Battle Kitten: Ascension

[fleaball]

16 minutes ago, Severine said:

Oh hell yeah. Awareness of disproportionate mental/emotional reaction to a thing very rarely stops the reaction from happening, but it does open the fun fun gateway into self-critical meta-analysis! I totally understand. Your therapist might have actual constructive things to say, but all I've got is "that happens to me too" and "your brain is wrong and you're awesome." 

 

...shiiiit. she's totally given me techniques to calm the fuck down that are totally written on my phone and that I never remember even exist. Thanks for reminding me. >_> Now that the anxiety crisis has past I'm totally settled into "I don't have to go and it's fine and she'll understand." I still feel a teeny bit awkward about it because I have issues with saying no in general, but that's a separate issue. High five because you are awesome too. 

[fleaball]

Today in "I can't sleep so I'm gonna google shit to see if it exists:" bisexualitea. I can't decide if it actually sounds tasty though.

[Owlet]

3 hours ago, fleaball said:

Today in "I can't sleep so I'm gonna google shit to see if it exists:" bisexualitea. I can't decide if it actually sounds tasty though.

LOL

[RES]

8 hours ago, fleaball said:

"she's being so nice about it, now you have to go!

NO, you do not! She genuinely means that!

[fleaball]

Arrrrrgh. RSVP went in the mail today. Therapist agreed with all of you as usual. Texted my friend to say I'm sorry but I can't make it. Was pleased with myself. Happened to look at my phone at 6:34 and she read the message at 6:28. Immediate reaction was "fuck, she's pissed." And like, that feeling where your stomach drops when you get to the top of the roller coaster and realize you're fucked. (For some reason my therapist has also been asking me how I feel physically when emotions kick in so you're probably going to see more of that as I try to stay conscious of it.) I'm not going to freak out. There are a million and one reasons to have read it and not replied and I have other shit to worry about at this point. (As I'm posting this now it's 9:27 and I still haven't heard anything. Read receipts are the worst.)

 

I'm being a super grownup and cancelling my appointment Friday. The student health center has fucked up my referral 3 times now (different information wrong each time) and since my new insurance coverage starts August 1st I'll need all new referrals for anyone I'm currently seeing anyway, so I'm just going to wait til I can get a new one instead of asking, again, for them to fix it because they're just not getting it. >> 

 

That really wasn't necessary to share but I needed to say it to someone. Rawr. I need new (local) friends because I am tired of listening all the time and never being heard myself. Of course going out and making friends requires actually going out and doing things. Which, ha. 

 

I really don't want to do econ. Don't make me. Maybe I'll go throw money at GMB and poke around their forums while I'm at it. Yeah, that sounds fun. And then I just won't do any of the workouts anyway because the heat index is supposed to be at or above 100 degrees the next several days. Whee. (Fuck DC.)

 

ETA: I know I have like 3 days of challenge stuff left. But they're hard. Shh. 

ETA2: High fives to everyone. Just for existing.

[Owlet]

1 hour ago, fleaball said:

I'm not going to freak out. There are a million and one reasons to have read it and not replied and I have other shit to worry about at this point. (As I'm posting this now it's 9:27 and I still haven't heard anything. Read receipts are the worst.)

Omg, whoever decided it would be cool to let you know when your text has been read - I would like to punch them so hard. Also, everyone should disable this on their phone. But also, just reply to the damn text. I have certain friends who won't reply for days, but I know for a fact they are glued to their phone and they have plenty of time to take Instagrams and put the perfect filter on their photos... ok wow apparently I feel quite strongly about this. I'll stop ranting on your thread now lol.

 

1 hour ago, fleaball said:

I need new (local) friends because I am tired of listening all the time and never being heard myself. Of course going out and making friends requires actually going out and doing things. Which, ha. 

