let's play dress up!

As some of you already know, I recently bought my second pair of Lululemons. (Note to the uninitiated: Lululemons are extremely expensive yoga pants/clothes which tend to make one look ah-maz-ing.) I justified this to myself by saying, eh, it's been a year since I bought my first pair and one pair a year is a reasonable splurge. These are the ones I bought, though not in this color:

  Of course, after I already did that, some of my weightlifting friends started discussing and/or buying these:

I was, and still am, filled with pant envy, since I have a whole nother year before I can get more Lulus. Ahem.  I have taken solace in the fact that they have a 34 inch inseam and thus would be way too freaking long on my stubby little legs anyway.  Until, in the writing of this post, I discovered they make that same style in crops. Super pant envy now.

Meanwhile, I buy the GapFit pants, for which I always have a coupon and which, internet rumor has it, are made in the same factory as the Lulus (by, as I like to point out, the same little slave children, I'm sure). I recently got a new pair of these, but in a heathered gray color:

And also sort of a dark slate blue pair of bike shorts, which the internet is stubbornly refusing to provide a picture of. (Then I wore those new shorts to hot yoga and sweated so much in them, they still stink after washing them. So I guess they're permanently hot yoga shorts now. Sigh. Bright side: I'd be pissed if I permanently stunk up a pair of Lulus!)

Meanwhile, I get a new Athleta catalog in the mail approximately every ten days and even more frequent emails from them.  Today's email featured this:

Hard to see in that picture, but it's a little hiking skirt attached to leggings.  WANT.   Y'know, despite the fact that most of my hiking adventures occur in the Middlesex Fells where I'm basically trekking through people's backyards in earshot of the interstate and thus do not really technically need designated hiking clothes. 

Athleta also likes to tempt me with adorable yoga/workout tops like these:

Yes, they do so tempt me even though experience tells me that all I EVER end up wearing to the gym or yoga are cheap cotton tank tops from Tarzhay.

And then of course, the studio where I go to yoga is having an end of the summer clothing sale, where they sell, among other things, these Spiritual Gangster hoodies:

I kinda want one of those too, even though they're probably insufferably hipster.  "Hi, I'm Andrea and hoodies are my drug of choice!"

The saddest part of this whole thing is that, with my upcoming surgery, I'm not going to be able to do anything fitness-related for 4 to 6 weeks. The last thing I need to be buying right now is new gym clothes. Though I suppose I can wear them on my couch while I watch Game of Thrones, Justified, and my muscles atrophying!

Have you bought any cool exercise clothes lately? Are you drooling over anything you can't afford or don't need?  Let's commiserate together!

xoxo

domo arigato, the sequel

As promised--or is that threatened?--here's me attempting my good mornings.  Theoretically this is 70x8, but if you count the reps, it's actually nine.  Apparently I got distracted.  Or can't count above seven without the use of my fingers.  Or had some kind of pre-senile dementia moment.  I dunno.  If I didn't just tell you, though, I bet none of y'all would have even noticed.  But never let it be said I mislead my beloved blog readers.


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Please feel free to compare these to the videos I posted the other night and/or the information in your own head and tell me what, if anything, I am doing right or wrong. Or, y'know, critique my hairstyle, comment on my bare feet and the likelihood I'ma get athletes foot in that nasty gym, or, if applicable, yell "OMG, Andrea! You're gonna snap your back up!" at your computer screen.

And, as a bonus, here's me doing some RDLs.  185x5.  I went back and filmed these at just about the end of my workout. Which was probably a bad idea, because I was exhausted by that point and even though I was trying to concentrate on my form, it was breaking down.  However, I figure those of you who like fat asses can perve on mine and the rest of you can ponder the fact I put my shoes back on or, y'know, use the sight of my fat ass as motivation to stay away from the Cheetoes. Your call!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Also, please register my disgruntlement that I had to go the tinypic route because blogger kept giving me error messages and refusing to directly upload my videos from my computer.  Damn you, blogger, damn you.

xoxo

domo arigato

If you're Of a Certain Age, I've probably just infected you with a heinous earworm for which you are almost certainly cursing me even as you read.  You're welcome.  Full service blog, I keep telling you all.  My ex husband actually like that song, about which I would say "case closed" except you would say, rightfully, "and why would you marry such a person, Andrea?"  I'd have to claim hormones, youth, and bad role models, and then we'd get into a whole philosophical discussion that has NOTHING to do with the subject matter of this post.


Good mornings!  The exercise that is.

It gets its name because it supposed to be reminiscent of this:

Meh. Whatever.  Why not just call it a barbell bow?

I did these for the first time the other day.  I was a little irritated because I felt like I wasn't quite reaching 90 degrees, secondary to tight hamstrings.  Well, here's Erin Stern.

Maybe it's the angle, but I don't think she's reaching 90 degrees either. And she's famous.  And her hamstrings look like that.  I feel less frustrated.  All I'm sayin'.

This guy's reaching 90 degrees.  He also has orange plates. They'd match my water bottle.  Maybe I can convince the Y to bust out the spray paint?  Eh. Probably not.

And this woman, at the beginning, is doing with her head what *I* thought was correct: looking at the floor.  The rest of these people are all looking up.  I'm confused.  The more youtube tutorials you watch, the less ya know. But the concentric thing is interesting too. Hadn't seen that before.

There will, at some point, be video of me trying these out. So, y'know, we can all point and laugh and, uh, fix my form.  (There's also going to be view of me winning my online dip contest.  Bragging rites shall be mine.) Until then--and forgive me if this is old news--here you go.  Proof that barbell's been across my traps an awful lot lately.

Admit it. That's sexeh.

xoxo

i have...

...back thickness...

...skin that's approximately 5 different shades by August...

...drama face!...

...and a six pack if you squint hard enough...

(I SAID, squint harder.)

Also, I have some kind of funky blog problem going on, because apparently comments are not showing up.  Boo!  I have double checked and my settings are correct, so it's probably just blogger fucking with me.  Hopefully it will straighten itself out soon. Because you know I love when y'all chat with me.

Now musical pondering, prompted by songs that have popped up on my iPod at the gym this week.  It occurred to me that I have no idea what either of these songs are supposed to be about.

Who in the sweet Christ are "the boys" and where are they back from?  Prison?  Are they some kind of motorcycle gang that, y'know, summers in Laconia?  I have listened to this song for approximately 35 years without gaining any clarity. I do know one thing.  It does not belong in a commercial where cute children eat chicken with their dad, which is the other place it's been popping up besides my iPod.  Because I'm pretty sure it's about bikers or some shit.  Shut up. that theory's as good as any.

This, I don't even know where to start with.  "I got a backyard with nothing in it, except a stick, a dog, and a box with something in it."  I don't even HAVE a theory.  Please give me yours. Um, if comments start working again.

xoxo