Lethal Weapon 5 – The Pocketbook

Okay, my fellow pocketbook carriers, we have to talk!

What on earth are you putting into your pocketbooks that turns them into devices that will double up for weight training and as a self-defense weapon when hurled at the aggressor?

My question is prompted by two occurrences on the same day. One suspected that she hurt her shoulder by reaching for her pocketbook. The other came with an aching back and a body hurting overall. In either case, I would not have used more than an 8 lbs. dumbbell (if that much) for weight training with controlled movements but when I picked up the pocketbooks to check it out, I hardly believed what I felt.

When inquiring what could possibly turn the innocent pocketbooks into such a lethal force, it appeared that they were clearly prepared for any circumstance that life may throw at them. All these things – just in case – do add up, and they may have made perfect sense when hiking off into the wilderness. But just for getting around town?

So here is my challenge: check the content of your pocketbook and ask yourself whether you really need to carry it all on you all the time. Many items can find a place in the car, maybe in a separate bag, so that you can travel light when you walk around places where you actually have to carry your pocketbook. 

The Battle of the Rollers

As of late, I have seen more and more clients who come to me for MELT instructions and who proudly tell me that they own a foam roller. Some of them even bring it along when they see me. I am informed that they would like to know how to use it correctly. Invariably, those are the hard foam rollers, often the white Styrofoam version, sometimes even the black one that to me feels nothing short of lightweight concrete.

When I ask how they are using it, they often confess that they are really not because it hurts so badly. In one case, a guy told me that he had actually made matters worse rather than better.

The MELT roller is made of much softer material which yields gently to the touch. It has a textured surface. Before I start my MELT instructions, I ask them to suspend the belief that a roller needs to hurt in order to do any good, and off we MELT.

The first time my new MELTers get on the soft roller, I always hear a sigh of “Oh that feels much better”, and that’s all the convincing I need to do thereafter.

There may be a place for a hard roller and all the other devices out there. I have taken classes at conferences with them, and, frankly, I felt as if I had been beaten up with a baseball bat rather than feeling better.  So no more hard rollers for me. Not at all.

And from all I have heard from the new soft roller converts, the question now is what to do with the hard roller. I am collecting ideas of creative uses for the hard foam rollers.

Any suggestions?