Yup. I kind of feel like everyone should talk less and listen more. Maybe that's why social media is so popular - it allows people to just shout about themselves and not listen to anything unless they choose to. I'm so disillusioned today. This was meant to be a positive post lol. But seriously, good on you for sending off the RSVP. Great success  

[Severine]

If it helps, usually when I don't reply to a text right away it's because I'm trying to think of what to say and worried that the thing I was first inclined to say is somehow totally wrong.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[fleaball]

1 hour ago, Owlet said:

Omg, whoever decided it would be cool to let you know when your text has been read - I would like to punch them so hard. Also, everyone should disable this on their phone. But also, just reply to the damn text. I have certain friends who won't reply for days, but I know for a fact they are glued to their phone and they have plenty of time to take Instagrams and put the perfect filter on their photos... ok wow apparently I feel quite strongly about this. I'll stop ranting on your thread now lol.

I'm chalking it up to her being crazy busy and forgetting to reply. I'm pretty over it right now. I definitely have it disabled on my phone. You're always welcome to rant here! God knows that's all I do. =P 

 

1 hour ago, Owlet said:

Yup. I kind of feel like everyone should talk less and listen more. Maybe that's why social media is so popular - it allows people to just shout about themselves and not listen to anything unless they choose to. I'm so disillusioned today. This was meant to be a positive post lol. But seriously, good on you for sending off the RSVP. Great success  

You can be my new roommate and we can sit on the porch together yelling at kids to get off our lawn. 

 

38 minutes ago, Severine said:

If it helps, usually when I don't reply to a text right away it's because I'm trying to think of what to say and worried that the thing I was first inclined to say is somehow totally wrong.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

I've totally done the same. But I'm not really concerned anymore so it's all good. 

 

 

After spending several hours in a black hole on YouTube, I'm finally going to bed before I impulse buy Broadway tickets. kbye.

[Owlet]

1 hour ago, fleaball said:

You can be my new roommate and we can sit on the porch together yelling at kids to get off our lawn. 

Heck yes! 

Hmm google only provides lawn gifs of old white men and this woman. Apparently young people have no reason to shout at kids on the lawn.

1 hour ago, fleaball said:

I'm chalking it up to her being crazy busy and forgetting to reply.

Yeah I'd say that's highly likely. I just got sidetracked lol. 

 

1 hour ago, fleaball said:

You're always welcome to rant here!

You may live to regret saying this...  

[Sylvaa]

10 hours ago, fleaball said:

That really wasn't necessary to share but I needed to say it to someone. Rawr. I need new (local) friends because I am tired of listening all the time and never being heard myself. Of course going out and making friends requires actually going out and doing things. Which, ha. 

 

I really don't want to do econ. Don't make me. Maybe I'll go throw money at GMB and poke around their forums while I'm at it. Yeah, that sounds fun. And then I just won't do any of the workouts anyway because the heat index is supposed to be at or above 100 degrees the next several days. Whee. (Fuck DC.)

 

Can we be friends? I mean, technically, it's only 100 or so miles to DC for me and I need new friends too. I'm just not a very good friend (I'll totally listen, but I'm also like only available part-time).

 

Also, do the damn econ. 

[fleaball]

Blergh. Econ. Why. Why do you exist? I've spent more time staring at the question than I have thinking about it. So far I'm not finding it particularly hard, just obnoxious as fuck. But I'm lucky because it's very little math and more definitions and word problems, which I've never had a problem with. So I won't take that for granted. There's one part of my homework that I've been staring at for a while now though and I don't know if the question is wordly badly or if I'm totally missing the point. These posts are only like 10% of our grade so I'm going to force myself to just do something and submit it because I'm tired of dealing with it and there's a video game asking to be beaten.

 

My roommate ran her 5k home from work again. When it was 89 degrees with a heat index of ~97. Granted after 45 minutes at home she was still dripping sweat so I'm totally not jealous on that front, but damn. 

