Aha, right! 'Cos it's my shoulders (the right one particularly) that are really hurting today, NOT my hips! Though my 'core' is definitely feeling it. So I'm evidently using my shoulders too much at the moment.

I will take your advice re: the womanly assets and looking up too. I think that plus the knee bend must be the key to keeping the dam' thing off the floor! That makes sense, physically speaking - by bending the knees and basically tilting your torso backwards, you get out of the way of the hammer and enable the wind to be 'flatter'. Of course, you also enable yourself to fall flat on your bum too, but that's beside the point...

Ooh, I can see I'm going to ache for the next while! But hey, by the time I'm done my core is gonna be pure steel, baby - PURE BRITISH STEEL!