addendum to the fitness post

Disabled

I begin to suspect that my standards for judging my fitness are slightly askew when I think, “I’ll know my glutes are in good shape when I can do a grand rond de jambe en dedans and not throw my hip out when I go from derrière to à la seconde.”

Not that I did that over Christmas or anything.

(I blame my mother taking me to her adult ballet class. They don’t require you to be at those standards, but the problem is, my muscle memory doesn’t remember how to do anything except at certain standards . . . which I no longer have the muscles for.)

I need to figure out fitness benchmarks that don’t come from ballet.

0 Responses to “addendum to the fitness post”

  1. mrissa

    I guess, if you want to. Right now my fitness goal for the year is that I will be able to turn aerials (no-handed cartwheels) on the side lawn while there’s grass on it. (Several months of vertigo, even once the underlying problem is mostly dealt with, have left me with really cruddy balance. So I’m working on it.) That sort of thing seems like a more fun motivator than hitting a particular number for weight lifted or miles biked, although I am lifting freeweights and biking along the way.

    • Marie Brennan

      Yeah, but that particular goal may not be all that reasonable, nor useful in my daily life, since I am no longer doing ballet for multiple hours a week.

      • mrissa

        Ah. So it’s not that it’s a dance goal, it’s that dance goal in specific. Got it.

        • Marie Brennan

          It’s that dance goals in general are not necessarily appropriate ones for me now that I am not performing as a dancer. Or even, in some cases, sane ones. No one ever accused ballet of being sane.

    • fallenrose

      Underlying problem? What would that be, may I ask? I’ve had vertigo and balance problems since puberty. It would be if there were a way to fix it…

      • mrissa

        In my case, there are problems with the calcium carbonate in my inner ears, and those problems can be fixed with a weird series of manipulations done in the doctor’s office. I may have to go back in for another set of these manipulations soon, or it may not be for awhile, or it may not be ever. They can’t tell. But it worked after the first time. If you want more details about this and the other stuff we investigated along the way, my gmail address is marissalingen.

  2. d_c_m

    Ah, I so understand your post – I’ve just posted on a similar topic. Hmmm… maybe this will help:

    Try to remember all of the benchmark places to getting to doing that amazing stuff you mentioned in your post. Maybe that will help. Because you know you must strengthen and work on the tendons as well to help the muscles along.

    Just a thought.

  3. coyotewatches

    I’ve got it!!!

    Lets put on some pads and kick the rat stuffing out of each other!!! 5 minutes in circle?

    Oh, hey, what about some padding and some wooden swords? Would be fun! Whats a few bruises and barked knuckles between friends?

    *cheesy grin*

    20 minutes playing one-on-one basketball?
    Run through the woods?
    Uh….
    Thumb wrestling?

    • Marie Brennan

      Give your advantages in reach, hand size, leg length, and so on, sir . . . no, thank you. ^_^

    • ninja_turbo

      I’ll play the B-Ball if the one-on-one involves the wooden swords and padding. 😀

      • Anonymous

        dOOD!!! We be findin’ a new sport!!!

        “The ball is along the baseline. The forward moves in, fakes, and — Oh! Sudden pass to the top of the key. Jackson takes the ball. He’s looking to shoot. OH NO, the Gators defensive guard just attacked him with the bokken. Oh! He had his eyes fixed on that basket and oh my, what a mess!!!”

  4. sartorias

    Totally understood. Alas, time forces one to lower the standards–and consider oneself lucky to keep them there. (I remember the days when a fun leap was six feet in the air with a full split. Now my feet hurt if my exercise program includes jumping from side to side.)

  5. kurayami_hime

    Cherry Coke?

    • Marie Brennan

      Thank you, Captain Non Sequitur?

      I’m not sure if you mean for that to be my standard of fitness, a means of achieving the goal detailed above, or a suggestion that we should try to figure out knife-fighting again.

      • kurayami_hime

        Hooray, I have a title!

        I leave it to you to pick my meaning. I still need to pick my dinner, so all faculties are currently engaged.

        Tootles!

  6. ninja_turbo

    Just being more active in general, from walking most places and dancing a lot has done wonders for me.

    Also, not being in martial arts has meant that my “hold my own in a several-minute long fight without getting totally winded” benchmark has gone poof. Now it’s a “dance for five hours more or less non-stop without dying” benchmark, which is waay different.

    To change your benchmark paradigm, I think a different set of exercise/activities may be very useful. The workoutness with should help, I hope. Also, don’t being insane to yourself. Don’t be like Seniade in “Hunter Dance,” yo. I don’t think you have her get-out-of-plot-free card.

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