Improvising

Today was 55 squats day. Apparently, my hip is not better. I tried my normal squat with a single 24kg bell and it hurt. I had a sharp, pinching feeling in my hip and felt like my leg would give out every time I stood up. I quit after only 3 squats. I stretched, tried 1 more and failed. I was seriously bummed, but after my instructor hurt herself by pushing beyond her limit, I knew I needed to back off.

I moved on to Complex 1 with two 10kg bells, 3 sets of 3 cleans, 3 presses, 3 squats, and 3 swings. During the first set, I found the squats were easy. Granted, it was about 8lbs lighter, but it wasn't painful at all. I had pointed my toes out slightly and not gone quite as deep, but I think that by holding two bells instead of one distributed the weight differently and made it easier. Whatever works!

So I grabbed two 12kg bells (equal to one 24kg) and tried squatting again. And I was fine! My instructor stopped me for a lecture, but I told her I was good and promised to stop if I felt any pain or weakness. I finished my 55!

After that, I finished Complex 1 and moved on to Complex 2. Double snatch, overhead squat (these were actually easier, surprisingly), repeat 2 more times for a single set with a total of 3 sets. I finished out with Complex 3: three TGUs with some snatches and windmills thrown in there.

My morning karate class went well. I did 15 push-ups in a row as part of my warm-up. Can you tell I am proud of that? We did some katas and practiced kicks. Evening class, I warmed the class up (another 18 push-ups!) and worked on the first basic kata with the low ranking students. Higher ranks worked on their katas with the instructor. Then we spent the last 30 minutes sparring. That was a blast! I was absolutely dripping with sweat afterwards, but I loved every second of it!

So that was my day, how was yours?