Keeping this brief, because I opened this window to write a post this afternoon, then saw a WhatsApp message from Carla (who turned out to be in Iceland with Marco!), got distracted and never came back. It snowed a couple of inches overnight, so between dealing with that, a quick workout, and our earliest-ever removal of the Christmas tree, and the shocking fact that we actually made it to midnight last night...I am le tired. We have a delicious-smelling beef bourguinon that won't be ready for another hour, at least.
I don't like to make resolutions in the new year, but I do have some fitness-related goals to work toward this year! I'm going to be working on my grip strength, for one thing. I've worked up to being able to deadhang for 40 seconds, but ideally I'd like to make it to a minute. My right hand is weaker than the left. I just acquired liquid chalk, so I can try doing this without gloves. I also asked for, and received, these handles for Christmas that allow you to do farmer's walks/farmer's carries with plates. I've done it twice this week, and with 35 lbs in each hand, I can do just over 40 seconds -- again, my right hand gives out first. I saw one of those "function fitness" statements that women in their 40s should be able to farmer's carry 75% of their body weight for 60 seconds. Yeah, that would be 120 lbs in each hand for me. Holy shit.
Improving my grip strength is related to another goal: moving toward being able to do a pull-up. I've hand band-assisted chin-ups in my workout program for a long time, but I've never tried a band-assisted pullup. Unfortunately, given the basement's ceiling height, my pull-up set-up requires me to basically reach up, grab the bar, and bend my knees/cross my legs, so it's hard to follow some of the advice for building toward a pull-up. I did re-insert inverted rows/floor pull-ups into my program, and I'm going to try the band-assisted pull-up tomorrow.
I'm weaker on my entire right side, which being a lefty, isn't terribly surprising, but with MS it's also always in my mind the question of "how much of this is affected...?" So I noticed this week that my right bicep is smaller, visibly, than the left one when flexed. Which makes sense, because for example when I overhead press or bench, that side struggles first. My hip flexors have always been weak overall, but my right leg gives out almost immediately when I do seated leg raises, etc. I saw a PT a few months ago, referred by my neurologist because, again, it's never quite clear when the MS is playing a role, and described this, plus my right foot floppiness. She looked at my program and suggested adding more single-leg accessories, so now I do single-leg hip thrust, calf raises, and Bulgarians (I had single-leg barbell RDLs in there in the last cycle, but dropped them in this round).
I also realized very recently that my right hip is also just slightly lower than the left one. I told Sean I had sort of guessed at this, because when I wear a pair of loose sweatpants, I always wind up hitching up the right side, because the hem will start to drag by my heel. I encountered a PT whose content was focused on addressing those imbalances, so I'm try to work those stretches into my lifting days a couple of times a week.
Of course, vacation has meant being able to work out whenever I want to, and given my druthers I always prefer to work out first thing in the morning. Especially as a program goes on, and the weights get heavier, I need longer rest times between sets, so right now it takes me about 90 minutes, including a warm-up. So next week it's back to fitting in a couple of after-work sessions. Wednesdays (wfh) and weekends are still flexible, thankfully. And even more thankfully, my gym is where I live! I actually had a dream this week that included a stressful interaction in a commercial gym (someone accusing me of moving their equipment I think), and I woke up and was like, damn, I only have to share this with Sean, and he's mostly interested in the elliptical, haha.
Anyway, here's to 2026. 2025 was a dumpster fire (speaking from a world perspective). I hope this year improves!