Blade Day 1
If I were to choose a word to describe my initial feelings on Blade, it would be Humbled. I am so humbled. I left Novice 2.0 with such confidence and self assuredness, and today has been anything but what I planned.
To start, my two youngest kids woke up at 6:10am, so instead of getting dressed and drinking my tea, I was trying to get them back in bed. I know a day that starts with them up so early will be fraught with tantrums, fighting, and overtiredness that causes all kinds of behavior that I’d rather not experience on my Monday. So we went back to bed.
When we were finally up and moving at 8:30a, all three kids dove into the Legos immediately and didn’t want anything but yogurt and to be left alone to their creativity. I took my chance to work out… and literally as I sat myself down on my mat to press play, I adjusted my one side of my headphones… and promptly broke them, snapping the headband. Cue a string of swears that would curl your great grandma’s hair tighter than the salon perm. I then spent about 15 minutes playing with the sound controls on my phone so that I could hear Sam’s voice in the videos and not just the music. I finally got the settings to a place where I could hear her, and pressed play. Did I mention I was fuming by now? I needed my workout, stat.
RIP my headphones
Curtsey Lunges with the front foot on a block, followed by a curl holding my 10lb weight. I was so proud of the balance I’d cultivated in Novice 2.0 only to be falling all over the place today. I ground my teeth and held my core tighter, using my frustration for all the things gone sideways already today and pushed through reps on both sides.
Push Up with Block- When Sam said we were actually going to do push ups, I was a little aghast- she hates them. So do I, so I felt a little offended that they were the plan. We put a block under one hand, legs wide. I tried to do these from a full, tall push up; and failed. So I took them down to the knees. This way I could do them, shakily.
Hip Bridge Leg Extension to Press are one of those moves I saw on Sam’s tiktok before Squad launched and I remember thinking NO WAY am I going to be able to do those! Well, here’s Day One of Blade, may I introduce you to the impossible. With one foot propped on a block for leverage and the other leg straight up to the sky, and weights in my hands at my chest, we thrust our hips up, and press the weights to the sky at the same time. And cry a bit, make pathetic noises in effort. I barely got 5 reps of these in before I had to stop and give myself a pep talk.
Squat jumps with a step- Now I can’t do squat jumps, the impact of my feet hitting the ground again after jumping causes pain from my nerve damage and when it’s done repeatedly the pain will last for days. So I omitted the jump. We do squats with one foot on a block, and since I’m not jumping, I switched it to a squat to hip thrust at the top of the step. I felt these in my low core, hips and glutes. That step really changes things.
Crazy Azriels’ Twist to Press- Like Crazy Ivans, but I don’t know Ivan and I’d rather know Azriel. Seated, with my 10lb dumbell in both hands, we twist with the weight from left to right, and then center; we press the weight up to the sky. repeat repeat repeat.
Now do this whole circuit again.
The second round of Curtsey Lunges on my right side, my leg gave out. First time that’s ever happened! I was most of the way through the reps on that side and I lunged down, and was not coming back up.
The second round of Push Ups my shoulders shook so hard, I was counting beads of sweat that hit the mat to keep moving. Towards the end I just shook and held plank because my shoulders had frozen and I couldn’t keep doing them.
Hip Bridges remained one of the hardest for me to do. I was really having a hard time picking my butt up off the mat with one leg in the air. I still have a lot of low core work to do.
The Squats were probably the easiest part of this workout, though I felt them in a few different places today vs just feeling them in my quads and glutes. Crazy Azriel Twists were also very doable for me, and the only other exercise I didn’t struggle to accomplish today.
And there it is, and here I am, not even frustrated or angry or annoyed at all anymore. I am tired, humbled, sweaty, and hungry, and ready for my tea. I keep reminding myself also, that I’m still on my moon cycle, and that that alone can greatly impact my capability to perform hard exercises. The hormone fluctuations for this time affect tissue elasticity, water retention, balance and core muscle groups, breathing, concentration, and on and on. I’m also still dealing with some fatigue, another common occurrence during this time of the month. So I’ll give myself some grace, and remind myself that my body needs different things right now, regardless of whatever plans I make for it. I’ll do some Valkyrie Yoga after I take Yrsa for her much desired walk. It’s a beautiful day, unseasonably warm for October, and full of sunshine.
Yesterday I finally got around to checking the mail, because Saturday I was so low energy I just couldn’t do it. I got mail from Sam! And that woman made me cry! She sent me a card and told me she was proud of me and so glad that we chat and I share my blog and this story of mine with the world. And in the card were the stickers she made, Legion of Badassery. I promptly stuck one of them to my water bottle, and the other I’ll place later when another goal is reached.
We are Legion. We are Valkyries.
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