Happy lockdown #3.5 everyone! Yes, here in Melbourne we are in a snap 5 day lockdown, helpfully labelled a ‘circuit breaker’ by the government. I am as baffled as you are, given the 14 day incubation period of the virus, but apparently this should work, so I will continue to put my faith in the science and the facts and see what happens on Wednesday.

I think what’s hard about this instant mini lockdown is that it was a) less than 12 hours notice and b) straight to stage 4, but the harshest aspects of stage 4. The press conference did not commence until after 1pm on Friday, which meant that by the time we received clarification on the exact gradings of who could and could not operate was actually closer to 3pm. It was also the Friday of the combined Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day weekend, and as an ex-hospitality staffer, can just imagine the pain of lost revenue and produce due to the instantaneous nature of the ruling. Once again we are seeing industry bleed due to the lockdowns as we are all confined back into our homes with a 5km radius allowance to purchase essential items for an hour a day.

Fortunately amongst all this, contact tracing seems to be slowly making tracks and we are hopeful to emerge from this sooner, even if the legislation has been written to allow for a full 14 day lockdown. The reasonable half of my brain knows that this is necessary pending a herd immunity / vaccination approach, but the other half decries the impact on the economy, society, mental health and financial pressures. I will openly admit that the announcement of a lockdown, with stage 4 measures triggered me. Almost immediately, that heavy hearted feeling of despair enveloped the centre of my chest, reminding me of the last few weeks of lockdown. The weight settled back on my shoulders as I looked up to a steep hill that would be nigh impossible to scale carrying this burden of unhappiness and my hands were all clammy and cold. I felt alone and desperately sad. All this washed over me in the space of a heartbeat as Premier Dan Andrews outlined the general clauses of the lockdown. A few deep breaths later cleared the ominous fog from my mind and I was able to remind myself that it was only to be for five days. Five days I can do. I mean, Victorians have endured over four months; what is five days?

Well, today I’m writing on day 3 of the lockdown. The halfway mark. How has it been? It’s been okay. The simmering hostility of a population still under fairly strict rules for the pandemic has boiled over to pure, unbridled malevolence. If I were to set aside $1 for every person who questioned our ability to trade (excluding those who were nice about it), I think I could head down to Dan Murphy’s and get a good scotch and a delicious tequila to drown my sorrows in. I mean I get it. I know you’re angry because you can’t buy that superfluous item from Kmart, but there are means to express your annoyance with the rules. It is NOT to point your finger in my face and asked me who I slept with to bend the rules. Write to your local MP, protest peacefully or vote the government out at the next election. Take proper, democratic measures to enact change, although given what happened in the States this week, the concept of democracy is in danger of being replaced by autocracy, but I digress.

My main beef with the lockdown? Apart from being able to pop into Uniqlo and pick up the currently on special AIRism leggings that are super comfy and actually stay up during pilates. Maybe not during futsal, but definitely low impact / everyday wearing safe. Why does this bother me? Well, I’m glad you asked… or I will tell you anyway! 😀

As you know, I’ve been practicing reformer pilates with the KX Pilates group. It’s been really good so far – I’ve not seen any drop in weight (boo) but have noticed some decent muscle development on the triceps, biceps and quads as well as improved core strength which I need to utilise as my partner has the worse couch in the world. Genuinely would swallow you up if there were no witnesses around, I suspect. However, the studio is closed due to the lockdown and I’m not sure what is worrying me more? Would it be losing progress i.e muscle wastage or the super crazy DOMS I was still going through 3 months in but it was getting slightly better? Is that all going to be back with a vengeance?

We are in the midst of the KX40 challenge at the moment – 20 classes in 40 days. Sounds easier than you think, especially if you were up to 4 classes a week as I was doing before the suspension period. Except, I was doing 4x beginner classes a week as I was still struggling with anything overhead and anything that require oblique or lower back work thanks to my rogue sciatic nerve. What they didn’t tell us was that during the KX40 challenge, the beginner level classes would have intermediate elements woven in, so the classes are HARD. I also tried to challenge myself with setting intermediate spring sets over the last two weeks preceding the challenge, which I managed with the exception of anything that bothered the shoulder. (Note to self: anyone that tells you shoulder surgery is a breeze is lying. The actual surgery and recovery isn’t bad… the physio and rehabilitation sucks balls.) So far, I am three classes down in the challenge, with 35 days to go, so I should get the 20 classes in without an issue as long as I don’t lose too much progress over the 5 days of lockdown. Before you say anything, I’m the sort of person that loses muscle in a heartbeat, yet has to sweat it out to see an ounce of gains. #gains In the meantime, I can put my Alo Moves subscription to use and do some mat based pilates. That might be a killer, but I’ll be keeping the muscles working and won’t have to suffer the indignity of struggling to get up off the bathroom seat because my inner thighs have died.

Two days to go (hopefully) and I can get my #yearofhealth back on track. Hoping that you are all staying safe, healthy and positive. For those of you that can get the vaccine (unlike me), I hope you get it as your little contribution to bringing the world back to where we were all happiest.

Happy Lunar New Year to you all!