03/20/2015

The Ohio State University men’s basketball team won their first round March Madness tournament game last night in overtime.  I love sports because it is the arena where you can see how hard people try and put themselves out there to succeed or fail sometimes while much of the world is watching.  Go Buckeyes!

After they won, I felt that even though I was incredibly tired, I should try the pyramid workout that Jane had recommended as celebration of sorts to the win.  The scheme is that you do 15 each of Burpees, Pushups and jump squats. Then you do 14 of each, then 13, and so on down to 1.  Wilma must have put her up to it as she had been trying to get me to do the jump squats and burpees for a while now.

You can google what a burpee is, but you basically go from a standing position
and squat until your hands reach the ground and then place the weight on your hands and extend your feet until you are in a plank position.  It all sounds fine and achievable until I realize I must have T-Rex arms as I have to practically face plant myself to get my hands to the floor to start the exercise.

I keep trying though as maybe I just need to create some muscle memory in order to figure out how to start these better. It isn’t pretty, but I manage to do 15.  Somewhere around number 12 or so, something happens with my right knee as I am extending it.  I complete the round and do the 15 pushups and 15 jump squats and start the burpees again.  This time, my knee starts to feel badly earlier on and I feel myself compensating by changing how I hold the rest of my body position and it is not good on my shoulder.  I know then that these will ultimately make things worse if I continue.

I did not do any more or finish the reverse pyramid workout last night.  Sorry Jane, it wasn’t meant to be for me just yet.

This morning I awoke and tried a few and it still did not feel good.

I decided to go back to the weights for now and did the upright rows, presses, curls and a few others.  I also did four sets of planks.

I walked about 2.5 miles at lunch and while walking, did an inverted pyramid of reps with a squeeze ball to strengthen my grip.  I started at 20 with each hand and decreased each rep by one until completed down to 1.  I was surprised just how long that took (nearly half of my walk). I  was also able to take a path that I like but was previously too muddy from snows to slog through.

I ended up at the park where the monkey bars await another test.  I take off my sweatshirt, sunglasses, remove my phone and anything else that might restrict or weigh me down more than I already naturally am as I am determined to make it past the 5th rung which was my previous farthest rung.  My palms sweaty from the walk, I slip off on just the second bar.  Not what I had envisioned.

I take some time to thoroughly dry my hands and try again. I go one hand on alternating rungs for the first 6 and then try the hand, hand, rung, hand, hand method and make it another 3 for a total of 9 rungs today!  Getting better!

Wilma,  I know you will be disappointed that I am not doing the bupees right now, but as my flexibility and strength continue to get better I will keep trying them.  For now though, I will defer to other ways to get some reps.

Love Betty