Idiot Girl Winner and Another Idiot Girl Goes to the Gym
bikinime is the lucky winner of the autographed copy of Laurie Notaro's The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Temptress of Death! I hope you enjoy it, bikinime, and if not, well, you can have your very own giveaway. :) I'll contact you via email for the particulars and get it in the mail ASAP!
In other news...
It was 140 degrees outside yesterday, give or take, so that meant cardio at the gym. That would've been fine if I'd stuck to the cardio, but no, I decided to work in some crunches on the stability ball. That, too, would've been okay if I'd left it at that, but no, I decided I had to try one of the exercises from Mark's excellent article on core work with the ball. Pushups on the stability ball seemed do-able for me. Really! I've done a gajillion pushups on the floor. How much different could it be on the ball?
Have you ever been right in the middle of a movement and realized what a really bad idea it was?
As it turns out, there is absolutely no correlation between a floor pushup and a ball pushup. None. Or at least not for me. I was fine in the 45-degree position, but the instant I bent my elbows . . . the ball started vibrating and wiggling wildly about, and that's when I knew what a really, really bad idea a ball pushup was for me. I was able to push myself up a fraction of a centimeter (a fractimeter) before the ball mysteriously catapulted itself about a foot to the left and I was suddenly in the fourteen-degree inverted Vee position with my right kneecap ensuring that my smaller-but-still-sizeable ass was propped in the air.
Fortunately there were only a half-dozen people in the gym at the time, and most were facing the other direction. The one young guy nearby was too wrapped up in trying to lift more weights than he was capable of, so he didn't notice a thing. I was so relieved!
Until I remembered the cameras. My gym has closed-circuit cameras so the attendant(s) can keep an eye on things. It occurred to me that it was quite possible that I was truly being filmed --not quite what I had in mind with yesterday's post, lemme tell ya. So far nothing has shown up on youtube, but I'll continue to watch out for it.
As for the floor show, I got back on the ball and did some more nice, safe, stable crunches with weights and then limped back over to the nice, safe, stable elliptical machine. The kneecap is bruised and tender, but I don't think there's any real damage. At least it matches the other kneecap, which has an ugly purple mark from a lunge gone wrong. Ah, symmetry.
I'll leave you with that. I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. Be sure to stop in tomorrow--it's Makeover Monday!
For now, I'm off to continue my youtube surveillance. :)
~
Labels: exercise, personal notes
13 Comments:
I had a similar experience with that exact same exercise. I guess sometimes we don't really know our own fitness limits!
At least its something to laugh about later (and thank goodness you didn't hurt yourself too badly!).
does that say BIKINIME or MizFit---I cant tell :)
and your post made me laugh---IN RECOGNITION.
I do NOT heart the balls.
period.
Miz.
"I was suddenly in the fourteen-degree inverted Vee position with my right kneecap ensuring that my smaller-but-still-sizeable ass was propped in the air. "
This creates a fabulous visual image, my dear! I love it. :-)
Hey - you never know until you try, right? Glad you're ok.
Fractimeter! Are we allowed to invent new words? :)
Very funny! not the part where you actually got hurt, but up until then ;)
(my word verification for this post, btw, is: vdmute...not that I'd ever tell)
Oh my God, I've so been there! My moment of grace and agility hit right in front of the front desk as I face planted into the carpet. Nice.
I hope you didn't really hurt yourself though. Sometimes the bruises, aches and pains don't show up until the next day.
Glad to hear you're alright...
and I'll warn you, this next bit is truly my inner physiology geek peeking out: the reason the ball wiggles and wobbles and YOU fall down is because when you're putting your weight through your arms, you're not actually stabilizing an equal amount through each one. (IE unequal weight on one arm v. the other.) The best thing to do is to wedge the ball against a wall (and you on the other side) to do the pushups. Once you're able to do 5 or 10 of them, then take the ball away from the wall and try again. You should be more stable by that point, because your strength and agility have improved.
...geek out.
Ok cameras in a gym? Never a good idea in my humble opinion. But then again some attendant could pay for his college tuition by selling the video footage! Kidding. :)
too funny.....we have ALL had those moments on the balls.
Welcome to my world, I am the queen of uncoordinated!!
Hope your knee is doing better!!
That's an interesting description of your exercise ball mishap. I'm not laughing at you. No, I'm really not.
Sounds like push ups and the stability ball didn't quite go as you planned but at least you gave it a try. I like to try and get on the gym cameras by dropping my iPod or towel on the treadmill and then having to jump off and scamper after it, eyes glued to the floor.
EEEEEeeeeeeeee!!!!!!! I won I won I won!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!
I'm so excited!!! Thank you so much for hosting this drawing -- I can't wait to read the book!!!
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