Does This Make My Butt Look Fat? Do I Even Care?

Short people look
horrible in long shorts!

These look so
different on the model!

It's Leg Day and I get to see how the new, more modest KickBooty yoga shorts will hold up. As much as I like my Underarmour Shorts, I'm still inhibited from doing the full range of kicks and stretches while wearing them. These new shorts promise to be clingy (no leg gaps) but not compressive. My body, with it's collapsible veins, super flexible joints and fish-scale skin, does not respond well to anything compressive. I suspect there's some genetic collagen-connective tissue defect but it's never been confirmed.

I'm tempted to put my Underarmour shorts on over the yoga shorts but that feels way too bulky and I worry about the inner seams chafing my thighs during cardio. By the time I get to the gym, I don't even care anymore as long as I can get my workout done. I note new equipment in the cardio area. They've moved all the Precors further down and rearranged the order so I don't know which one is #3 anymore. I suspect, from the missing bottle holder peg and the scratches on the glide track, that #2 is actually my old favorite #3. I'm proven correct as I punch in program #6 Hill and proceed to peddle away.

Today's Total Workout:
35 min hill #6 = 4.07 miles + 35 min intervals #7 = 4.37 miles  Grand Total = 8.44 miles Wahoo!
Smith Squats: 12 @ bar / 6 x 12 @ 95 lbs
I don't like the fact my right knee is clicking on the descent and work hard to adjust my footing.
Smith Stiff-Legged Dead Lifts: 12 @ bar / 6 x 12 @ 95 lbs
They're still breathlessly hard and I'm sweating so much that I strip off my sopping hoodie in order to let my head dry a bit. The doors are all open and the fans are blowing but it's humid and unseasonably warm today, peaking in the mid 70s by this afternoon.
Cage Stretch & Kicks
12 pistol squats each leg: since I'm plugged in, I like all my movements to flow as if they were choreographed. I set up my Pistol Squats as if I'm standing on an imaginary balance beam with toe to heel footing. I'm concentrating so hard on not falling over that sweat beads up on my face and drips off my nose. Or, it could be a hot flash! Kidding.
Seated Leg Curl: 4 x 12 @ 97.5 lbs 
I can't remember what weight I used last week and decide to just go with this. I don't think I can handle anything heavier because it's all I can do to brace myself in the seat, even with the lap bar down.
Seated Leg Extensions: 6 x 12 @ 75 lbs 
Now this is definitely heavier than last week but my movement on this is very short and limited.
Torso Twist: 2 x 25 @ 50 lbs
Ab Crunch Station: 100
Mat Stretch: my stretch is so much better now that I'm able to toss a few kicks out during Cage Stretch earlier in my workout. 

I see a few regulars today but Wednesdays don't get crowded until later in the afternoon. I haven't seen Mo since last week, but M is always here. Again I don't say Hi because I'm never in the same part of the gym as he is. I just do my routine. I don't quite understand what he does though because he seems to jump between cardio and weights and stretching but sort of erratically to me. But I'm sure he has a system. He looks like he has a system anyway. Just like I have a system: cardio, weights, stretch. Simple! And you might ask Why. Why do this? Because I believe that the cardio not only gets you warm, it uses all your readily available carbohydrates. By the time I get to weights and focused stretching, I feel I'm forcing my body to burn fat. I'm not a skinny person by nature, but I have noticed changes in my body that I find fascinating. For instance, I noticed a round bump in the groove just above the elbow (just under the brachioradialis) and I wondered what it was. It's the end of the humerus bone! Wow, never saw that before! And never realized how knotty the end of it was! Kind of cool. I'm also fascinate by the increased vascularity in my forearms. I've never had such prominent veins before! Again, I think it's kind of cool. Okay, I've always been a weird kid.

I ask the gym owner P what the new equipment is and he tells me it's Virtual Boxing; the stations are just waiting for the video chips to be installed. My face lights up. Oooh, that sounds like fun! I'd be willing to try THAT! Secretly, I wonder if my ersatz cage kicking had any influence on this purchase. I know that everyone's interested in what they can do to get "beach ready".  Yesterday, at my son's TKD class, one of the lady instructors gushed over my arms. She'd been in the kickboxing class last week with me and my husband. 

"I saw you throwing punches and you have such great definition and I want that! I want those arms!" Wow, I'm flattered. She asked me if I'd gotten that from kickboxing but sadly, I had to tell her, "No, it's from my morning workouts at the gym." "Ah, so by the time you get to kickboxing, that's your cool down," she teased. Yeah, well she's sort of right. 

The scale reads 107.8 lbs which is exactly the same as last Wednesday. I'm good with it. I'm not actually getting any bigger as far as I can tell. I still have a saggy butt (losing weight means that not all your skin shrinks) but the fat behind my knees is gone. Honestly, I work out so hard and so intensely that the only person who would even dare comment on my butt is me. And I don't care because there's nothing else I can do except what I'm doing.