Well, ladies
Dani told the pickle jar story and I thought that is sad and then I thought that will not be me and then I tested myself and now I am writing this because I was wrong.
Not about the grip. The grip is fine. I open jars. I open sparkling water bottles now too since she made me self-conscious about it. I bought a different brand. Problem solved. That is how I work.
But Dani's story made me think about what else I have not tested. What else has been quietly declining while I was busy being competent at the things I do every day.
So Wednesday night I did a wall sit.
Back flat against the wall. Knees at ninety degrees. Hold.
Nineteen seconds. 😤
Nineteen. I run. I walk between meetings. I take the stairs. I am not a person who sits all day and does nothing. And my legs buckled at nineteen seconds like they had been waiting for someone to finally ask and the answer was not good.
I stood up and my thighs were shaking. Not during. After. As if the effort of nineteen seconds was something they needed to recover from.
I did not tell anyone Wednesday night. I did not tell Dani because she would have a whole program for me by morning. I did not tell Sonia because she would say something gentle and I did not want gentle. I wanted to be angry about it in private, which is my version of rest and I am aware this is a problem. 💪
Here is what a wall sit tests. Not fitness. Isometric endurance. Your quadriceps holding your body weight without moving. That is the muscle action you use getting out of a chair, walking down stairs, lowering yourself onto anything. It is the thing that separates standing up easily from standing up with a hand on the armrest.
The benchmark for women in their forties is forty-five seconds. I was at nineteen. Less than half. That gap is not something I can solve with stairs and walking.
So I have been doing one wall sit a day. Every evening. Back against the bathroom wall while the kids brush their teeth.
Thursday: nineteen seconds. Friday: twenty-two. Monday: twenty-six. Last night: thirty-one.
That progression is fast because the muscle is not weak. It is untrained in that specific hold. The wiring is there. The endurance is not. Daily practice wakes it up faster than you expect.
I am not at forty-five yet. I will be. 🏃♀️
One wall sit. Once a day. Thirty seconds or wherever you fail. Slide down, hold, wait for the shake, stay in it as long as you can, stand up.
Do not hold your breath. That is the mistake. Breathe normally. The shake is the point.
Your legs are not as strong as your day makes them look. Test them. Then fix it. Thirty seconds at a time. ✅