 

I finally bought Elements, as well as Focused Flexibility. Unfortunately as I've spent way too much time on Econ I won't get to start Elements tonight. I thought about buying 3 programs but Vitamin doesn't exactly look like something I want. :\

 

19 hours ago, Owlet said:

You may live to regret saying this...

I refuse.

 

14 hours ago, Sylvaa said:

Can we be friends? I mean, technically, it's only 100 or so miles to DC for me and I need new friends too. I'm just not a very good friend (I'll totally listen, but I'm also like only available part-time).

We are totally already friends, silly. And do you a pretty good job of listening via the matrix. =P

[athousandwords]

Your roommate is crazy. I took a 1.5mi walk in this heat yesterday and was sweating like mad when I got home (...but it was worth it to catch all the pokemon!).

Are there any GMB workouts you can do inside?  Like, with A/C?

[Jarric]

Finally caught up. I really need to check in here more often!

 

Good luck with the Econ (and equally importantly with FFX!).

 

That weather sounds miserable to run in; good for your roommate I suppose but I wouldn't want to even sit still in that heat!

 

Also, that BisexualiTea is not tea. Might be nice (I can't work that bit out either), but as a Brit I can assure you, it ain't tea mate.

[Owlet]

Ooh let us know how Elements and the other program are! Interested to hear what they're like. And screw running in that temperature. I'll take windy and rainy weather for running any day.

[fleaball]

8 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Your roommate is crazy. I took a 1.5mi walk in this heat yesterday and was sweating like mad when I got home (...but it was worth it to catch all the pokemon!).

Are there any GMB workouts you can do inside?  Like, with A/C?

She just walked about that far today. And not for pokemon. She really is insane. All the GMB stuff can be done inside. I am just reluctant to turn on the AC because the house is not well insulated (or something) and the system is crazy inefficient, so money. Although it really hasn't been that bad in the living room lately so I'll either do it down here or suck it up and turn on the AC while I'm working out. 

 

7 hours ago, Jarric said:

Finally caught up. I really need to check in here more often!

 

Good luck with the Econ (and equally importantly with FFX!).

 

That weather sounds miserable to run in; good for your roommate I suppose but I wouldn't want to even sit still in that heat!

 

Also, that BisexualiTea is not tea. Might be nice (I can't work that bit out either), but as a Brit I can assure you, it ain't tea mate.

haha you're not missing much substance. =P I'm not a huge fan of black tea and usually go for herbal shit anyway, so you'd probably frown at all my teas. 

 

21 minutes ago, Owlet said:

Ooh let us know how Elements and the other program are! Interested to hear what they're like. And screw running in that temperature. I'll take windy and rainy weather for running any day.

Will do! I was going to start today but I've had a massive headache for the past few hours that just won't go away. :\ Also they recommend starting Elements on a Sunday or Monday and who am I to turn down such a convenient excuse? 

 

 

Apparently I'm doing better at Econ than I thought. I got 48/50 on my discussion posts last week despite pulling shit out of my ass. But I won't complain. Last night after finishing the assignment I decided to play FFX a bit before I went to bed; suddenly it was 4am. So mad. I couldn't find a damn save point. Went to bed at like 430. I bought a sleep mask that arrived yesterday (there's a super bright street light opposite my window, as well as a 24-hour gas station with bright lights), wore it last night. When I woke up I figured it was maybe 10 or so. Nope, 1:50pm. Either I was more exhausted than I thought, or the lights really bothered me. I haven't slept 9 hours straight through in ages. I'm going to be pissed if it turns out the reason I've been sleeping so badly is the lights and I've just been an idiot for 6 months. I didn't think that would be the issue because my parents' house was also bright at night and I thought I was used to it.

 

I've had a bunch of like, half-formed thoughts pop into my head in the past few days. About both therapy-related stuff and health/fitness stuff. But they pop into my head and then disappear as soon as I try to explore them. Basically this happens:

 

Brain: Nutrition!

