multiple aerial days throughout the week, but this will be better than just one class per week! Definitely expecting to struggle with my body adjusting to two classes in one night, but it will be worth it!

[Lilith]

Crazy times are just that, crazy 2 workouts is great I think, it's exactly what I do now that I'm so busy, I aim for 2 workouts (stronglifts) per week, and if I make 3 then that's great, but if I don't I don't care at all. 2 is fine. 

 

Yay for extra classes  

[dancezwithkittehz]

Day 3 of new job! All is going well!

For this week my goals are coming along well so far (especially since it's only Wednesday.) I'm not sure if I should count back to back aerial as two workouts so I am going to count as one for now since I want to try and get workouts on three different days not just 3 in a week all on the same day or something! Anyway:

 

Goal 1, Circus Abs 3x per week (2 out of 3 so far)- double-aerial on Monday (1), and dance this week was very ab heavy (2) 

 

Goal 2, Pull Up Work 3x per week (1 out of 3 so far) - double-aerial on Monday. so much pulling. my arms huuurt ya'll! tonight there may be hanging depending on how dead my muscles feel when I try

 

Goal 3, Push Up Work, 3x per week (0 out of 3 so far) - hmmm I could maybe count aerial on this but I didn't do anything push up specific other than incidental arm work from doing lots of plank type things. Dance likewise we did a lot of planky and arm stand type inversions but no enough to count it as dedicated work. push ups tonight for sure!

 

 

Life Goals:

1. Music goal is going well! Listening to tons of new music all the time! 

 

2.My debt goal is going OK but with minor setback that I lost my debit card and have to put everything on my credit cards until my debit card gets here.

 

3.  Re-arranging bat cave. This needs to happen this week. I did some minor re-arranging of bathroom for more efficient kitty box cleaning but I really want to work on the disaster that is my cluttered bedroom. Ugh.

[Lilith]

I'm glad your new job is going well! 

[dancezwithkittehz]

Wooooooo I am up to 6 push ups in a set and 4 band assisted chin ups in a set. Progress!!

[dancezwithkittehz]

Goal 1, Circus Abs 3x per week (3 out of 3 so far)- I did not expect this to count for abs but holy crap did those broad jumps do the trick. I don't think I've had ab DOMS this bad before. Owwie! (we're not even going to talk about the state of my quads today. Oww oww oww.)

 

Goal 2, Pull Up Work 3x per week (3 out of 3 so far) - I wish I'd had LONGER workouts for the second two of these, but I did some sets of inverted rows w/ front and revere grips on Thursday, plus the retesting of my AMRAP band-assisted chin up on Sunday morning (and my reps went up by one woohoo!!)

 

Goal 3, Push Up Work, 3x per week (2 out of 3 so far) - I think I only got in two days of this. I should write these things down... Considering I started a new job I am still proud that I got almost all the things done this week!  I know I did some incline push ups on I think Weds? Or Thurs? night and then I also did my AMRAP set on Sunday + a warm up incline push up set before that (and WOOOO AMRAP is up by 1!)

 

 

Life Goals:

1. Music goal is still going well!

 

2. My debt goal is getting back on track. I have a debit card again so I can use real money to pay for things instead of credit card. I'm going to have to wait for my next paycheck to make a real dent on the unexpected CC use since I had to pay my car registration ugggh

 

3.  Re-arranging the bat cave - I did some work on this both Saturday and Sunday! Still so much left to do... ugh. But progressing!

[dancezwithkittehz]

Wooohooo let's go week 3!!

 

This weeks important lesson:  884 broad jumps in one day leads to intense quad and ab DOMS!

 

Goal 1, Circus Abs 3x per week (1 out of 3 so far)- Monday night was double-aerial. All the abs! 

 

Goal 2, Pull Up Work 3x per week (1 out of 3 so far) - Double-aerial also= all the pulling!

 

Goal 3, Push Up Work, 3x per week (0 out of 3 so far) - Not yet. I think I may do some tonight during dance for if my quads are still killing me and I need a break from legs during warm up or something!

 

I am SO EXCITED about my new aerial schedule you guys!  I am doing back to back aerial, advanced beginner class followed by intermediate and advanced beginner aerial group choreography. The first class is tons of skills and conditioning and then the second class we do some skills but we work on performance and character development. I am so excited to finally start looping in my performer skills with my aerial stuff!!!!!

 

Tonight is dance. And my quads still huuuuurt. Oh the DOMS. We'll see how this goes!

