Gotta love that feeling!

Here we are at the start of a new week. Last week is in the past. Did you have failures? Learn from them and move on. I like Tony Horton's statement in one of the P90X intros. Don't say "I can't...", but rather "I presently struggle with...". Did you plan to do 10 push-ups last week and only made it to 6? Seek to improve on that 6, even if you only get a total of 7. Always seek to improve, one step at a time.

Mondays are great days when it comes to strength training for me because I've had two days off from lifting weights and I am much refreshed. There is potential danger, though. Because I feel so good at the start of the week, I am always tempted to hit the weights a lot harder. I've done that enough in the past to know that such a move will leave me incredibly sore for at least three days, and not in a way that I think is helpful. My goal is to get stronger, not make the next workout painful to the point of wanting to skip it or my daily tasks next to impossible to complete. Could I push harder than I am now? In all honesty, that answer should probably be yes. However, I plan to save my bigger push for Friday (and by "bigger" I mean I will bump the weight up by 2.5 pounds on some of the exercises).

I took extra time today to stretch my hamstrings, and that proved to be a good thing. The outside of my left knee has been a little bothersome for the last few days, and tight hamstrings are at least one of the culprits. A stretch I was given in physical therapy last year involves putting one heel on a doorframe, with the other leg extended straight through the doorway. Scoot your butt as close to the frame as possible while keeping both legs straight. Hold for a minute, then switch legs by sliding over to the other side of the doorway. Since none of the doorways in our apartment are setup in such a way to let me do this stretch in this fashion, I use the doorframe for one leg and a bookshelf for the other...the results are the same. And the results today were that the tightness/pain in my knee went away. Now I just have to be diligent in stretching daily (and multiple times a day at that).

I was reminded yesterday of just how far I have to go when it comes to my fitness. We took family pictures for Mother's Day, and in some of them I presented basically a profile to the camera. My gut hung over my belt to an alarming degree, just one more motivation to get this job done right.

Pretty much everyone struggles with fitness to one degree or another. You're not alone, and I'd be glad to hear about your failures and, more importantly, your triumphs.