Flea: Hey yeah, what if-

Brain: Yeah sorry, don't care anymore.

 

It's really frustrating. I feel like I'm on the verge of something on several fronts and yet I can't get there. Meh. On a related note, I've been playing FFX for oh, 3 hours now? Because the final boss kept killing me. And you can't skip cutscenes in this game, so every time I had to restart I've just been doing random shit (posting here, making dinner) while the cutscenes play out. And as a result I've forgotten a lot of what I wanted to say. 

 

Oh here's a fun thing. Wednesday night roommate and I are going to dinner with the National Scholarship Coordinator from our undergrad school. (He's the one basically in charge of recruiting people to apply for the Fulbright and other big deal competitions and helping you with your applications, etc. We both got two of them and applied for others.) He emailed us and a handful of other alumni he's worked with, but we don't know any of them or know if they're going. And I'm super apprehensive about it because a.) I've totally gained like 20 pounds since the last time I saw him ugh and b.) he keeps prodding us to apply for more stuff and he's totally going to ask me what I'm up to at school and uhhh hi nothing, really. At the very least I am not involved in anything that will help on the scholarship front. I'm still gonna show up because I'm totally not letting this hold me back but ugh it's gonna be awkward. I'm currently avoiding getting down on myself for not doing anything with my life though, so there's that. 

 

Oh hey I finally beat the game. I honestly don't think I beat it before? There's definitely a saved file on my memory card at the final save point, but I wonder if it was too hard and I gave up because I definitely don't remember that ending. lol womp. 

 

Mehhhhh I have no idea what else I was going to say. I swear there was something fitness/health-related but whatever. Maybe tomorrow my brain will cooperate.

[NeverThatBored]

I hate when your brain decides to play tag with interesting breakthroughs like that. Like, you know there's something interesting in there, but you just can't grab it! 

 

I played FFX several years ago and almost got to the end, but then my memory card got erased. :/ Maybe it's just a cursed game and you finally broke the curse! 

 

I also started using a sleep mask a few weeks ago. For the first week, I thought it was making me sleep MUCH better! But then I started not sleeping as well, so I think it was just luck and not the sleep mask. It's entirely possible that you just needed sleep after staying up so late. 

[fleaball]

10 hours ago, NeverThatBored said:

I hate when your brain decides to play tag with interesting breakthroughs like that. Like, you know there's something interesting in there, but you just can't grab it! 

 

I played FFX several years ago and almost got to the end, but then my memory card got erased. :/ Maybe it's just a cursed game and you finally broke the curse! 

 

I also started using a sleep mask a few weeks ago. For the first week, I thought it was making me sleep MUCH better! But then I started not sleeping as well, so I think it was just luck and not the sleep mask. It's entirely possible that you just needed sleep after staying up so late. 

Haha could be! I think I may have beaten it because I know X-2 sort of picked up where it left off. So weird that I don't remember it. 

 

Yeah last night was not so much on the awesome sleep side. I got my hopes up and everything. 

 

So after fighting with my computer for 45 minutes because Chrome was being a dickhead and not showing the videos, I finally started Elements!

Spoiler

W1D1 is actually a pretty quick deal and the walkthrough videos take longer than the actual moves. There's wrist and shoulder warmups plus squats. Then you go through their bear/monkey/frog movements, then stretch. The first two weeks are like, establishing a baseline and getting used to everything. They sort of walk you through everything but it's not quite as guided as I thought. 

 

Good things:

• I am more flexible than I realized.
• I can get all the way into a squat and just hang out, which the guy in the video couldn't quite do all the way. 
• Both knees tend to lock up if bent too tightly for too long (like kneeling and sitting back on my heels) but I managed to avoid that while squatting. I'll poke around the interwebs and/or email the folks at GMB to figure out what's going on, but I'm hoping it's just the joints not being used to doing that shit and it will improve with time.

