Pole dancing,
handstand push-ups, and lots of stretching!
Say whaaat!?
OK, yes, pole
dancing. Let’s start there. Admit it, you’ve seen what those girls can do on a
pole (if not in real life, then in some R rated movie). And it’s impressive! I’m talking athletically
impressive! You have to use all sorts of muscles to pole dance, and I’m sure
some of those muscles are the same ones you use to do a press handstand. I’m
guessing there’s not a lot of science to back me up here, but just go with it.
So why was I pole dancing?? Well, a group of girlfriends and I took a pole
dancing class as a part of our friend Sarah’s bachelorette party. Yes, they
offer pole- dancing classes. When someone offers you the opportunity to take a
free pole dancing class, I think you have to go for it. And guess what? It was
fun!
OK, handstand
push-ups?? To me, this one sounds more outrageous than the pole dancing. Why?
Because there’s no way that I can still do a handstand push-up. Back in the day
(the gymnastics days, that is) I could do handstand push-ups while wearing
ankle weights. But now, not so much. You have to be pretty darn fit to do a
handstand push-up and it works a ton of muscles. Again, I don’t have the
science to back me up here, but just try it and see for yourself. So… while I
can’t do handstand push-ups, I can do a variation. I decided to do them while
in a downward dog type pose. And guess what… still really freaking hard and
still works a lot of muscles. I can’t do very many yet. But my hope is that
I’ll build up to do more and more and then eventually work towards a real
handstand push-up once again.
And last but not
least, stretching! I love to stretch and I feel good when I do it. I recently
had a really low energy day. It was pretty frustrating because I thought I was
done with these. I know I’m still not where I want to be, but I viewed myself
as making steady (albeit slow) progress. But I got a very tough reminder that I
still need to take it easy (or maybe easier than what I think is easy). It was
also a reminder of where I was and how far I’ve come. Anyway, I wanted to stick
to my promise to myself of at least doing 30 minutes of some type of activity
each day. So on this day, it was very gentle stretching. And I don’t think it was a half hour, but it
was something. I’ve also recently started back at school, so I have lots of
reading and studying to do. While I’m at home, I’ve decided to do as much of
this as possible while stretching. Since I haven’t been working, I’ve noticed
that my hips feel better because I don’t have to sit for 8 hours/day. So I’ve
decided while I’m at home studying, I don’t have to sit. I can stretch instead.
I’m convinced that increased flexibility will help with injury prevention, and
also with press handstands J
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