wacky Wednesday started with an awesome PT session! I awoke early and decided that I felt better and was perfectly fit for whatever Matt could throw at me, and it seemed I was right, at least during the session 🙂

We started off on the cross trainer for a short warm up…and I really needed it, it was literally  freezing on Wednesday morning and the gym air con seemed to be blowing cold!  Once warm, we moved on to the cable machine, for some wood chops to start with followed by some shoulder rotations and an unsuccessful attempt at hanging from the pull up bar. The hanging bit was slightly much for my not quite fixed shoulder but it is getting there 🙂

As this session was at 7am, there was a selection of mats to choose from and a veritable plethora of TRX bands. so, of course we took advantage of as many of these as possible!

Firstly on the mat, I did a new thing (well 5 new things) called a dive bomber, which involves a sort of half pressup while pushing forward into a cobra(ish) position and then reversing the process.

then forward planks, that is a plank hold where you push yourself forward and backward by rolling over your toes. then repeat the whole thing while holding onto kettlebells.

then battle rams, I think I described these before, holding onto the handles of kettlebells, do the down bit of a press up, push forward, then backward, then up again.

then trx, but not the normal both straps from one trx set, but the inside ones from two sets, so they had a tendency to move apart and I had to pull in to stop them. at the same time of that I had to do press ups, narrow armed ones, very like tricep press ups. then more battle rams.

Next it was the turn of my feet to go in the trx straps, and I got to do pikes…this is an exercise that I was shocked that I could do. you start in a plank hold with you feet in the straps, then pull your feet towards you with straight legs and lift you bottom up into a pike position and back down again… and repeat :-S scary stuff…and interestingly, about 3 months ago, I tried to do a plank with my feet in the trx and I couldn’t even hold the plank without collapsing…so woohoo..improvement 😀
After all this good shoulder / arm knackering strengthening activity, it was time for hitting and kicking and general Thai boxing fun. It was the morning, and we had access to the dance studio and Matt brought his body armour, so it was lots of fun. We put together long combinations and body shots that were actually delivered to the body. This makes the whole thing more interesting and tricky as the range of the shots needs to be considered and I have to be more careful about where I put my feet, so as not to be too far or too close for the next shot 🙂

After the violence (no I am not aggressive not really…) we went back to the mat area of the gym to do some (more) core exercises, in the form of body hollowing and bridges and of course handstand practice. No, handstands are not technically core strengthening exercises but they are good for all sorts of things, like arm and shoulder strength, and balance and awesomeness!

While all this was happening, Matt wrote me a program so I can remember how to do all this when I am in the gym on my own.

It is an awesome program…it has little stick peoples to tell me what to do 😀

So that was Wednesday morning. It was awesome fun and staved off my winter bleugh-y-ness for about an hour then it returned and caused sleep!

However, it was Wednesday, and it was the last Wednesday practice before the long awaited Stonehenge dance out, so I had to make my way to Mythago practice and dance around for a bit 🙂

we were practicing the story, the one I have been talking about for a while, the Herne the Hunter story and went through it completely twice to make sure we had it ready, including transitions between dances and such like 🙂 it is going to be awesome! we also did some other dances, just to make sure everyone got a good go 🙂

so, this is what I danced (and I admit, it was more than I should…but I can’t help myself!):

Maiden Castle (x2) Our Henry (x2), Triskelle, Avebury Ring (x2), Standing Stones and Fanny Frail

So there is day 173 complete 😀