 

Bad things:

• My entire left side is fucked. Shoulder clicked when doing arm circles and briefly hurt, forearm currently hurts in a weird place, and my knee got a weird pinchy feeling while hanging out in a deep squat.
• I don't know where/how to put weight on my hands? Doing pushups, downward dog, crow, and the monkey/frog things here I just don't/can't spread the weight evenly in my hands. I tend to keep it all in the heels of my hands instead of pushing through my fingers or whatever it's called where your fingers meet your palm. I'm vaguely afraid of hurting myself and as a result am basically setting myself up to get hurt. The monkey and frog require you to sort of jump either to the front or the side from a squat and put all your weight on your hands while you do it. 
  • Anyone know if this is maybe a wrist issue? I have weak wrists so maybe I'm not extending enough or something idk.

Seems simple enough. I might actually stick with it!

 

I'm gonna ice my wrist (note to self: buy ginger and figure out how to make tea with it to avoid inflammation?) and eat some food while finishing my econ homework. (As far as that question I couldn't figure out, it might have been because I didn't finish all the readings. I've looked at 3 peoples' answers so far and they all mentioned the same concept that I definitely didn't read about. Womp.)

 

Goals for next week:

• Measurements and photos tomorrow
• Drink 5 750ml bottles of water every day, because I'm getting lazy about it and that needs to stop
• Do Elements every day
• Be in bed by midnight 3 nights and get out of bed at 9 am the following mornings

[fleaball]

Oh, downstairs guy, please fuck off. He texted me and roommate as I was finishing my workout (which he could probably hear) "what are you guys doing for dinner?" She's out with a friend and I said I'd just eaten. Womp. I just now got a text, roommate not included, "do you want to meet us out for drinks later?" I said "thanks but i'm taking a break from drinking for a while." I was going to say because weight loss or Spartan training or whatever if he asked (it's mostly bullshit but sounds legit), but I don't owe him an explanation. BUT THEN. His response to that is "oh, oh! What happened?" ...the fuck? Totally not an appropriate response? 

[fleaball]

Womp. Literally the first sentence of the section I hadn't read answers that econ question. Not getting a good grade this week.

 

Things I need to do this week (feel free to call me out if I haven't done them) 

• Read 2 books
• Look up high protein vegan breakfasts
• Clean my crock pot and mason jars
• Email a bunch of places regarding volunteer opportunities

I don't want to adult. Don't make me. 

[Owlet]

7 hours ago, fleaball said:

Anyone know if this is maybe a wrist issue? I have weak wrists so maybe I'm not extending enough or something idk.

Hmm not sure sorry, but those exercises will strengthen your wrists so maybe that'll solve your problem? They have a good warm up routine for wrists and arms that they suggest doing before handstands, maybe that could help. Or just email them.

 

Downstairs guy please... You either need someone who doesn't try to talk to you, or gets along really well with you/ is like-minded, or a self-contained house lol. I mean, one air conditioning unit between two separate households? That's never going to work. It's so hard to find the perfect combination of house/  house mates/ location/ rice when you're renting, ugh. 

 

Now go ADULT! lol

[Lara]

8 hours ago, fleaball said:

I tend to keep it all in the heels of my hands instead of pushing through my fingers or whatever it's called where your fingers meet your palm. I'm vaguely afraid of hurting myself and as a result am basically setting myself up to get hurt. The monkey and frog require you to sort of jump either to the front or the side from a squat and put all your weight on your hands while you do it. 

 

When you lift your legs on the monkey or frog, your hands should naturally distribute the weight. If that is not happening and you keep feeling the weight on the heel, then maybe is a lack of flexibility? Can you put your hand on the floor (or a table or whatever) and form a right angle between your hand and your forearm? If not, that maybe the problem. Anyway, I would suggest you to contact GMB, and they will help you. You can maybe send them a vid of the moves you're having trouble with so they can more easily see what is happening.

