Hi again!
To kick it off I thought I'd start with a continuation of the Fudge music education. Last week it was Bowie, this week it was Led Zeppelin. Fudge's dad is a guitarist and her mum is a ((an) average at best) percussionist so we're hoping she'll jump on either the piano, bass, cello, or violin train. HashtagFamilyBand.
No emotional rollercoaster story to tell you this week, unfortunately. I was looking forward to sharing a funny story.
Training
I had a lot of energy on Monday and Tuesday which was amazing. As the bump grows I've definitely been feeling a bit more tightness around my lumbar spine, it was noticeably restricted this week so I incorporated more spine, hip, and hamstring work into my daily stretch/mobility.
Monday
Started the week off with a walk and a gym session.
3 sets:
A1. 12 DB Bench Press
A2. 10 DB Skull Crushers
B1. 10 Lat Pulldowns
B2. 60s Bear Crawl Shoulder Taps
10 sets (no rest)
C1. 50m Offset Farmer's Carry (33% current body weight)
C2. 50m Prowler Push (50% current body weight)
To put this into perspective....I would normally Farmers carry about 66% of my body weight and push 120-150% of my body weight.
45min stretch/mobility
Tuesday
Had quite a bit of energy in the morning so I did some walking to start my day and then went back into the gym.
3 sets:
A1. 8 Barbell Romanian Deadlifts
A2. 30s Kettlebell Swing
A3. 5 Slow Hip CARS
B1. 10 Strict Barbell Shoulder Presses
B2. 10 Lateral Raises
B3. 5 Slow Shoulder CARS
45min stretch/mobility
By about 1pm today I started to feel uncomfortable for the first time in 18 weeks! I felt overly bloated, like my abdomen was trying to expand but had no space to go.
Wednesday
Today was a day of rest. I woke up still feeling a bit strained so I decided I should rest today and let my body do its thing. Plus, after 3 days of training in a row I felt like I should give my body a bit of a breather!
I tried to do a bit of stretch/mobility work but my body was not tolerating that too much so I put an end to that pretty early.
Thursday
My birthday! This year marks my first sober birthday in 10 years*. To celebrate, my husband and I took the day off. Normally we gift each other weekend getaways (last year was Yangon, the year before Vancouver for a concert) but a little thing called COVID has prevented this usual plan this year. Instead we had a rest day.
We had a lie in in the morning (which means 6:45am for us - we're all prepped for parenthood!) and spa-ed at the Four Seasons. We had a late lunch with my parents in the afternoon. We did manage to keep one birthday tradition. Every year since moving back to HK in 2017 a good family friend of ours, Chef Chris Grare, has whipped up the most incredible birthday meal. This year he was wonderful enough to do that again and, as always, he truly outdid himself. Huge shoutout to Chris for not only killing 3 years in a row of birthday meals for me but also to him and the Kinship team celebrating 1 year of being open!
No training today. Just a day of R&R.
(*number adjusted for parents' sanity)
Friday
You'd think after a relaxing day I'd have a belly full of energy today. Negative. Today was a bit of a struggle. It was also a very long day today (7-7:30) which only added to my feeling of exhaustion. I did feel an urge to move but didn't have a lot of energy to do so.
I started off with a bit of stretching and mobility to try and wake my body up. It worked somewhat but I still wasn't overly enthused. I did have an hour to kill between clients and a quiet gym so I pulled out some resistance bands, some lighter weights and kind of made things up as I went along.
3 sets:
A1. 10 Tempo Goblet Squats (3020) A2. 12 T Pulls A3. 15 Standing Fire Hydrants
B1. 10 Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls B2. 15 Banded No Moneys B3. 15 Kick Backs I didn't break a sweat, I didn't strain myself at all, but it still felt good to do something.
Weekend
I decided when I woke up on Saturday that I probably should make the most of 2 days off work to rest and make sure my body is definitely rested enough for next week. I felt a bit of strain around my abdomen all weekend and I've started to notice that any rotation around my spine exacerbates the pulling sensation.
We did make the most of a non-rainy mornings to go for morning walks. We only went for an hour or so each day and managed to avoid rain both days. The weekend days were actually fairly busy. We spent Saturday buying and preparing food for Sunday. On Sunday we celebrated my birthday (as well as a few other friends who have had birthdays this week!) with a BBQ and a day of chilling.
Life in General
I know the bump has grown this week. Not only because I now visibly protrude through some of my tops but also because my husband told me I'm starting to look more like a British rugby player. Luckily the shorts still fit, for now. I suppose I should really do something about maternity gym shorts though...
The second half of the week was definitely much slower but I think the bump appreciated it. The rest gave Fudge a bit of time to settle, do some growing, and get comfortable in her home.
As slow as the second half of the week was, when I look back at it and when I compare experiences with others I definitely don't have much to complain about! It's obviously natural and very much necessary to have slow weeks, the bump needs to grow!
An all in all pretty uneventful week (other than my birthday of course!) so unfortunately I don't have fun stories for you. I'll try my best for next week!
Happy last week of May!
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