 

 

 

 

[raptron]

[dancezwithkittehz]

Thank youuuuu

[dancezwithkittehz]

I think I have finalized the schedule for all of my birthday shenanigans this weekend:

 

Friday - Unicorn Kitten Birthday-oke

Saturday - Recovering from birthday-oke tequila shots and birthday dindin with the family

Sunday - Torturous desert birthday hike

 

And of course ALL THE BROAD JUMPS AND BURPEES fit in between there... It shall be an epic weekend ya'll.

[dancezwithkittehz]

Ooooooooh. Since we have no quidditch game on the holiday weekend I am postponing by BDAY torture hike until then. LET THE GAMES BEGIN YA'LL!!

 

[dancezwithkittehz]

This is the part where I realize I have been super lazy and not posting updates on my actual 6 week challenge because I am way too preoccupied with the mini challenge. I can't help it. HP NERD FOR LIFE!

 

Anywho, I know I did all my workouts last week but I didn't post them when I actually remembered what I did when soo. Yeah. Woops!  Trying to do better this week!

 

Goal 1, Circus Abs 3x per week (2 out of 3 so far)- Double aerial monday! Brutal dance warm up Tuesday. My dance teacher has been on an evil ab warm up kick, which I am TOTALLY fine with; she is super pregnant and not really doing a lot of the ab stuff anymore so she yells cues at us while dancing around to her super sassy ab song she plays. Entertaining and a great workout! I am also realizing her crunches she has us do through straddle are a PERFECT addition to make my inverted straddles get better. Woohoo!

 

Goal 2, Pull Up Work 3x per week (1 out of 3 so far) - Double-aerial on Monday!  I am going to do some dedicated pull up work tonight for 2 out of 3 for the week!

 

Goal 3, Push Up Work, 3x per week (1 out of 3 so far) - I did a set of push ups during dance last night. Not a big one since my arms were still mush from aerial on Monday. Definitely doing a solid push up work out tonight too!

 

 

Maybe I will do an ab workout along with the pushes and pulls tonight and finish it out for the week (although I will totally do some again whenever I do my day 3 of pull/push work!)

 

in other news THEY ADDED A SATURDAY ADV. BEGINNER CLASS YAAAAAAAY. I so want to take it.  It's cancelled this Saturday for the holiday but next week! If I can afford it. Bills are a little wonky since I had to put things on my credit cards when my new debit card was in the mail. This should be remedied by next paycheck!

[dancezwithkittehz]

Sooooo yeah. My work out last night did NOT happen. I think I just need to remember that Wednesdays I need a rest day (especially on shark week when my muscles are in weak like a kitten mode!) I busted out a LOT on Monday and Tuesday in spite of shark week though, so it's been a good week:

 

1. In aerial in spite of weakness and lack of endurance I still managed to get through all of the combos she threw at us, even if I had to do it on the ground and had to break it up into stages! I really worked hard on some stupidly basic but totally necessary foundational work also, so inspite of not being "interesting" I made some progress on eliminating bad habits; I realize since I am lazy AND afraid of heights and don't take things UP after learning them on the ground, that I actually couldn't remember how to get into double-foot locks in the air.

 

2. I also really appreciate that I learned alternating classic climb, which is evil torture and takes forever to get up the silk but is EXCELLENT practice on the more air time thing and I need to do it more!  She had us step up on climb on right leg, unwrap and straddle legs out, switch to left leg for the next step up, and repeat alternating from side to side. It's so simple yet so killer compared to normal classic climb!

 

3. I also tenaciously kept at it and managed to do knee hang, which I have done before but I just could. not. brain and figure it out for some reason. I learned if I can't figure something out it's good to take a break and go do something else then come back. And then I nail it first try like magic? Winning!

 

Dance this week was extra therapeutic! Shark week for me leads to anxiety and getting stuck in my head and overthinking EVERYTHING so awesome choreography to just throw myself into is such a relief. Up until when I got completely exhausted by the end I was really nailing the choreography and hitting all the precise detail things which I don't always manage so WOOHOO. (This was a really fast and footy combo that was deceptively simple in some ways but also had a ton of detail and finesse moments to hit. LOVE IT.) And also "Pursuit of Happiness" by Kid Cudi is just a badass song anyway so yeah WHEEE.

 

Anyway, so even if I was too weak to do more than 2 push ups last night, it's been a good week!!!

[raptron]

Very nice work with your choreography + silks! PRODUCTIVE PRACTICES ARE THE BEST.

[dancezwithkittehz]

Truth!!!!

