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You start taking fitness advice from the students you teach.

I teach high school, right? This means that there are invariably going to be athletes in my classes. And, while they usually get the reputation of being not-so-bright in film and television, I have the occasion to say that’s just not the case.

You see, last week I met with the trainer (which is moving to a bi-monthly occurrence for the time being) and we did lower body and back. Lower body means thighs. Thighs which I, until that point, thought were pretty freaking powerful.

I would, of course, be wrong in that thought.

We did this exercise that seemed not unlike a dance exercise, only it was elevated and involved dips. I stood on a weight bench and braced myself on one of the racks in the weight room. Then I extended a leg to the back, then to the side, then I dipped and stood back up. Then switched sides. (Do you have a visual of that in your mind? It probably looked as ridiculous as I just described it.)

And this dipping and lifting thing killed me. Because it was followed by a lunge thing where the back leg in the lunge was elevated onto the weight bench.

By the time that workout was over, I could barely walk without feeling like my knees were going to give out on me. And for the rest of the week, I walked as if my legs were in braces and couldn’t bend at the knees because, randomly, one of my knees would buckle and I’d send myself nearly catapulting into the floor.

There is still some soreness in my thighs nearly a week later.

Needless to say, I did not go back to the gym last week. And in that I have failed. Hugemongously. I can’t expect this to work if I don’t go.

Wait..the high school advice…

After one of those near falls happened in my 4th period American lit class and we all regained our composure (me=embarrassed, them=completely no idea what to do when the teacher nearly falls and it’s funny but they feel like they shouldn’t laugh because I control their grade! [not that I’d ever do that…]) they suggested that I take a rolling pin and roll the muscles to help release the lactic acid. Apparently that is what the trainer for the football team does when they’ve been doing strenuous exercises.

So today? It’s back to the gym for me. And if there’s any muscle soreness I will be finding a new use for my rolling pin.

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Blair@HeirtoBlair

Tuesday 8th of March 2011

& bananas! eat those bad boys!

Miranda

Tuesday 8th of March 2011

We do remember the post about how bananas and me cause me to need Kal's Shit Cocktail, right?

(I do eat bananas. Every day. So far, so good. For now.)

Tuesday 8th of March 2011

I second the foam rollers. I think my hips need one tonight. I swear I feel like I worked out but all I did was stand on my feet teaching junior high for 7 hours. waaaaaaaaaah

Miranda

Tuesday 8th of March 2011

Dude. Standing up and teaching is totally a workout!

Katie

Monday 7th of March 2011

When I taught juniors, I was ALWAYS given fitness advice...and I SO took it! They know so much about the best ways to recover and get back into it...the hubs helps me out a lot too since he was an athlete and knows what to do too.

although it is annoying. I dont know why, but I get annoyed when my students/husband know more about making me feel better than I do.

Miranda

Tuesday 8th of March 2011

Oddly enough, I'd rather take fitness advice from my students than my husband. I feel like I am teaching them stuff, so they should be teaching me stuff, too.

Erin Mangold

Monday 7th of March 2011

Something I learned the hard way is that when your muscles are still sore 2 days later and you don't think you can do the workout, you need to do the workout. I started a new workout regime a few weeks ago and couldn't move afterward. I even had a few spasms in my quads. When I told my husband this, he said I was making excuses, and just to do the workout. So I did. Slowly, but I did it. And the next day? No pain.

Rolling pins work wonders, as do unopened lint rollers and "special" tools called foam rollers. Most important thing is to have some idea of which way your muscles go, so you follow their natural pattern when you roll. Straight up and down is not the way most muscles go.

Miranda

Monday 7th of March 2011

Ugh. I know I made excuses about going/not going. I know I did. It's maybe my worst flaw in this whole thing. I just psych myself out of going. I really did have trouble walking though, like, not in an "I'm in pain" way but in an "If I bend my knee I will fall over" kind of way. It was...bizarre.

And that's a good tip about the muscle fibers! I have no way of knowing how I'd find that out, but I'll try!

thekrg

Monday 7th of March 2011

I'm just wondering why it is that when we need to worry least about our bodies (high school), we know the most about how to take care of them. When we need to know how to drop some pounds (post childbirth), we have no idea where to even start and we're too tired to care. It's a trick!

Miranda

Monday 7th of March 2011

This is quite the conundrum.

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