Day Eight: A Throne of Lies

The rest day is a lie! It is built on a throne of lies!

...

Okay, so maybe it has its benefits but I certainly didn't find it very beneficial during today's workout. The first ten minutes were me getting re-acclimated to Pilates. I appreciate that Cassey (with an"ey" and not an "ie") put the Pop Pilates for Beginners Workout at the top of the list, to help get me back into the swing of things.

I needed it. Everything was stiff all day long today as I tried to get myself prepared for Day Eight. I even did some running around outside, in the hot weather, just to help ease myself back into the workout mindset. That, however, only made me tired and during the afternoon I was somewhat alive, but mostly glued to my chair.

So, we arrived here, tonight, and the first ten minutes were just full of me berating myself mentally for ever taken a day off. I felt like such a stooge trying to do these exercises but I eventually found my groove. Once I did, I began to transition to all the exercises much easier, much simpler, than this time last week.

I was able to do every exercise, with her rep count, with pretty decent form. All except one. The Mermaid.  I could not, for the life of me, get myself to bend even close to as far as she did. I barely bend at all on my sides. That entire exercise was, much like the first time, a struggle. Me, sitting there, desperately straining (red in the face, swearing under my breath) to get some movement.

Nope. Nadda. Nothing.

I can't understand how she does it. I can bend with my arm over my head but when she asks me to throw both my arms to the other side, flexing my back, I got no movement at all. I'm wondering if I'm missing something in the form or, perhaps, that by the end of the video I'm just not up for it. Perhaps my muscles just don't have enough left to do that movement.

I tend to think, however, that my form is the main issue. I feel like my spine might be pretty messed up from years of bad posture, excess weight, and genetics (I have a bit of Scoliosis, was diagnosed way back in the 7th grade). If that's the case, this movement might be out of my range to perform. I will keep at it, though. It can't hurt (too much) to try.

The first video is a well-paced 28 minute workout.

The second video is an intense, fast-paced, burst of fury. If there's one complaint I have about Cassey's videos is that the pace is so different in some of them. We went from moderately relaxed to a speed workout.

Nearly six minutes, designed for quickness, it's a pretty wide variety of movements. Ten reps of ten, making 100 reps total.

I had major difficulties keeping up with this video. It was too fast for me so what I did was watch the movement she did, pause it, and then did ten reps myself. I had problems doing any of the Roll Ups this time around, as they were already covered in the first video and my core was pretty much done giving me significant help. Or any help, really.

Two movements here really caught my attention. The first, The Star Abs, might be the most ridiculous move I've done so far. I felt like laughing as I imagined looking at myself doing this. It was a workout, too, as it really hits the abs hard. The sneaky part about this is that it looks really simple ... until you pay attention. If you look closely, after she extends both her arms and legs out, she brings them back in BUT she raises herself off the ground with her core and meets her legs. She does not let her legs come to her.

This threw me initially and I brought my legs to me. I was wondering why it seemed to easy, but reviewing video evidence showed me that I was wrong. With a heavy heart (or core) I restarted and did them as properly as I could.

By this time my core had hung it up, gone home, grabbed some leftover Chinese, and plopped down on the old recliner. It was watching old reruns of Jeopardy and making itself feel awesome by answering all the questions (but it already knew all the answers).

In other words ... yeah, got little from it. I got, maybe, a quarter of an inch up before my muscles refused to move anymore. I wasn't able to do them as well as her or even get close. But I did ten reps as best I could.

Then I encountered the second movement, The Leg Outs. These are reminiscent of this video (do Russians secretly do Pilates and we just don't realize it?) and made me feel very ... comrade-like. I lost my balance here. Balancing on your tailbone while extending the legs in and out is far tougher than most will give you credit for. I fell over a couple of times (set embarrassment level to ten) and wasn't entirely pleased that I couldn't seem to stay upright.

Once those got done, the rest of the video wasn't THAT bad. I was happy when I was done.

I'm also pretty sure that I will never go on vacation while I'm doing Pilates.

Overall, I did find some positive things in today's videos. My endurance, I feel, has definitely improved as far as Pilates go. I made it through the first video in pretty decent shape. I was tired by the end of it but not wiped. I could do more (though not at the intense pace of the next video) and I did do more.

My core actually exists and has some strength to it now. I wouldn't call it decent. Not even close. However, I think it's shown clear improvement and that is a positive sign.

I would like to figure out why some movements are out of my reach, but that's a question that can be further investigated at a later date.

But I think the whole "rest day" thing is about to hit the junk pile for me. I'd rather be loose and a bit tired than be stiff as deadwood and rested. We'll see how I feel later in the week, but at the moment I am strongly considering letting the rest day fall by the wayside and instead using that day to try and fine-tune some of the movements I'm having difficulty on.

Thanks for reading and I'll see you good folks for Day Nine.