I captured three videos of my exercises today. They’re mostly for my own use (to look at my form), but I thought I’d share them here as well.
Content warning: I didn’t mute the audio on these, so you get to hear quite a bit of me groaning through the final two or three reps of each exercise. If you don’t want to hear that, you’re advised not to play these.
When I first attempted plyo-lunges two or three years ago, I gave up after a single attempt. It was clear that I was endangering my ankles, knees and hips, because I had no control whatsoever over that move. Over the next couple of years, as I worked on the basic lunge and then the walking lunge, I tried a plyo-lunge a couple more times, without feeling like I had good control—until a few days ago when I figured out what I was doing wrong.
If you’re not familiar with the move, in a plyo-lunge you lower yourself into a lunge, and then from the bottom jump, switching feet in the air so that you land with the opposite feet forward and back, and lower yourself into a lunge position on that side. They’re also called jumping lunges or scissor lunges.
The error I was making—which seems kind of obvious, now that I’ve figure it out—is that I was somehow imagining that I should jump from the bottom of a lunge on one side to the bottom of a lunge on the other side. Of course, that’s crazy. What I need to do is jump from the bottom of the lunge on one side to the top of a lunge on the other side, and then sink to the bottom of the lunge on that side, before repeating.
Once I made that my intention, all of a sudden I felt like I was moving with adequate control. I still need some practice to do the move smoothly, and some increased explosiveness to do it well, but it no longer feels like I’m endangering all the joints of my lower body (and possibly my life) on each attempt.
(I’m making the effort because plyo-lunges seem worthwhile for working on adding some sorely needed explosiveness to my lower body, but also because they’re a component of the Superhero Bodyweight Workout that I’m hoping to do this year, after last year ended up being a bust.)
It was very nearly warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. (That is, I did wear shorts and a t-shirt, and I was nearly warm enough. Nearly.) And in roughly the same sense, it is nearly spring! 🏃🏻♂️
I saw #writerslift on a twitter profile, and thought I’d found a community of writers who also lift weights. But no.
Someone should make an anime series that’s just training montages. Sword-fighting training. Rock climbing training. Running. Martial arts. Always training for some competition or danger, but the series skips those and just goes on to the next training montage.
The pale green lichen and the dark green moss are what caught my eye, and then I thought, “Oh, this might be worthy of a #thicktrunktuesday post!”
“The research team discovered that 35 days of continuous exercise improved learning and memory deficits in the aging animals.”
Source: Optimal levels of exercise reverse cognitive decline in mice
I’m afraid I’m not up for 35 days of continuous exercise. Probably not even 35 hours.
I’m only rarely in shape to run 7+ miles, and even more rarely in shape to do it in the winter. 🏃🏻♂️
I spotted this toy in mile 4, and paused to get a photo.
On Friday I did a 4 mile run. 🏃🏻♂️ Around half way, a Red-tailed Hawk flew low over my head and struck at prey in the lawn across the street. Then, before I could get my phone out, flew up into a tree. You can see it there: the bird-shaped smudge about 2/3rds up.
Two writing sessions got me 1,067 words, and brings me to nine #amwriting days in a row. Now I need to rush through my morning exercises if I’m going to get in my workout in time to grill steaks for lunch. 🏋🏻♂️ ✍️
