Sickness and Fitness

If you've gotten out of your own way and are working toward a personal fitness goal, you still have a couple of significant road blocks ahead. They are:

• People at work
• Everyone else

This time of year, it seems like everyone's sole mission is to get you sick; and people, dammit, are kind of unavoidable, unless you are that rare brand of hermit with a six-pack. Now that we've gotten past the H1N1 wig-out, the battleground centers on those nasty upper-respiratory maladies, transmitted with demonic speed by either a co-worker with one seriously inflated aura of self-importance (stay home, you selfish snotwad), or an adorable little spawn of your very own making (sorry, no escape).

Since I technically work from home, it was someone's adorable spawn that laid me out. I knew she was sick - sick kid snot spreads out like a nasal Mississippi River, just green - so I kept my distance, but she got me anyway. I was one week into Phase II of P90X Lean, which is the hardest phase to stick with*, and suddenly all my Bring It was brung.

(*I swear, Phase II of anything is the hardest to stick with. Phase I, there's a motivating sense of accomplishment then a wee bit of rest. Phase II starts with a schedule that feels like habit, but isn't. You think you know what to expect and start to relax. For a P90Xer, this is where that wacky robot from "Lost in Space" should roll into your head, flailing his flex duct arms, yelling, "Superman! Banana! Superman! Banana!")

Or...not. Did I mention I've been sick?

Anyway, when I miss workouts, I lose momentum - actually, I lose a wheel and go flying into the gutter.  My solution, as much it sounds obsessive/compulsive/lady-you-are-a-freakoid, tends to keep my head in the game: I do a placeholder workout.

Nah, it's not zone 4 cardio or anything, it's a fake with purpose. I'm in my jammies, my head feels like it's filled with concrete, my nose needs cotton plugs and I wheeze like a dying hair dryer, so I focus on little stuff. One of my focus areas is balance, so I do a little non-inverted yoga, some barre exercises from ballet, or I'll just stand on one leg, fling the other one around and see what kind of trouble I can get into. Squats, static lunges, stretching where I don't have to bend over (trouble) or be on the floor (cold) or even some bicep and tricep curls with light weights. 10-15 minutes and I'm back in bed, a sick but proud freakoid.

I'm a week behind my goal, but I'm fine with that. I recovered quickly by getting lots of rest and staying home: I am a conscientious snotwad.