p90x3 progressing! And now my bad knee hurts

Isn’t that something? When your bad knee hurting feels like a good thing. My good knee, which has recently giving me actual worry, is still tweaked but far improved, thank you. After last night’s CVX (p90x3), my bad knee is talking.

It could be the weather, too. It was -9F this morning (-23C) and waves of winter storms keep coming. Laugh. If you live long enough, your joints will talk to you about the weather, too.

Where was I? I took measurements a week early and unsurprisingly, I’ve not gotten physically smaller, what-with the eating being what it is. The upside is that my previous ‘progress’ was getting incrementally fatter. I like being tight/ dense not fluffy and puffy. I also really like fritos and chocolate and almonds and pecans…

My body might not be getting smaller but at least it’s getting stronger and more flexible. I’m feeling good about that. It’s hard to have multiple goals and show results. I think being more FUNCTIONAL is best right now and thinning out will come as I feel better and better cos I’m happier about myself when I’m a size 4. At this point a size 6 would make me giddy.

I’m noticeably (to me) more flexible, which is fantastic. I’ve practised yoga since I was a toddler (my first teacher was of some notoriety and I didn’t realise that was a thing til I got a guru who studied with her in India and was super-impressed that she had been my early teacher). This doesn’t mean that ‘I’m good.’ It means that yoga is normal. It also means that I’ve been more advanced and understand that I’m not so good at other things. You keep practising because that’s all it is. Practise.

When I do no yoga for months on end, I lose flexibility and strength. When I’m in my element, daily practise for years at a clip, I’m a fairly bendy broadlette. When I started p90x3, I couldn’t touch my toes with a straight back and ‘straight’ knees (never lock your joints).

With virtually no effort (only doing p90x3, which is THIRTY MINUTES per workout — this is not that hard, people), I’m looking less like a wooden mannequin and more like a human who needs to work on her flexibility! This is huge.

I’m stronger. I keep increasing resistance. It’s not like I can say I’m swinging a 50lb kettlebell but I did swing a 50lb bag of salt the other day and I could NOT have picked it up in December. I was too out of shape–couldn’t pick up a 40lb feed sack for Bobby. Almost but not quite. Now, I can.

For CVX, I had previously done a ‘pretend’ basketball and that was enough, for realz. Last night, I used a 3lb weight for that cardio-vascular workout. The burliest men use 12lb. Three is light but it’s heavier than AIR. Hello?!?!

I’m really proud of myself. Also, shovelling snow is easier and doesn’t put out my back. ::touch wood::

Getting REGULAR strength conditioning (and working on that flexibility) is so important. I mean, I work at a desk job, with 2-3 miles of walking around the office a day. I need something extra and I’m so happy that I can do it in 30 minutes a day. Heck, I even take off 1-2 days now and then. Come back refreshed and see better results. I’m pleased as punch!