Weight is moving, weights are not.

Not so much anyway.

For hormonal reasons I decided to make this week kind of a back-off week, as much as I can given that I'm on week 4 of the ETK program minimum. I've been doing my 5 minutes of get-ups and 12 minutes of swings, but nothing extra other than the stuff I always do (cycling, ballet). I think I'm about to where I can safely kick things back up a notch or two, though. Today I'd like to add some high pulls and snatches to my get-up workout, and I think tomorrow some cleans and presses might be a good addition to my swings.

My first 50-rep swing workout with the 16 kg kettlebell was brutal. I really had to concentrate to keep my low back from rounding as I fatigued. It was extremely helpful that I was working out in front of a mirror, because my proprioception was a little off for reasons that will be obvious to my female readers.

I had an interesting insight while I was doing my warm-up, again in front of the mirror. When I come down into a rock-bottom squat my pelvis wants to tuck under and my lumbar spine wants to round. If I stop a couple inches higher my form stays perfect, so that's what I need to be doing until I get more flexibility in the hamstrings. I think it's my hammies that are the issue, anyway. Mine are actually a good bit more flexible than most people's, but they're not as flexible as they could be.

Even though I haven't been exercising as much, the scale has been moving in the right direction thanks to the changes in my diet. My house is cleaner also. Actually, at this point it's clean enough that it doesn't take too long to maintain it at its current level of not-quite-squalor. (Let's face it, people: when I say I am by nature messier than the average bear, I mean it quite literally.) So I've been doing lots of needlepoint and cross-stitch. My favorite cross-stitch designs are from www.subversivecrossstitch.com (warning: do not click on the link if strong language offends you) but I also do the normal kind. I've even been known to create my own designs.

I should come up with one that has a kettlebell on it.