breakthrough!

Tony is proud. I am happy to say that tonight I had two breakthroughs during Legs & Back.

Breakthrough No. 1.: Sneaky Lunges. For the past month, I've been doing this exercise thinking, "Man, this is kind of stupid, I don't feel a thing." Yeah, because I was doing it wrong. They're called sneaky lunges because you are supposed to be on your toes the whole time, not just at the beginning. I somehow have missed that for the past month. I also finally really "got" what Tony Horton's been getting at when he says "put your lower ribs on your thigh, but don't rest your whole ribcage on your thing." It's not about not bending down, it's about lowering your hips and keeping your chest up while still in the lung and leaning forward, while on your toes and moving your arms into superman pose. Pretty awesome when it's all put together and suddenly feels more comfortable and more difficult.

Breakthrough No. 2.: I've been using my feet in the doorframe to help with my pull-ups, because I can't really do them (the wide grip pull-ups I am still doing with the bands because they are really hard), but I have also had the understanding that I'm not getting the burn the way I should be, and I'm not getting the burn in all the places I could be. There's always someone (in this case, Dreya, who by the way has a birthday the day after mine and I just found out was born in 1961 - what a babe for 50!) always using a chair for support and I just couldn't figure out how to get the chair utilized without essentially just standing on it and having zero resistance. But today after Ab Ripper X and our great barbecue, but before I started my main workout, E. held my feet with my knees bent and had me do pull-ups. The feeling was much different than what I'd so far achieved with either jumping and slowly lowering myself, or with my feet/foot in the door frame. When I started my exercise, I re-examined the chair and considered how weight is distributed and swung about. When E. had held my feet the first time he was standing too far back and it was near impossible. So I started with the chair a bit in front of me (in back would be too dangerous and also too difficult to get into a comfortable position) and pushed it out further and further, based on how the chair was sliding across the linoleum and the difficulty vs. doability ratio. I found the sweet spot and it made a world of difference. I think I will much more quickly be able to do multiple proper pull-ups and chin-ups now!