Tag: progress

A cartoon drawing of a woman in plank position trying to do a push-up. Christine’s arms are apparently quite stubborn
ADHD · fitness · strength training

Christine’s arms are apparently quite stubborn

Christine Hennebury2 Comments

Ok, maybe stubborn isn’t quite the right word.

Perhaps they are protecting me or something?

I don’t actually speak arm so I am just guessing here.

What am I talking about?

Well, you see, I have been diligently following the Hybrid Calisthenics exercise program since early July and, as a result, I have done a lot of pushups against the wall and leaning against my kitchen counter. 

In fact, I have done 705 pushups in total, 90 of which were done (in 3 sets of 30) on Monday morning against my kitchen counter.

I am really proud of myself and I feel powerful and strong as I do each set. (Well, for most of the set anyway!)

And I am also proud of the fact that I am not overthinking the program, I’m just following along and trusting the process. (This is kind of a new thing for me because my brain is always trying to leap ahead and ‘What about…’ every detail of anything new.)

But this weekend I got a little bit curious about whether, after all of those wall and counter push-ups, I might be able to do a single push-up (in good form) on the floor.

I was really hoping to execute it easily and feel the same kind of ‘look at me using my muscles!’ power that I feel when pushing off from the counter.

So, I rolled out my yoga mat on my bedroom floor and got down on my hands and toes, arms extended, and tried to lower myself down to the floor… 

That’s when I got a big nope from my arms.

In fact, they flatly refused to bend at all. 

A cartoon drawing of a woman in plank position trying to do a push-up.
See? So stubborn! Image description: a black and white cartoon-style drawing of me having a conversation with my arms while trying to do a push-up. The drawing shows my head, upper shoulders, and arms and I am in plank position on a flowered yoga mat. I have my hair in a ponytail and I am wearing a dark coloured tee-shirt. I am saying ‘Look, Arms, can you just try bending a little?” And a speech balloon at my elbow says, “Nope!” The drawing is resting on a small grey easel-like stand that is printed like an octopus tentacle.

I wasn’t testing if I had the strength, I was essentially trying to figure out how to encourage my elbows to bend and let me lower myself to the floor.

I tried to coax myself into it, tried to remind myself that I had lots of strength now and that I only had to do one push-up but still my arms were having none of it. 

Normally, I would find that extremely frustrating but, instead, I felt curious.

I knew I probably had the strength to do a floor push-up but for some reason it just wasn’t happening.

What was getting in my way?

Why couldn’t I get my arms to bend?

I don’t generally have any reluctance about getting on the floor.

I don’t mind lying face down for child’s pose, to start cobra, or to do stretches so it’s not specifically about getting close to the floor or anything. 

Maybe it had something to do with not trusting my arms to hold me up?

Maybe I was unconsciously protecting my shoulder or my neck or something?

I’ve been mulling it over ever since and I still have no idea why that mechanical action just wasn’t available.

But in the course of writing this, I realized that I might have had more success if I had started that push-up in a different part of the process.

Maybe my arms would be more cooperative if I started out at the bottom of the push-up – lying on the mat with my hands by my shoulders and my elbows pointing up – my arms would be willing to try pushing myself up to plank position.

So, I’ll give that a try the next time I’m on my mat. 

Other than that satisfy-my-curiosity attempt, though, I think I will just keep working through the program and see how I feel about more floor pushups once I get to them.

Perhaps the process of lowering my incline over time and gradually getting closer and closer to the floor will override whatever made my arms so reluctant to bend on this first try.

But if I still find my arms are locked and stubborn at that point in the program then I’ll try digging around in my brain to find the problem. 

No need to do that sort of excavation when the problem may yet solve itself, hey?

I’ll let you know how it goes.

accessibility · yoga

Lululemon might still be a little bit evil but now they are also plus sized evil!

Sam B5 Comments

Scrolling through my social media newsfeed, I saw this ad. With this picture.

cerulean blue Wunder Train High-Rise Tight 25"

I was shocked when I clicked and discovered the leggings were made by Lululemon. At that size? It seemed so unlikely.

I’m only sort of joking about the evil

Over the years I’ve gone from thinking that Lululemon is BAD ( Just walk slowly away from that rack of $100 yoga pants) to thinking they are an annoying company (Is Lululemon trying to annoy me?) to buying their leggings when I could find my size online. Sell-out, I know. But I love their high waist Align. In black. Size 14 please. Thanks Ann!

And now you plus sized friends can have them too. Wow.

When did this happen?

I searched online and saw news coverage from about a week ago. Lulu spokespeople saying smart things. Like “Inclusion is a journey, and we know we have work to do.”

See Lululemon Is Expanding Their Sizing & I Can’t Wait To Finally Try Their Leggings.

Under its old CEO Chip WIlson Lululemon had shunning larger women as part of its brand strategy.

I’m glad to see that’s changed.

They’re still not perfect if you prefer your capitalism with consistency, see here: ‘This is peak 2020’: Multi-billion dollar sportswear company Lululemon is ridiculed for promoting a ‘woke’ class on ‘resisting capitalism’ while selling its signature yoga pants for $128.

But they are lovely leggings and yoga pants and I’m glad they now go up to size 20.

Aikido · martial arts · motivation

This is how I feel sometimes about Aikido

Sam B6 Comments

I do lots of sports I’m pretty okay at. After all, being good at something makes it more fun. That’s part of what attracts us to the physical activities we choose. I’m a reasonably decent cyclist and I thrive on the intensity of Crossfit workouts. Speed and strength are my friends. Coordination, grace, and artful movement, not so much.

It’s a challenge sometimes for me to stick with Aikido because I find it so hard. I find myself thinking that I’d make bigger gains doing something else. But there are also rewards that come from doing something that’s difficult for you. So much more to learn. And I do get better. Just slowly. One basic movement at a time.