core training

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Guess What I Did After Cirque Fit….

Published February 18, 2013 by Susan Woodward

Yeah, Cirque Fit was its usual killer class…complete with 51 pushups for my birthday, and an extra held down in place before pushing back up for good luck.  Thanks, Will!!  🙂

However, tonight was very, very different for me.  I don’t know if it was because I was pumped from red meat for dinner (Illy took me out for my birthday…thanks, Illy!!) or from the chocolate mousse dessert, but whatever it was, I wasn’t ready to settle down when I pulled into the parking lot at home.   I decided to…gasp…use the apartment complex’s fitness center!!!  AFTER Cirque Fit!!!

I have been at the Westview Commons Apartments for three years, and this is only the second time I have used it.

I ran my purse and bags up to my apartment where I discovered that my son, Joe, had forgotten to take out the garbage like I’d asked.    We usually drive back to the dumpsters in the back of the complex (about a quarter mile from our apartment) on our way out, but I decided to walk it back there tonight.

So I walked the quarter mile in the snapping cold air to take out the trash.  While I was walking, I looked up at the stars… the sky is pretty clear tonight.  I saw Orion with his bow and thought about the endurance of a hunter when stalking his prey.  I remembered when I had NO endurance whatsoever, and the thought of walking to the dumpster was unheard of.   I also thought about how clear my lungs felt in the cold air now that they aren’t saturated with smoke…and I felt even more pumped to stop at the fitness center.

I just happen to have one of those little key bob thingys on my key chain to get in!

fitness center

I started out on the elliptical, thinking that getting my heart rate back up was a good idea.  I was already pumping a bit from my walk across the complex, so why not keep going.  Guess who did one mile in 12:15??  ME!!!  That has to be a personal record for me!!!  Once I finished that, I thought to myself, “Well…why not keep going?  You’re here…”

fitness center 2

You see that machine in the back?  That’s what I did next.  First, I got up on my forearms to do leg tucks and lifts…to practice L-sits for tomorrow.  Will, I did 15 tucks and 15 lifts!!  I then went to the rear of the machine where you pull weights in with your forearms.  Since we’d been doing lots of upper body stuff in Cirque Fit, I thought 30 pounds might be a good place to put the metal peg.  I managed 10 reps before my arms said, “Ok, you fool…that’s enough!”  So then I moved on to the last part of the machine: pushing weights with the arms.  I also did 10 reps in the two different positions offered on the machine.  I couldn’t figure out how to do the leg lift part of it, so I figured I’d just wait till another day.

I was pooped by then.

A hot shower and hot cinnamon/honey water later, here I am to tell the tale!

Oh…and by the way… I purchased an Aerial Arts of Rochester sweatshirt today, and it’s TWO SIZES SMALLER than sweatshirts I have purchased in the past ten years (I had been purchasing men’s XL sweatshirts…can you say men’s MEDIUM, please??).

Just thought I’d throw that out there…

Cirque Fit, then Butternut Squash Soup with Lentils and Kale!

Published February 4, 2013 by Susan Woodward

Soup has always been one of those comfort things I turn to when I am tired, sick, sore, or just want something that makes me feel all cozy…and the chunkier the soup the better!

After the emotional day I had yesterday, along with the lack of sleep, I really REALLY had to drag myself to Cirque Fit tonight.  And also still nursing a sore knee (it hurt more the day after I fell than it did the day it happened…), so I did the very best that I was able to do today.

I have had to modify a lot, but even with all the modifications, I still feel much stronger than I have in years.  While a cannot jump up and down like a frog, I do bounce on the balls of my feet.  I can’t get my knees up all that high while attempting to jog in place, but I can do a modified quick-march that gets my heart rate up, and that’s the point.  I’ve had to go back to my knees for push-ups for now because the plank position hurts the knee…but I am doing more push-ups!

Modification, schmodification!  I can still feel the difference in my calves (not only in the burning sensation while bounding for what seems like a half hour, but in the decrease of flabbiness that was once there!), and I can really feel it in my shoulders and arms.  I am even getting a little “bump” in my bicep!  Granted, it’s a little bump, but I am just as proud of that bump akin to a three week pregnant woman who is dying to wear maternity clothes  because she believes she’s “showing” already (yeah… that was me at one time…or two…or three…or…four….orrrr….fiiive…!), but a bump is a bump, damn it!

I had to sit out for the push-you-pull-me part of the session, but I used the time with my back flat against the wall with my feet stretched out in front of me…and my arms/shoulders pressed flat against the wall with my hands making a “goal post” (I threw that in as a visual in honor of the Big Game that I didn’t watch yesterday).  I held that position all through the rest of the class’  first two rounds of pulling each other across the room, and man, were my shoulders burning!  So instead of using the shoulders to pull and push a partner around, I got a similar benefit and still got to baby my knee.

By the time I got home, I was ready for some cuddly comfort on the couch with my soup and my laptop to tell you all about it!  Tonight’s concoction? (actually leftover from yesterday and that much better!)…  Butternut Squash soup with lentils and kale… YUM!

Easy, peasy, lemon-squeezy!  I poured a box of pre-made organic butternut squash soup (courtesy of Wegman’s) and added a package of steamed lentils (go, Trader Joe’s).  After cooking that a bit, I added two chopped tomatoes and three handfuls of chopped kale.   Throw in some curry and cayenne and let it simmer till the kale is tender.  Delicious!

So right now I am going to relax with my soup and congratulate myself for what I WAS able to do instead of berating myself for what I COULDN’T.   I showed up, I participated, and that is a triumph in itself!

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