Never Quit

     Tonight was a rough one in the dungeon. At first, I wasn't going to work out with Em because I wasn't really feeling it. But she gave me the pouty face, so I reluctantly changed my clothes, and went downstairs.

     We started with some pushups. That's when it started - the "I can't do it" attitude. Boy, if anything pisses me off it's the way she gives 1% effort and then throws her hands up saying "I can't do it". I got her through 3 lackluster sets and then decided we would do some shrugs. She did them, but let's just say her set of 20 went awful quick and when I did the last set of 25 with her, with me counting, she finished before me. Go figure. 

     I had decided I would teach her dumbbell deadlifts because she's just not strong enough for much else. But she told me she couldn't stretch to reach them on the floor. **sigh**.  Alrighty....hey, let's do some stretching. What could go wrong with that? And that's when I lost my shit. Zero effort to try and stretch further than she thought she could. Absolute crap. So, I told her I was done. I stormed upstairs, pissed beyond belief but now, I didn't want to quit. I'm tired of fucking quitting. I marched myself into her bedroom and told her that I was going back downstairs and if she wanted to join me, she could, but I was not going to force her. She did not join me. 

     After all of that bullshit, here's what got done:

PUSHUPS:

Em: 3 crappy sets of 10

Me: 10x3

SHRUGS:

Em: 15lb x10, x20 (questionable), x25 (also questionable)

Me: 30lb 15x2, x25

This is where it all fell to shit and Emily stayed upstairs. I continued on alone.

DEADLIFTS:

(135lb x5) 3x

155lb x5

185lb x3

205lb x1

135lb x5

SWISS PIKE:

7x3

BAND HIP ADDUCTION & ABDUCTION:

Purple band adduction 20x2 (each leg)

Purple band abduction 20x2 (each leg)

     And that's all I did. I was surprised that I got those deadlifts done. I haven't deadlifted in months, but they felt OK. After I was done, both knees were fairly sore though. We'll see how they feel tomorrow. Not as much as I should be doing, but at least I tried. I'm very disappointed in Em tonight. As much as I cuss and swear and get agitated, even she admits that I never quit. I may walk away and vent, but you'll always see me turn around and finish what I was doing. OK, maybe 99% of the time. But her attitude is something that I've never had. I just don't understand it. I suppose we'll be having a discussion about it at some point. 

     I've started physical therapy for my knees. I don't plan on doing a ton of appointments. I have 3 scheduled and that will probably be it. My knees travel weirdly, and it's worn down the cartilage. My doctor said I should wear either KT tape or braces on both knees, every day. I'm doing the KT tape, but I'm not totally sold. The physical therapist told me that I may want to consider McConnell tape because it's stiffer. I go back on Friday, so we'll see.

     Basically, all of my muscles and shit are tight. My IT band pops on my hip relentlessly and something else is popping in my back. I have a bunch of stretches that she gave me. Blah blah blah. All I want to do is get to a place where I can strengthen myself enough that I'm not in such pain just crouching down to get stuff from my kitchen cabinets. I hate feeling like an old woman, I hate being so overweight and I hate being weak. I also hate being hungry, so I'm going to eat.

It's Your Body - Control It

     Tonight Emily and I got down in the dungeon for a quick session. It wasn't as productive as I would have liked, but it was something, so I won't complain (too much).

     If anyone has ever worked with a young teenager, then they understand how difficult it can be. Or maybe, it's just my daughter being difficult! It's not an attitude thing; she's been very receptive and open to being taught how to do things. It's the fact that she seems to be disconnected from her own body. It's as if she isn't aware that she can make her body move in certain controlled ways. For instance, trying to get her into proper position for a bent row. It's not a terribly difficult position, but she set up like a limp noodle with slack legs, back like a turtle shell, and torso twisted to the side. When I told her to flatten her back, she had no idea what I was talking about. Now, I know that some of that can be attributed to just not having the muscle and strength. That other bit though, boy it's odd. I had to tell her that she was in the control of how her body moves and that it wasn't just going to automatically happen. I wonder if it's a teenage girl thing; being awkward in her own skin. Whatever it is, we're working through it and I have no doubt that she'll improve and excel. 

     Here's the little bit that we did:

DB BENCH:

Em: 3lb x10

       (10lb x10) 3x

Me: 25lb x10

       (30lb x10) 3x

BENT DB ROWS:

Em: (10lb x10) 3x

Me: (30lb x10) 3x

 After this we took some time to work on Em's ability to plank on a swiss ball. I'm not logging any reps or sets for her on this. 