 

I am sooo lucky to have such an amazing dance teacher that is constantly throwing out weird and cool choreography. I am going to have major withdrawals when she takes a break coming up soon (baby on the way.)

 

Maybe it will make ME actually choreograph some though! Hidden benefits? Haha

[Lightning]

It sounds good to be Dancezwithkittehz!  You are doing all the cool things!  Love the push up and pull up part of your challenge.  I'm focusing on those as well because they are badass moves and I look cool when I do them .  

 

Glad to hear you had something to help with the Shark Week anxiety.  So much winning!!

[dancezwithkittehz]

 

I am glad I was able to think about all the good things this week and not get all mopey and anxiety ridden (not too much anyway!)

 

In other news WOOHOO got my AMRAP for hanging leg raises up to 15. I really really need to do a wrap of gaffers or something around my pull up bar tho. I had put a different tape on there to make it grippier but it's TOO grippy and hurts my hands. My arms and abs feel like jello tho. Success!!

[dancezwithkittehz]

I think I've said this before but I LOVE MY NEW AERIAL CHOREOGRAPHY CLASS. It is SO much fun.

 

Last night we started with climbing roulette (good enough name anyway) We had two piles of folded up papers, one stack with a bunch of different climbs, and one stack with different feelings and emotions. We'd pick two of the climbs out and one of the feeling/emotions cards out and then we had to do what we'd picked. Some of our combinations we ended up with:

 

Russian climb or classic climb, Angelic

Russian Flirt or inverted straddle climb, bitterness

bicycle climb or crochet climb, sleazy

 

Sooooooo much fun. The sleazy ones we all had way too much fun with and lots of dying laughing and probably annoying everyone in the aerial yoga studio plus the other class in the main studio buuuut we were really getting into the performing so they'll deal!!!

 

The last part of class we usually have to choreograph a short sequence (3 moves. short!) with a specific goal in mind.  After 10-15 min choreography time we all sit down and then go one at a time (and she turns off the regular lights and turns on the performance lights!)

 

This weeks goal was choreographing in some kind of element of suspense. Since this was a little more obscure goal she did give us an idea to start with which is good because my brain was dead. She suggested you can always go with acting like you are bad at something and then the suspense/surprise is that you can actually do stuff. Most of the class, myself included, ended up going with that but what each person did was different and it was fun to watch what people came up with!!!

 

I LOVE THIS CLASS!

[dancezwithkittehz]

Oh heeeeey. Look who got lazy about posting in her own thread... I blame Nerdwarts for being too entertaining. 

 

In spite of posting laziness I am really happy with my progress on all of these goals!

 

GOAL 1, Circus abs, 3 times a week - Success! And I can tell all the ab work is paying off. I am getting so much ab control now and I can feel it in aerial and dance and it is AWESOME!

 

Also I FINALLY managed an inverted cross back straddle. FINALLY. Yesterday in fact!

GOAL 2, Pull Ups, I want to do them!, pull up work 3 times a week -

Where I'd like these to be by the end of the challenge is:
 

Part A. I wanted to get to where I can do at least 1 band-assisted pull up, and I can!!! Yay! Just one. But one is a start!
 

Part B. I wanted to get to 10 assisted chin ups. I didn't quite hit 10 but I made it to 8 (or was it 7?) and that is twice as many as I could do at the start of this challenge so I am satisfied! I also started working on sets with less band assistance and can do 3 reps, so that is also awesome! (I had a combo of a thick band + a thin band I was doing before. Now I am using just the thick band. Next up with be just the thin band once I can get out over 5 with the current set up!)

Goal 3, Push up! MOAR PUSH UPs! push up work 3 times a week -

I wanted to get to where I could do 10 push ups in a row. I am allllllmost there. I can do 8. I know I will be at 10 soon!


Life Goals:

DEBT PAY DOWN! - This is going decently in spite of issues of having to use my credit card when I lost my debit card for a bit mid challenge. Ugh. I've also now booked my flight for camp, and final camp payment will be soon. Then I will no longer have any reason to be putting anything on my cards. (I've decided to pay the amount I would be paying on rent if I had to pay rent and put that towards my credit cards every month.)

Re-arrange the bat cave - Made progress on this but still so much more to do... ugh!

MORE MUSIC - I am soooo winning on this life goal. I listen to music all the time including lots of new stuff!

 

 

 

Now to plot for the next challenge!!!!! I think circus and dance will definitely be involved and I want to start working on running to prepare for next year's goal of Spartan Trifecta!