I am curious whether the dog owners out there will agree

I was lying in bed this morning thinking about dogs... whoa, get your brain out of the gutter, I was just thinking about my friend S and how much she loves her terrier. And every time I think about dogs, the actual physical aspect of owning them and having them around, picking them up, I think about their paws and how stiff and clawful and bony dogs seem to me.

I think this is a lot of why I like cats better than dogs. I like how cats melt themselves into blobs, when more features aren't required. Watching how their claws retract and they fold their paws up under them is the epitome of elegant engineering. And I love how, with the help of their tails, they can curl themselves into a perfect circle with nothing disturbing the outline. (Some dogs can also make a pretty good circle, but it's not quite the same and they still have claws). And then of course there's the purring, but I digress.

So yeah -- retractable claws for dogs. It would help. Get on it, you genetic engineers out there! Dog owners, do you sort of agree that it would be nice if dogs could retract their claws and be softer and more graceful the way I sometimes wish cats were bigger and would go on walks with me like dogs, or does this not bother you at all? Maybe you even prefer it for some reason.

Tuck your pelvis under and move your chin back. Now lift. Good!

Today I trained my free client, the Leaning Tower, in the gym for the second time ever (the first time was last Tuesday). I may have a hard time expressing how thrilling and cool it is to actually be working with someone. This is a person whose BMI is well over 40 and who hasn't worked out in many years, and whose wrists can't take much pressure, so it's a really great chance for me to work with a BEGINNING beginner. Although she's already lost 30 lbs by changing her diet and walking, I'm having to start her off at a level well below what the NASM book thinks is "Zone 1 for deconditioned clients". For the Tower, standing on one foot for a five-count with one hand on the wall for stability is a good exercise for the ankle-stabilizers. But she's intelligent, aware of what's hurting her and what's not, and can feel when an area is working.

I feel awful when something goes wrong -- last week, I kept her on her left ankle for too long and strained the stabilizers, and this week I didn't warn her to not arch her back during bench presses and she cramped up her back. :-( But on the other hand, we were doing wall pushups today and she couldn't feel her pecs working -- so we tried the bench presses and she still couldn't feel her pecs working, and cramped her back -- so I thought hard about how to isolate the suckers, and finally had her hold a stability ball against the wall and squeeze the sucker. She felt it in her pecs (!) and I did a little victory dance. The Tower wants an improvement in whole-body functionality, and as she gets stronger and we work on her balance and proprioception I KNOW I can help her achieve that. It's ever so exciting.

So this is what I'll be doing with an hour of my Tuesday evenings for the next little while: helping someone become more functional, which in a way is a return to mechanical engineering. Ah, be still my nerdy, gym-rat, 60 beats per minute heart!