 

8 hours ago, fleaball said:

My entire left side is fucked. Shoulder clicked when doing arm circles and briefly hurt, forearm currently hurts in a weird place, and my knee got a weird pinchy feeling while hanging out in a deep squat.

 

I think this happens to everybody in different degrees. Normally the side you use more is more tense, and the side you use less is weaker. Just keep on working and it will improve.

 

I hope you'll enjoy the program and stick to it

[Severine]

What books are you reading?

 

Breakfast: black bean hash with corn, onions, walnuts ground really fine, collards (or whatever other green), and tabasco sauce. Put it on a tortilla or something if you need it mobile.

 

Re: downstairs guy. Put him on the Low Syllable Response Plan. He texts you inviting you to literally anything? Only response you need: "No thanks." Explain nothing, divulge nothing. Don't respond to follow up questions except with things like, "Long story, but I can't go. Thanks anyway." Be polite but perpetually unavailable!

[fleaball]

18 hours ago, Owlet said:

Hmm not sure sorry, but those exercises will strengthen your wrists so maybe that'll solve your problem? They have a good warm up routine for wrists and arms that they suggest doing before handstands, maybe that could help. Or just email them.

 

Downstairs guy please... You either need someone who doesn't try to talk to you, or gets along really well with you/ is like-minded, or a self-contained house lol. I mean, one air conditioning unit between two separate households? That's never going to work. It's so hard to find the perfect combination of house/  house mates/ location/ rice when you're renting, ugh. 

 

Now go ADULT! lol

There's a warmup with Elements too. I'm surprisingly decent at most of the stretches. 

 

Yeah there are several things about the setup of this downstairs apartment that make me wonder if it's entirely legal. And the housing/rental market here is fucking insane so yeah, it's rough. I'm already dreading having to look for a new place in December.

 

17 hours ago, zenLara said:

 

When you lift your legs on the monkey or frog, your hands should naturally distribute the weight. If that is not happening and you keep feeling the weight on the heel, then maybe is a lack of flexibility? Can you put your hand on the floor (or a table or whatever) and form a right angle between your hand and your forearm? If not, that maybe the problem. Anyway, I would suggest you to contact GMB, and they will help you. You can maybe send them a vid of the moves you're having trouble with so they can more easily see what is happening.

 

 

I think this happens to everybody in different degrees. Normally the side you use more is more tense, and the side you use less is weaker. Just keep on working and it will improve.

 

I hope you'll enjoy the program and stick to it

I can definitely make a right angle. I hadn't thought about taking a video though, thanks! I wonder if I'm just overthinking it and thinking I need to do it a certain way rather than letting it happen naturally. 

 

 

25 minutes ago, Severine said:

What books are you reading?

 

Breakfast: black bean hash with corn, onions, walnuts ground really fine, collards (or whatever other green), and tabasco sauce. Put it on a tortilla or something if you need it mobile.

 

Re: downstairs guy. Put him on the Low Syllable Response Plan. He texts you inviting you to literally anything? Only response you need: "No thanks." Explain nothing, divulge nothing. Don't respond to follow up questions except with things like, "Long story, but I can't go. Thanks anyway." Be polite but perpetually unavailable!

VB6 (Vegan Before 6), which I've read already, and The Forks Over Knives Plan. The latter it about switching to a vegan diet in 4 weeks. I got them mostly for the recipes but the other stuff is interesting too. They've been kicking around in my room forever and I keep renewing them without actually doing anything about it. However, there's a book called When I Say No, I Feel Guilty waiting for me to pick it up at the library, which my therapist had mentioned before that other clients had recommended to her but she hadn't read yet, and I've defininitely requested The Ethical Slut which she said is a really interesting book about polyamory but has lots of insights on relationships in general? I need it to hurry up and get here so I can scandalize the librarians. 

 

Ooh that sounds tasty. I'll try it once I go grocery shopping. 

 

Yeah, that sounds like a plan. 

