Bowling, painting and the wonders of MORE

So Saturday was a scary day. And it would be scary for anyone with back problems. *insert menacing music here* Bowling, shopping and painting!

Saturday was when we celebrated our newly 7yo and newly 11yo sons birthdays. We went bowling. Yes, bowling. Because well... you know... I'm a glutton for punishment. As someone with chronic back pain bowling isn't top of the list of wise things to do. But my sons were so excited so I bowled. I stopped in frame 8 but should have stopped after frame 6. My back just got too tired. So the moms and I went shopping at Goodwill next door. So bowling, then standing and walking for over an hour, the back to bowling and walking around the arcade.

Then we return home and I.... paint until 2 AM. Two coats on one wall, a coat of primer and a coat of paint on the front door. Around 1 AM when waiting for everything to dry for second coats, I decided that my only chance at walking in the morning was doing T-tapp MORE. So I did it. And went back to painting fully expecting to wake up with one of those bad back morning.

Instead I woke up to the sound of angels singing and a great back. Insert awe inspiring music here:
I felt great. No different than any other day. In fact I kind of felt better than any other day. I truly believe that t-tapp is my savior with these back problems. Adding to that, my bad knee. Almost 2 years ago I slipped and fell and hurt my knee. With my weight, and running on the treadmill, etc. etc. it never healed. It was always hurting in the morning and when doing stairs, hiking on rough terrain, things like that. Well MORE has a few lunges and lots of plies. But with the t-tapp technique of knees out, tucking, leaning away from the lunges, not only do my knees not hurt from t-tapp they are feeling better all the time. Truly amazing stuff.

Lest I forget: (oh and assume that I pretty much do PBS at least once a day in the morning)
Workouts:
Wed Jan. 5th - MORE Instructional
Thurs Jan 6th - MORE Instructional
Sat Jan 8th - MORE
Mon Jan 10th - MORE
Tues Jan 11th - MORE and Broom

Instructional 1, Back Pain and MORE

Okay so as a precursor to Charlotte's coaching I gave Instructional 1 a try again after 2 months or so on Saturday. A. it was hard. I was sweating and exhausted after. I forgot LOL. But unfortunately there is a B.

B. I woke up Sunday unable to walk. Now granted, Saturday also had some things going for it like I cooked a whole turkey dinner and was on my feet with a guest here. But still, I woke up with the worst back pain I've had since my great stair rail falling incident. It took many hours to even be able to walk. But I HAD to since my husband was asked to give the sermon at church since our pastor was out of town.

So needless to say I now have Instructional 1 phobia. And since Charlotte's workouts have you go through the Instructionals some, I was upset. Monday, yesterday, when I was supposed to start, I just didn't. I started the course but didn't workout at all.

Enter the Moms and her MORE.

My mom got MORE for Christmas and isn't um... that excited to start. So within minutes of getting her home from the airport I snagged it. Yes, it is now home with me. I just spent the last couple hours while everyone watched tv watching MORE on the computer with headphones. WHAT A TREASURE it is! I am honestly blown away by the sheer VOLUME of what's on it. I don't think people realize everything that is on it.

Besides a full Instructional, it has videos on how to get out of a chair, how to walk properly, how to get off the floor and how to step up stairs. BUT then it has a full MORE workout (20 minutes), a special newer at home with T MORE that's 27 minutes, an upper body workout with a broom, a 10 minute SATI type workout, and a sitting workout. Dude. Everyone should own this!!!!! The idea of being able to crank out a 9 minute workout when I need to or do a modified TWO (which is what the MORE is) for 27 minutes.

Okay rave over. I just had no idea it was going to be quite so great DESPITE Trish saying a million times how amazing it is.

SO I did the MORE Instructional tonight. It was great. Had lots of breaks. But had so many tweaks and form reminders that BWO+ doesn't. Aside from modifications on PBS and T-tapp Twist, it has a small set of lunges (which was just enough to feel a burn but NOT hurt my knees and hopefully back) and a tiny Balance Sequence as well. I think it's going to be a great workout for me for a while.

The ONLY thing is......... how will my back feel tomorrow? Tune in tomorrow and find out. I'd LOVE to be able to do a MORE Instructional Bootcamp without hurting my back. Love.

Hiding my head in the sand

I have come to the realization that when things are bad I bury my head in the sand and hide. No posting on the t-tapp forums, no talking to my HK friends, and of course... no blogging on my new t-tapp blog. So here we are. Time to shake the sand off, buck up and hop back on the wagon and any other cliches you can think of.

I took a good week off. I don't know why I do it. Well I don't know why anymore than I know why I eat 10 cookies instead of 1. Or none. Wouldn't eating none and feeling fine be just amazing? Anyways, so I didn't get around to tapping for a week. I was feeling invincible back-wise. My back just was feeling great (after the week of tapping before!) and I just let myself not do it. Do we know where this is going? Yeah, my back became a MESS after a long day in town, at the store, then cleaning my mom's house. No tapping+hard work=downright painful and hard to walk in the morning. Sigh.

So this week I started again. Monday and Tuesday I did BWO+ (okay I did Basic + Tempo which is a version of BWO+ but it's my favorite). My back was still stiff in the mornings but hey I could walk and make breakfast for the kids. I was on a roll. And again the feeling of invincibility crept in.... and Wednesday I tried to do the lunges after BWO+ (I got my TWO DVD 2 in the mail that day!!). I know, I know, I have a bad back, a back that makes it hard to walk at times, and I know that overdoing it is a recipe for disaster. But I'm an all-or-nothing gal. Sue me. So needless to say my body wasn't so happy the next morning. Was discouraging to have done my t-tapp and have my back hurt. But I did push it past my comfort zone and I know it was the cause. But discouraging nonetheless. I really want to be able to do TWO.

I did B+Tempo last night but was still sore this morning from the day before so today I'm taking a full day off. I did PBS (Primary Back Stretch) today with the kids and will do brushing before bed. But I am hoping that a full recovery day (though I admit it took everything I had not to pop in SATI (Step Away the Inches) and do that). but hopefully this full day will help me to really get my back ready to tapp again tomorrow. Less is More is SUCH a hard thing for me to comprehend. I hear it said on the t-tapp forums a million times but it's SO hard for me to embrace. I've always been the "add as many plates to my barbells, run as fast as I could, working out twice a day is always better than once" person. It's time to retrain my thinking on this!

Workouts for the week of December 13-17th:
M - BWO+ Tempo
T - BWO+ Tempo
W - BWO+ and lunges from Instructional 2
Th - BWO Tempo & body brushing
F - Day off/PBS and body brushing

Weight: 212.2 Sigh. I know that measurements matter and weight shouldn't but when you're over 200 lbs seeing that scale goes down is a great thing. I WILL have it down next week. And if I don't I'm sure I'll pretend this blog doesn't exist :)