Is There Anyone Out There ?

"Turn it on.  Turn it up."
Steve Earle, Satellite Radio

I do not get social media. I do not get social media because I do not get social anything. Got minimal social skills. No interest in, or aptitude for, small talk. Thread killer.

Hire me, I can talk all day. Function on multiple levels, assess, reassess, adjust and when the time is right, close. Been told I'm scary that way. Make a good living at it.

But for fun ? Nah.

So used Fitocracy for tracking workouts and nothing more for six months. Never paid any attention to any other aspect. Logging my stuff, paying no mind to leveling up or anything else.

A couple of weeks ago on a whim, I followed this gal - jenn dahousecat. I liked her name, her considerable smarts, and the picture of her in her underwear. To my mild surprise, she replied quickly: ok, but WTF is your pp ?

My pp (profile pic) at the time was of a tree and a kettlebell (partially in frame) shot while I was lying on my back about to do a Turkish Get Up. It was unidentifiable as anything, and the number of props that quickly began piling up under jenn's WTF inquiry tipped even my socially inept brain that on a social media site, it might make some sense to have a pp identifiable as something. Anything; your dog, a cartoon, a picture of sushi, a mythical creature (bearsharktopus ?) anything so long as it is at least identifiable. It's the initial connection, genius.

So I switched out the indecipherable for a wavy video grab of a twin 32kg press. Jenn quickly approved. I have not heard from her since but she did set me on my way and I appreciate that kindness.

A few weeks later have about 80 followers, adding new every day. They are all over the world, ranging in age from 19 to 68.

I have lived with the joy of being able to move well and getting stronger along with the cloud of potential injury for a long time. Seven years. I know almost no one with a similar frame of reference. My yoga buddies don't lift, and no one is as fanatic about Kbells in my limited circle. Most people think fitness is a thing to do for a while. You lose the weight and stop right ? Right. Not.  You stop when you no longer can breathe. This is not a temporary thing people, it's life as an animal. A healthy animal.

The Fito folks get it. I can tell by the frequency and intensity of their workouts and the communal enthusiasm. We share good brain chemistry. So thanks for being out there fellow fitocrats. Let's do this, whoever you animals are. Who gives a fuck if the point values sometimes make no sense; we are out there and we have each other.

Friday. Pradeep. No, thank YOU for being here. Welcome home.

Saturday
More garage cleaning; getting down to it. Hot and getting hotter. But now have room to train and so:
1+1 to 5+5 clean and press ladder, 24kg
10 32kg goblet squats
5+5 32kg rows to 5+5 36kg rows
20 32kg swings
1 24kg tgu
x5

Boatload of press work.

Sunday
Dog walk. She is a magnificent beast.

Monday
60 min Alley. Sweet beautiful young woman. Good class.

Tuesday
CT has returned from barbell seminar and do overhead squat drills, swings, gs and cleans. Great class, forcing me to work on, get out of comfort zone.

Wednesday
Drag ass feel like crap morning. Practice is slow after eight week trial, month of catch up and two week vacation. Why is it I am not happy unless I am frantically busy ?
Get in really early, BU practice is insufficient. Destroyer complex:
Double 16's below:
10 swings
10 snatches
10 front squats
10 c&p
10 pushups
10 rows
x3.

Yeah baby. Bring it.

Pradeep afternoon. Class was art. No standing series at all, five breathes each side in prayer twist at very end. All else is hands and knees, plank, shoulder openers and back bends. Grueling and beautiful. Best Wheel ever due to creative chest and shoulder openers. Wow.

Thursday

Long day stretching to longer. Force it out to the garage with the dog. Really don' wanna but go for kind of uninspired simple:

15/15 10 pushups, x 8

5+1-5+1 single arm swings, 24kg
1 tgu
x 10.
Toss a couple of more pushup sets in there to get to 100 and I'm much better.

Friday
Getting busier.  Good client lunch at Town Hall.  4:30 class, Buddy subbing for Pradeep.  Buddy class is like a Vegas lounge act breaking out in a yoga studio.  Hard to stay up in wheel while giggling.  It's a soaker.

Turn it UP.