Life: Did I really just sprain an ass muscle???!?

OMG.

I feel like a walking disaster area, lol.

I *think* I sprained my upper left glute. *facepalm* How does this crap happen to me???

I hurt my wrist (now wearing a support wrap during workouts).
My left side IT Band has a knot from Hell in it.
My left neck hurts.

And I sprained a frickkin’ ass muscle. Da fuck? I didn’t even know you could do that.

It’s my left side riiight near the tailbone. It hurts every time I clench the muscle and/or I do a squat-like motion.

You can imagine what my 135lb parallel squat felt like this morning. Or the Barbell Hip Thrust. Acck!

My Physical Therapist (PT) wanted to smack me with something, lol. She was like, “You keep hurting yourself with these pelvic thrusts. Why can’t you do something less dangerous like bodyweight bridging or something?!”

<.<

>.>

No comment.

I’ll just be the chick over here in the corner with an ice pack on her ass.

Now, how am I to heal up this??

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Review: The Voyage of the Minotaur (Senta and the Steel Dragon, #1) by Wesley Allison *SPOILERS*

In a world of steam power and rifles, where magic has not yet been forgotten, an expedition sets out to found a colony in a lost world. The Voyage of the Minotaur is a story of adventure and magic, religion and prejudice, steam engines and dinosaurs, angels and lizardmen, machine guns and wizards, sorceresses, bustles and corsets, steam-powered computers, hot air balloons, and dragons.

The Voyage of the Minotaur by Wesley Allison is the steampunk version of Imperial colonization with a little murder mystery thrown in for spice. The Dechantagne siblings – Iolanthe, Terrance, and Augie – are nobles who live in Mallontah (a country similar to colonial England). They – Iolanthe – have used all of their family’s influence and sunk their family’s fortune into a venture to colonize a newly discovered continent, Birmisia. This book covers the settlers’ voyage, landing, founding, and first interactions with Birmisia’s natives – intelligent two-legged lizard-men that the Dechantagnes’ want to use as labor and dinosaurs.

This is a new author and a new sub-genre for me, so I had no preconceptions prior to reading this novel. When I first started reading [the sample], I was pretty impressed. The author has a solid plot and the activity is rather interesting. The sample – about 4 chapters – was good enough that I purchased The Voyage of the Minotaur and its sequel, The Dark and Forbidding Land. Depending on how the sequel reads, I may buy book three, The Drache Girl. This is felt like a first book for Allison, but I know he has written many others. I really enjoyed this book – there is a lot of additional potential in this book (and therefore this author) that a good editor can drag out of it.

Characterization
It was after purchase that the issues of this novel started to appear. One of the first problems I had was characterization. Allison did not spend a lot of time building character – almost all of his main characters feel rather static: Iolanthe is rather cold, Augie is flighty, and Terrence is a troubled drug addict; Senta is happy-go-lucky, Zurfina the Magnificent is a mysterious Sorceress, etc. Allison’s secondary characters are so under developed as to be throw-aways – almost impossible to tell apart (unless you read with a moleskin and a pen :). We [the reader] aren’t really given enough information into character motivation – in addition to knowing what a character does, I also want to know why a character did it.

Life: Cardio Day (ugggh)

I think I hate cardio.

That’s a horrible thing to say! And it’s not 100% true. I’m a former dancer and (while my technique is non-existent) I still love to dance.

I also run. I enjoy that 1/4 of the time, lol. The other 3/4 of the time I just tell myself I’m enjoying it.

I love swimming and things like that. I’ve done some pretty hard core aerobic-based DVD workouts. I’ve done (a lot! of) Jillian Micheal’s HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) programs. I even like yoga.

But something about being forced into cardio activities makes me very….bullishly stubborn and irritated.

But I need to do cardio. Cardio is one of the only effective ways to lose weight (vs gaining muscle or getting in shape) and I want to lose some weight!

Yes. I can (and do) lift heavy weights. Currently my squat is stalled at 135 but I expect to hit some other PRs (personal records) in the coming weeks.

But. Cardio.

Review: Midnight Indulgences by Alexis Ke

It’s time for Lucia Waters to relocate. She wanted to start new. The last thing she expected was Fredrick Simms to change those much awaited plans. He’ll do anything to get her to resend her resignation and he has eight hours to do it. As the full moon rises, will he be able to pull out all the stops and convince her to stay. The clock is ticking.

 

 

 

 

Midnight Indulgences by Alexis Ke is the story of Lucia and Frederick. Lucia is the night shift Emergency Room head nurse at a local hospital. She has been working there for five years and has decided to move in order to make a change in her life. She is bored with the town and at loose ends since the break-up of her last relationship. Lucia has come to work to complete her shift and to turn in her two week resignation. Frederick is the security supervisor at the same hospital that Lucia works at. He has been infatuated with Lucia for over a year but never had the nerve to ask her out. When he finds out that she plans to resign he decides to do everything he can to change her mind.

Review: The Italian’s Inexperienced Mistress (Ruthless) (Harlequin Presents, #2621)

When Angelo sought revenge Gwenna Hamilton added another, delicious dimension. Innocent and pretty, she had no chance when the Italian tycoon offered her the devil’s bargain: pay for her father’s freedom with her body.

In her naivete, Gwenna thought that Angelo would tire of her and her innocence very quickly. But he had more in mind than just one night…

 

 

 

 

This one…kinda pissed me off. Maybe I missed something but…

It’s a typical Harlequin. You get exactly what you expect and this was no exception. Rich ruthless tycoon forces young innocent virgin to become his mistress in order to pay her father’s bills. He treats her like shit then they fall in love and live Happily Ever After. You know, your typical Harlequin fare.

What bothered me about this book was the heroine’s dog, Piglet. There were frequent comments about the heroine feeding and/or sharing chocolate treats with the dog. I was flabbergasted and completely distracted by flipping back and forth to verify that it was a dog and not a pig and that she was feeding him chocolate.

WTF? Chocolate is poison to dogs. AFAIK, 100% of chocolate is poisonous to dogs.

So yeah, that’s all I paid attention to. And it really bothered me.

Life: Building a Gym – Battling Ropes, Muscle Ropes and Combat Ropes

As part of my home gym I’ve always wanted a set of battle ropes. I’ve been researching them [battle ropes] for a bit of time now.

**NOTE: I consider this “accessorial” equipment. Unless this is part of your regular workout program, something like this can wait until more necessary gym equipment is purchased.**

Battle Ropes are – in very basic – a long and heavy rope (usually anywhere from 30ft to 100ft) that is normally 1.5” – 2.0” thick that is anchored to a point in the rope’s middle. Either end of the rope is used to “battle” by making the rope move in different patterns. These ropes weigh anywhere from 16 pounds to 92 pounds [or more!] and are made from a variety of different natural or synthetic materials. Battle Ropes are generally used to get a challenging combination strength/aerobic workout.

Life: Building a Home Gym – Recovery

I was racking my brain trying to figure out the best way to discuss the next step in the home gym building process the other day while driving to a physical therapy appointment. And that’s when it hit me: I haven’t discussed Recovery.

Recovery items are so very important when it comes to physical fitness. The reason recovery items are so important? Because you ARE going to hurt yourself. You will be sore, you will be tight, you will hurt. Some of the pain will be the run of the mill DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) that everyone gets when working muscles unused to work. Other pain will be PAIN – the pain of actual injury…because you WILL injure yourself. I don’t say this to scare anyone, I say it because it is fact. Any injury sustained could be minor or major – and the recovery time will be based on your physical recovery abilities and what you do while injured.