Valkyrie Squad Day 23: Violence at Dawn
It’s raining outside, so I’m doing another workout in the house today. I’m not a huge fan of these indoor workouts lately, but something tells me that I wouldn’t like doing sets in the cold autumn rain either, so inside it is.
Today we have weights and Tabata for Upper Body Strength, and I am excited. I’ve always been a little on the stocky side, we have a running joke in my family that we make bodies made for work, and mine is no different. I’m tall for the women in my family, with sturdy shoulders that have always been able to carry significant weight. In my early 20s I worked stage crew and set construction for a theatre and frequently moved 300lb speaker stacks for shows and concerts, I was one of the only girls on crew and I could always do the heavy lifting no problem. So I was super excited when I looked at the schedule and saw that today is all upper body work with my weights.
Before I even pushed play on that video though, I got into Core Reset work to warm up my body and prepare my core and my back for all the lifting. I talked to Sam yesterday about the low back pain I was feeling during those side planks, and we think we’ve discovered something about my spine and that damn pelvic tilt, and a plan to do something about it. It deserves it’s own post though, so I’ll be getting into that later.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com
Now, we Warm!
I was already warmed up from the 15 minute Core Reset, but we did some more warm up moves before we got started.
Scorpion Kicks to loosen up that low back and stretch those obliques- I really appreciated these, my low back popped a few times during the twist.
Shoulder Cars– Standing position, Thumbs up toward the sky, swing the arms up and over head, and then pinkies down to the sides, then back the opposite direction, pinkies leading the rotation. Keep the ribcage knit down, and belly pulled in.
Tabata Time
We need weights for today, Sam suggested 3 different weight sets today. I only have my one set of dumbells, but the weight is adjustable. I kept my weights to 5-10lbs today, I just wasn’t ready for 15lbs.
We started with upper body, which was great because I always feel so strong. But then Sam had us doing Planks and shoulder taps for recovery and I found myself wondering if she even knows what that word means....
More Upper body to follow, just activating different groups. This round we worked chest, and I could feeeeeel it.
Active Recovery- Spread those Wings, Lateral Raises
It was at this moment that I realized Sam chose violence when she designed this routine.
We followed this up with 4 more rounds of upper body tabata drills and I am dead.
This was probably the most weight intensive routine we’ve done in Valkyrie Squad, and I loved it. My shoulders are dead, I’m sweaty and gross, and I feel alive. I made it a point to focus on core tightness and alignment during the whole workout, and I can feel how hard my core worked during everything. Definitely one of those workouts that I feel proud of myself after. I did every sit up, every curl, every press, and I kept up with the pace.
Now to convince Yrsa to take a soggy walk with me so she can stop harassing everyone all day long. She’s downright terrible when she doesn’t walk with me and with all the rain she’s been wussing out on me for walks. I’m about to buy her an obnoxious doggy rain coat so she can walk with me rain or shine, I’m sure she’ll love that. [insert cackle here] Doggy Rain Coat
Comments