Head Is Swimming

 It's been a funny 2 weeks, not as many gym classes thanks to the school holidays forcing teachers to take time off and lots of time stuck at my desk with my nose deeply into the online personal trainer course.

Being totally honest if I'd known that it was a complicated as it is and with so many terms to remember I'm not so sure I'd have started.  Learning latin names at 16 might not have been too bad but at 58 it's hard going and there's times I'm reading passages about bones, muscles and their movements and after I finish reading it I haven't got the foggiest what I've just read.  Lucy at the gym gave me a great tip for this, paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to explain it to me like a teenage girl would.  OMG  way too funny.

I'm just learning about spinal muscles and this is (an easier to understand than some  things we've been learning) Extension through the initial 2-10° is through the elastic recoil theory. Following this, the erector spinae will kick in as it cannot stabilise through segmental innervation and will stabilise globally.  Chat gpts explanation is 

Okay, so picture your spine like a slinky or a bendy straw. When you first start to lean backward (just a tiny bit, like the first 2 to 10 degrees), your body doesn't even need your muscles yet — it’s like your spine just snaps back a little bit on its own because it's stretchy. That part is called elastic recoil — kind of like a hair tie snapping back into shape after you stretch it.

But once you go past that small movement, your erector spinae muscles (the ones that run along your spine) are like, “Okay, time to help out!” So they jump in and start working.

Now, these muscles can’t do super precise, tiny stabilizing moves because they don’t get separate nerve signals for each little part of the spine (that’s what segmental innervation means — like nerve control over each little piece). Instead, they help out in a big-picture way — they stabilize the whole area kind of globally, not just one small spot.

Cheers Lucy that is so much easier to understand.

I have at least now passed the basic anatomy and have my first in person workshop booked in for next month.  Hopefully by my birthday in December I should be a qualified level 2 fitness instructor and be well into the aqua aerobic training.

My outdoor gym is starting to come together, the foam tiles have arrived, we're going to attach them to some ply so it's quick and easy to get out and set up under the pergola on the patio.  The punchbag I won in the martial arts summer raffle is mainly up, have to add more sand.  The storage box has been emptied out and cleaned so all mine and Nates kickboxing equipment is out there, as is most of my yoga stuff and all of my resistance bands.  I'm hoping its going to be ok training out there if it's just a bit chilly or some light drizzle but who knows.    

Foodwise I haven't been great, a couple of social days where I've had cheese and crackers, my uncles 80th birthday yesterday where I had a small slice of birthday cake and some cheesecake.  Real life happens though and I'm not going to beat myself up because I've had a few UPFs or a bit of sugar, for me the win was I didn't down a load of gin or beer at the party, I stuck mainly to meats and took a large dish of home made tabbouleh.  Tabbouleh is more calorific than a cous cous or rice salad but I try to prioritise protein over carbs, mainly because so many of the diet drs on tv recommend high protein lower carbs.  Things might change when I do the nutrition sections of the qualification but I've been eating this way for a few years and it suits me.

My recipe for tabbouleh.  Makes a really large amount that would probably feed 8 people easily as a side salad or 4 if you were going to use it as a substitute for starchy carbs like rice.  The bowl I took to Uncle Petes bbq was heavily dug into and even after 3 of us had it with poached salmon and green salad for lunch today there's enough left for 2 of us for tomorrows lunch.

1 cup of dried bulgur weight (cooked in chicken stock) I prefer coarse but if I only have extra fine that will do.

3 packets of fresh parsley (think of a serving bowl full)

1 packet of fresh mint (if I dont have any I use more parsley)

about 4 large beefsteak tomatoes

1 red onion or a bunch of spring onions

1tbs good quality olive oil

juice of 1 lemon and 1 lime

salt & pepper to taste 

Chop the herbs so they're cut really fine (don't use a blender they go slimy).  Deseed the tomatoes, discard the seeds and dice the flesh.  Chop the onions quite finely.  Mix everything together, season to taste. 

Nutrition wise verywellfit recipe analyser has the content as the following providing you make this into 4 servings.  I find as a side dish it's probably going to be 8 servings so half of the values.

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories	362
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 24.8g	32%
Saturated Fat 3.6g	18%
Cholesterol 0mg	0%
Sodium 217mg	9%
Total Carbohydrate 35.2g	13%
Dietary Fiber 11.3g	40%
Total Sugars 5.1g
Protein 7.9g
Vitamin D 0mcg	0%
Calcium 181mg	14%
Iron 9mg	48%
Potassium 950mg	20%

 I do sometimes add a pack of feta cheese instead of adding salt but that does bump up the calorie and fat levels, worth it sometimes though.