Following my recent practice of taking workouts from Fitblrs, I used Joan’s “Rooney Routine” including the 5 minutes of jump roping (sans jump rope since mine broke) as a warm up. However, when I tried to do the Swiss Ball workout, I found that my Swiss ball is a) underinflated and b) 10-20cm to big for me so I decided to give up on that rather than break my neck/wrist/ankle. I replaced it, however, with another video I took from one of Joan’s other workouts. I also did not do weighted Tabata intervals afterwards (other than the Axfit stuff) because I’m not a crazy wildcat like her apparently. All in all, I ended up with:

• 5 minutes of jumping rope without a jump rope (so I threw some crazy arm circles and butterfly-stroke type moves in there too in addition to just normal “I’m jumping rope” arm movements.)
• BlogilatesTV: Flat Abs Challenge 
• BlogilatesTV: Uh-oh Obliques! 
• BlogilatesTV: Standing Pilates by the Sea
• BlogilatesTV: Back Attack! 
• Axfit: Body moving
• + obligatory Tara Stiles routine: Beach Bod Yoga Hips Back & Hammies

I’m not sure if it’s that I have bony hips or what, but I find it very difficult to do Pilates (or other types, but Pilates seems to require them most) moves where I have to lie on my side. Either I can’t balance for shit (like in the first move in Uh-oh Obliques) or the pressure on my bone kills me. 

I also think I need to focus on building up my upper body strength more. I have a nice over-doorway pull up bar but it doesn’t fit any of our current doorways! I think I compensate for my shoulders/arms/chest being weak by cheating on my form to use my stronger muscles instead, which is bad bad bad. Like for example, in Standing Pilates by the Sea, Cassey has you do an “Extended Plank” which is supposed to be harder because it puts more strain on your core, but I find it to be way easier. I actually think that I end up with my arms too far forward much of the time in plank. In many of Tara Stiles’ videos she has you move from plank to a low lunge by putting one foot between your front hands and generally there is no physical way that I could put my foot between my hands and still have my knees be anywhere near a right angle. Maybe I’ll video myself or something soon and try to get some perspective on where I need to correct my form.

Oh also, I made a fucking delicious smoothie earlier - it was like raspberry limeade. Super simple, just like a cup of raspberries, about 3/4 cup pineapples (maybe 1/2 cup?), half a lime (peeled, but with all of the segments and pith and everything thrown in) and a chunk of fresh ginger plus water to blend. Despite adding quite a bit of water, it came out super thick - almost like sorbet and I ate it with a spoon to start. I’m trying to avoid adding sugar/honey/maple syrup to my smoothies lately and I thought this was terrific without. 

I think that’s it - I accidentally closed by post window a minute ago and Tumblr only saved like half my post, so I just re-wrote everything. Awesome.