Was Grandma Right?

In general, I don't have any issues with wearing a mask to go shopping or when working out at the gym. The reusable mask is breathable enough and when it gets damp from sweat and exhalation, I swap it out for a fresh one. (I keep several spares in my gear bag as well as in my purse, and even in the car glove box.) No excuses!

Because these are cloth masks, they tend to behave like clothing. Which means I occasionally have to pick off the errant dog hair. Dog hair is everywhere. If I wear a
mask for more than a few hours, my ears start to ache from the pressure. (I'm that princess who can't sid-sleep for more than an hour because the tragus gets painfully sore from the weight of my head leaning on it. Tragus is such a peculiar word I might name my next dog that.) If I have my hair clipped up, the mask extender my husband 3-D printed won't fit because the clip is ginormous. Lesser clips usually fail to secure my hair. Luckily, I don't spend that much time at the gym! But I have been at Scout functions for hours at a time... 

What I hadn't foreseen was that a mask that fits snugly across the face also compresses the skin around the cheeks. My skin is already super dry and fragile. While I'm not suffering from skin ulcers and chafing from extended use the way many frontline healthcare professionals are, I am concerned that the mask, which sits so close under my eyes that it feels as if it impedes my vision, is exacerbating the wrinkles under my eyes. I don't need enhanced eye bags. No one does! 

Today

Suggested remedies include moisturizing the skin at least 30 minutes prior to mask use, keeping the skin clean prior to donning a mask, and taking a break every 2 hours to let the skin renew elasticity. I think my grandma was right: if you make ugly faces, you'll get stuck with an ugly face permanently. 

Yesterday-
the only difference 
between this pix and
the prior one is the
camera angle!

I won't lie: changing my clothes this morning was a tad difficult because of some soreness in my pecs and triceps. It's been a long time since I've been sore like that. My son complained yesterday that he was still sore from doing push-ups and running a mile during our Troop meeting. I'm proud that he was able to knock out 36 push-ups while his mates resorted to knee push-ups. And let's not call those "girl push-ups" as that implies that girls can't do real ones. I knocked out my 50 today and eyed the pull-up station at the Stretch Cage. But then I decided that my woefully inadequate delts needed work so it was a DB shoulder workout. 

I'm quite jealous of people with nice boulder shoulders to cap their arms. I'll have to research further to see how I can improve those lagging rear delts... My arms seem to be all triceps and not much else. Oh well... 

26 February 2021
Sunny Friday

Precor elliptical
35 min
Program 3
HR n/a
Cal 322
Distance 2.88

Crunches x 30 x 4
Piriformis Stretch
Plank 60s
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Bent Knee Glute Kickbacks 25 x 2
Plank 60s
Pushups 50
Mat stretch et al

DB raises supersets
lateral standing 15 lbs x 15 x 4
reverse inclined flys 15 lbs x 20 w/u
20lbs x 20 x 4