12. Energy

Haven't done anything for a couple of days, I've had awful PMS and it's really knocked me for six. I've been so miserable I can barely move, I'm ok as long as I'm doing stuff but I keep lapsing into staring gloom. Today I managed Energy but it was pretty half arsed.

Heels are still way off the floor in down dog. Weirdly my right legged standing split has improved a very little but my left leg is still awful. Planking continues to get easier but still using my knees for push ups. Broken table is good, still a struggle towards the end but I can actually hold on now instead of crumpling after 5 seconds. My hips and elbows are barely giving me any trouble now, my elbow locks up occasionally but it's been doing that my entire life so no surprises there.

I don't feel any stronger or taller or thinner but to be honest now is not the time to be asking me to look for improvement. Hopefully in a couple of days this will pass and I'll be able to be a little more objective.

11. Red Hot Core

Just a little one on what is supposed to be a day off. It's not bicycle crunches my hips hate, it's scissor crunches. I'm still super shakey in inverted table and can't stretch my legs out straight to the surprise of absolutely no one.
Really blue today, probably due to the onset of period mixed with slight hangover but meh. Better tomorrow.
My right tricep is just an agonising mess so I'm hoping that gets better soon.

10. Diamond Dozen + Energy

So the only difference between a straight legged bar back and me bending over as far as humanly possible? My neck is droopy. I am the least flexible woman on the planet.

I have a day off work today so I thought I'd take some time to do two long workouts, I'd forgotten how long though, this knocks at least two hours off my day.

It was kinda fun though, I'm getting the hang of the flow of things more. Planking is actually better! Still can't do a full push up even on my knees but I'm closer than before. Still have tiny short hamstrings. My balance has slightly improved, and my hips tolerance for sustained periods of lunging, which can only mean good things for my classic rock dancing abilities.

Speaking of periods, mine's due any second so I expect to feel too gross or achey to do anything for a few days. Hopefully it'll be a mild one, they've not been too bad of late.

9. Energy

Ugh. I have got to stop doing things in the morning before work, I'm going to turn into a real person.

Should've done the diamond dozen but I thought I didn't have time. Turns out I did! Ah well, tomorrow maybe.

Broken table is improving, my shoulders still hurt but my legs less so. Still can't get my heels down in down dog, or anything else for that matter. Planking is better, still have to use my knees to lower but it's less of a struggle.

My hips are a mess. I wore ill-fitting trousers yesterday and they're just bloody agonising today. Didn't hurt too much in my sleep but maybe they were just overpowered by my thrice accursed wisdom tooth. Arg.

So half way through I ran upstairs to start the bath running since I'm in a hurry and our bath takes ages to fill (no, we don't have a shower, I know, shut up). I'm always a bit nervous about bathing while Tom's asleep, the pipes are kinda loud and he had work last night but hey, girl's gotta wash. Anyway started the bath running, back downstairs to carry on. Came up at the end only to find that I hadn't put the plug in properly and all my lovely hot water just drained away.

I hate mornings.

8. Energy + Red Hot Core

I know, shouldn't be doing two. BUT I didn't do anything at all over the weekend because work - houseparty - incredible hangover. So I genuinely have some making up to do. Also I figure this early on it can't hurt.

I've lost a little weight, I think. I don't weigh myself, mostly because we don't own scales but also because I end up obsessing over a pound here and a pound there so I just look down and take a guess at how it's going. Periodically if I visit my folks I'll check to make sure I don't dip below 7 1/2 stone (47kg, 105 pounds) but other than that as long as I feel healthy I don't care. I think I'm probably around 8 1/2 at the moment (53 kg, 119 pounds) and I don't really want to drop below 8.

Standing split is still basically pointless. Lost a lot of form on the broken table. Still not touching the floor in down dog. Push ups and plank ability are marginally better but still definitely using my knees.

My elbow is fine but my hips are really struggling with some of the crunches. Not painfully, just popping a lot, like the left hip joint isn't rolling smoothly. The closest thing I can think of is when you get a wire stuck in the caster of a wheelie chair, it still rolls around but there's an occasional bump.

Doing those conversions was weird, I'm used to watching American shows and things where they refer to women as being 80 or 90 pounds. I feel like the conversion thing I used must be wrong because there is no way weighing less than 7 stone is a sensible goal. Must pay more attention to descriptions of female weight in shows. In the UK, as far as I'm aware, 8-9 stone is what's projected as the "desirable" weight (which is dumb, because what if you're tall, or have giant boobs? Most normal people weigh more than that.) which would be around 125 pounds in the US. I remember one fictional character being faux ashamed to admit she weighed 135. What the crap? I shall watch TV now whilst keeping in mind that I am a VERY slim person who weighs 119 pounds and see what my shame threshold is supposed to be. Ridiculous.

7. Diamond Dozen

It seems weird to go back over this when I already know it from various abortive attempts to re-start yoga but it's really good to go through all the moves again.

Push ups are atrocious. I cannot even do one on my knees, I have to go all bendy in the middle to get back up. Goddamn feeble arms!

Down dog is improving, I think the bar back part coming before it helped stretch my hamstrings out a bit so I felt slightly closer to actually having my heels on the floor. I'm still a way off being able to touch my toes though.

As usual, my posture has almost instantly improved, and my stomach is a lot flatter than when I started, although that could have more to do with periods and random bloating than anything else.

Ugh, it's so late and I have to be up early tomorrow. The trouble with doing anything after work is I now can be arsed to drag myself through the shower and sort out my lunch for tomorrow. Come on now.

6. Red hot core

Did a sneaky one before work today. I know I probably shouldn't do stuff every day just in case but I figure it can't hurt at first, plus I haven't cooked any food to bring to work with me so I'm going to have to buy something from the cafe and it's all wildly unhealthy so that'll balance it out, right?

My hips are SO unhappy with bicycle crunches. Seriously. All the popping. It doesn't hurt, so I'm hoping it'll stop as I get more flexible. They hurt a lot in the night but I'm putting that down to restless broken sleep rather than actually doing exercise. Other than that I was good and gentle and did all the modifications.

See, sensible.

5. Energise

So it turns out out DVD player wasn't broken, we just needed a new HDMI cable which was far cheaper. Hence I've been back on the DVD this morning.

Just energise because I didn't have time to do more and have a shower and breakfast and make it to work on time. Bloody ow. My poor shoulders are killing me, my broken table is rubbish. Standing split is still woeful and I cannot do a press up without using my knees. All my joints hate me, though interestingly not my elbow this time. I will do such a dance of joy when my heels touch the floor in down dog, stupid shrunken hamstrings.

Better get to work, how do 9-5ers do this all the time?

4.

No workout today due to the continuing lack of DVD player, but I had two amazing hour long hoop sessions. It's been ages since I've done any hooping for fun and for some reason it all flowed really nicely today. I felt more dancey than usual. First was in the park where it was only just warm enough. I learned a couple of new dual wield tricks which I'm still getting the hang of. Rob Zombie is excellent music for hooping, surprise! Then my lovely boyfriend let me trail him to work and practice for an hour before they opened, I'm so lucky to have a whole nightclub to play in. What a doll.
Both times I felt really energetic and limber, which I'm attributing to a mix of yoga, fruit and the weather.

Hopefully the DVD player will be fixed next week and I can be better.

3.

Yeah our DVD player is dead. I've been doing little bits that I can remember to try to keep my flexibility up and tone my stomach some but nothing that's actually having an effect. Roll on payday!