SWISS BALL KNEE TUCKS:

Me: 10x3

HANGING KNEE RAISES:

Em: 10x3

Me: 12x3

     And that was about it. Teaching her how to bench took some time but she's a quick learner. Her energy wasn't up where it should be today. I was lucky to get her down there because she had actually fallen asleep after she got home from school. I was proud of her for at least pushing past the initial desire to skip it and to grind it out. 

What's In A Name?

     Day two of joint training is in the books! Emily has done well enough to earn her gym nickname. It's a rite of passage in our dungeon. Well, I've made it a rite of passage. I gave one to Frank after we had been working out for a while. He was dubbed Frankie 10 Rep because no matter that man is supposed to be doing, he does 10 reps. It's maddening, but I've learned to roll with it. Tonight, Emily was bestowed with the illustrious name of.... Gumby. She likes it.

     Here's what Gumby and I accomplished tonight:

PUSHUPS:

Emily: (x5) 3x Tonight, she did them on her toes so there was improvement there.

Me: (x10) 3x

CHEST PULLS:

Em: Black Band (x10) 1x

       Purple Band (x10) 2x

Me: Purple Band (x10) 2x

       Green Band (x10)1x

FACE PULLS:

Em: Purple Band (x10) 3x

Me: Green Band (x10) 3x I could have and probably should have, bumped up in either the resistance or the reps on both pulls. These were honestly too easy.

V Sit:

Em: (x10) 3x She struggled with these, so they weren't technically v sits. She did a combination of leg lifts and sit-ups.

Me: (x10) 3x I struggled with these as well. I got my legs and arms up, but my arms definitely traveled more than my legs did! We both need to improve on this one.

SWISS BALL PIKE:

Em couldn't quite do these. She did try, and I give her full credit for that. She ended up doing just basic planks.

Em: 13 seconds, 18, 14, 16, 20, 25, 30, 40

She started out telling herself that she couldn't do it. I got her to buckle down and grind and she improved a lot!

Me: x5, x7, x8 This one shocked me because they had become so difficult. They're still one of my favorite things to do, but it was a smack in the face how far I had regressed.

SMALL BALL HAMMY CURLS:

(the balls we used were about 8" I believe)

Em: (x10) 3x This was another one that was a struggle for the girl, but she gritted her teeth and kept getting them one by one. We did have a good laugh while she was doing it though. Her body was getting tired, so as she was trying to pull her legs towards her, her entire torso did some weird spastic thing, lol. Priceless.

Me: (x10) 3x

SPANISH SQUATS:

Em: Black band (x10) 3x I tried this squat technique with her because she's having a hard time grasping the right form. This actually seemed to help. One of the biggest problems she has is her knees caving in. Having the band around her knees was a good way for her to understand the idea of "pushing your knees out"

Me: Green band (x10) 3x I did these with my sleeves over the KT tape. Of course, there was the god-awful grinding noises, but there was no pain, so I was happy with that.

HANGING KNEE RAISES:

Em: (x10) 3x

Me: (x10) 3x

     And that was that. I'm very pleased and proud of her improvement just in this short time. Not just in her physical ability, but her mental ability to focus and give a little more just when she thinks she's done. It's a good thing to see. Gumby may turn out to be pretty tough!

Set An Example

     Emily signed up for a class called "Leadership". It's the precursor to Jr. ROTC. If you do well in this class, then you earn your uniform and such. Part of this class is a physical fitness test. It was definitely a sign to me that I needed to seize upon this opportunity not only to help my girl and pass on some knowledge, but to also buckle down, join in and set an example of how you fight your way back on track. 

     We did a simple little fitness test of all body weight movements, just to get an idea of where we're at. She did a good job. Me, well....we all know where I'm at. But hey, I've grown quite fond of humble pie. Here's what got done tonight.

***ALL MOVEMENTS WERE TIMED AT 1 MINUTE***

SIT UPS:

(straight leg)

Emily: 20

Me: 20

PUSHUPS:

Emily: 6 - toes

           14 - knees

Me: 17 - knees

FAT GUY PULL UPS:

Emily: 19

Me: 13

BW SQUATS:

Emily was unable to any squats with proper form, so that's on the docket for next time. I'm going to need to research some teaching techniques.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS:

Emily: 25

Me: 50

ADDUCTER BAND STRETCHES:

(black band)

Emily: 60 - left

           57 - right

Me: 40 - left

        45 - right

ABDUCTOR BAND STRETCHES:

(black band)

Emily: 50 each side

Me: 35 - right

       33 - left

HANGING KNEE RAISES:

Emily: 23

Me: 18

     Next session we'll work on squats and the basics again. Once she gets a little stronger, we'll add some weight with small dumbbells. Right now, she's awkward in her body and that's normal. I know once she gets a taste of strength, she'll focus more.