The Friday MuscleWatch

Damn. Can I just say how great it is to be doing serious workouts again? I'm so glad to be back on the benches beside all my old buddies at the gym, a surprising number of whom actually noticed that I was gone and asked about me. And I'm deeply touched that the gym kept that old picture of me and Darwin up on the bulletin board of "Cajun Bodybuilders." The board has changed a lot since I've been away, new people added, but there I still am, beaming and flexing like a fool, though unfortunately still the only woman up there.


The old picture that's still on the bodybuilder bulletin board, taken in April 2006.

So yeah, it's mighty good to be back "home" at last. Of course I'm still weak as a day-old kitten. Even worse, my stabilizers are shot to hell, so I have trouble lifting even the lightest free weights without wobbling all over the place, like a drunk day-old kitten. But I'm avoiding the temptation to play heavy on the machines, because in the long run stabilizers are a hell of a lot more important than pretty beach muscles.

I also sustained some collateral damage to my connective tissues: the chemo really fried my tendons, essentially shrinking them in the wash. My previously spectacular range of motion is so sadly diminished, sometimes I feel like I might as well be in a straightjacket. But I'm optimistic that some of this will resolve as I steadfastly and tediously rebuild my lost strength.

Anyway, here you go, the eagerly awaited Friday Musclewatch:


This is what a drunk day-old kitten in a straightjacket looks like.


The mysterious case of the missing lats: hmmm, could it be they absconded with the missing medial delts? Stay tuned Watson, they can't have gone too far.