 

 

---

 

Didn't take photos or measurements today. Actually remembered when I woke up, which is new, but just didn't want to. Didn't do GMB because when coming back from lunch with my roommate I rolled the shit out of my ankle and it's been sore all day. I was not tempting fate. I also took way too fucking long to finish the Econ homework that was due today. 

 

I have an appointment at student health in the afternoon. I'm not sure it's the hip flexor that's bothering me. It doesn't feel like a muscle pain. And I swear I feel a bump or something in the crease of my leg? I have no idea how to explain what the fuck is going on. I'm half afraid they'll be like "lol it's because you're fat." I'm also going to ask about my shoulder that I messed up at my friend's house, because it didn't hurt doing GMB but I managed to piss it off today while closing a window? It's funny, if I'm sick I don't get worried about it (even when I should, lawl) but if there's even the tiniest physical thing going on I get paranoid. Possibly because my mother has fibromyalgia and my father has chronic knee/back issues and I'm afraid of winding up physically limited somehow? (I literally spent last night worrying I'd be told I can't do the Spartan/can never do an OCR and shouldn't work out ever again. Which is totally unreasonable.)

 

Speaking of my parents, the night I wrote out two pages of shit for my therapist? We sped through it last week and still didn't even finish the first page. >> There may be hope for me yet. And she seemed impressed with some of my observations, which I don't know how I feel about. either way, it's funny how thinking about this stuff makes me keep thinking about it. Since my appointment with her Wednesday I've had a few random thoughts jump into my head even when I'm doing something completely unrelated. I won't complain if it's going to make this shit easier though. 

 

Got my 5 bottles of water today. Boom.

[NeverThatBored]

I'm not familiar with the GMB movements, but with yoga at least there's a specific way to put the weight more in your fingers. I had some wrist issues until I learned to do it properly.

 

Basically, there's a sort of dip in your hands around where your palm/wrist meet, and there are a lot of nerves in that little spot. You're supposed to avoid putting all of your weight into that spot to protect the nerves there. You do that by pressing into your fingertips and engaging them like you're trying to pull the mat in towards you. You're pulling in, not just pressing down. Doing that should naturally create a very small lift in the spot at the base of your palm/wrist (like a bead or a pea sized lift, nothing huge).  

 

I'm not sure how that applies to things outside of yoga though. 

[fleaball]

6 hours ago, NeverThatBored said:

I'm not familiar with the GMB movements, but with yoga at least there's a specific way to put the weight more in your fingers. I had some wrist issues until I learned to do it properly.

 

Basically, there's a sort of dip in your hands around where your palm/wrist meet, and there are a lot of nerves in that little spot. You're supposed to avoid putting all of your weight into that spot to protect the nerves there. You do that by pressing into your fingertips and engaging them like you're trying to pull the mat in towards you. You're pulling in, not just pressing down. Doing that should naturally create a very small lift in the spot at the base of your palm/wrist (like a bead or a pea sized lift, nothing huge).  

 

I'm not sure how that applies to things outside of yoga though. 

I'll try this! I noticed the guy in the video seemed to have his fingers bent a bit but I couldn't figure out why. Thanks

 

So the universe is apparently determined that I will not ever get in shape this year. Student Health lady thinks I strained (?) my rotator cuff, so I have an appointment with an ortho guy tomorrow to see if that's what it is/how to fix it. I asked about the Spartan and she kinda went " :| wait til you see an orthopedist and see what they say." I wouldn't be mad if I kept injuring myself training or something, but seriously everything that's happened has been random accidents. Arrrrrgh. 

 

Also the weird pain in my hip may not actually be in my hip and might be a cyst? Looks like I'm going to see a gynecologist this month after all. I am so done with medical bullshit. 

 

Needless to say I haven't done any workouts of any kind today. On water bottle #4. Alarms are set to get myself to bed and awake on time. Gonna go do some econ so I'm not scrambling to get it all done last minute.