My Journey With Health And Fitness – I Learned Something New

Today was a funfilled day shopping at Costco. We try to do it every 6 months or so to stock up on essentials when we are getting low on things. What always seems to be on the list is paper towels, toilet paper, tea and Mrs Dash. Today was no exception though we also stocked up on vitamins for my sister and I. It also gives us an excuse to take a water sample from our hot tub into the dealership to make sure I have the chemicals balanced. Today the levels were pretty good and a quick tweak and everything is back in line.

I have been working hard this week and let me assure you after 2 consecutive fitness classes where back squats were done not to mention a 2nd day of running intervals let me assure you my quads are killing me. I plan on a soak in said hot tub this afternoon and if they aren’t better I will skip circuit class tomorrow to do an endurance walk (3 hours/15 Km). That will hopefully allow my quads to recover enought to attempt a 5km run on Saturday.

During yesterday’s class we were doing sumo back squats. You pick up a weighted barbell, rest it on the meaty area across the bottom of your neck/shoulders, widen your stance, turn your feet outward and squat. Ok, I admit quads weren’t happy but I did it anyways. When I was on my 2nd round the instructor came over and asked if it was my right knee that was bad. I showed her the scars as she showed me how the weight on the right side had shifted from the correct placement to the end of the barbell. She told me that she thought I was subconciously protecting my knee and therefore was lifting mainly through my left leg. Interesting, I thought since we never would have know that if I had put clips on the bar to hold the weights in place.

And so I started round 3 determined that I was going to fix this. Normally when I am doing back squats I focus on butt back first. That is, make sure there is a slight hinge in my hips before I go into the squat. This time instead I thought push through your right foot. Each of those 8 squats I focused on that because I really want to get this right.

I hit the 4th round and unbeknownst to me the instructor was behind me watching what I was doing. She was thrilled that the weight did not once move. Obviously I had balanced out pushing through both legs. Funny, I said to her, I never would have corrected that if I had put the clips on as usual. I also told her that now I am going to be cognizant when doing any squats that I can feel the strength going through both legs when I come up from the squat.

I learned something new yesterday and I am kind of excited that I did so. I now can consistently work on balancing my leg strength until such time as it comes naturally. Oh and doing squats today I used it to stop thinking about the pain in my quads.