Born Again Gym Rat: Give and Take

Monday, September 21, 2015

Give and Take

My left hip, which normally never causes me any concern, has been sporadically painful for the past two days. I can't quite figure out what the problem is, either because it's not any one particular movement. Most likely, I've managed to trap a nerve or tendon awkwardly in the front hip joint where the hip flexor attaches to the front quad. It only bothers me when I angle sharply around a corner, or make a slight twist in my gait. But then it really hurts!

Sleeping helped a little, but since I was mostly inactive yesterday and it's still an issue today, well, I was going to the gym anyway. Sometimes exercise is the cure. I suspect my flexibility at the Cage might've exacerbated an unknown joint condition so today I do rudimentary stretches. At first the hip complained about the cross-trainer, but I settled into a pace that was comfortable. Today my mileage is well under 7, but over 5. I'm happy enough with that. I'm lighter than I expect, as well, especially in light of eating pizza, cold cuts and drinking peach moscato wine over the weekend. The gym scale reads 110.6 lbs. I was expecting over 112. Hmmm. Wine has less calories than beer although I usually drink apple ale or hard cider. And I'm sure moscato has a ton of sugar in it.

Abs are apparently being worked hard!

My body seems able to adapt to this in stride and surprises me when I'm able to knock out 80 reps for my last set of regular push ups! Didn't see that coming. Seriously. I"m moving really fast thought, so I"m sure Drill Sergeants would call me out on my form and make me do them over. Just saying. I'm also able to add 3 reps to each set of hammer grip pull ups. That's like adding a whole 'nother set of pull ups! What bothers me still during pull ups aren't my elbows or hands, but my abs! There's an unpleasant sharp pain from just under my rib cage, just right of center that lingers long afterwards. As a matter of fact, it's the only sore part of me as I'm typing this. I even curled my knees into my chest during the last set of pull ups to see if that would make it easier, but it didn't. Oh well.

I"m sure planks aren't helping any. I do my 3 sets of 2 minute plus planks, ending with side planks. I do them with both my arms fully extended because elbow planks really bother my shoulders. I'm having trouble with placing my feet. It's harder to balance when your feet are stacked atop each other, so I just place one foot in front of the other on the ground. In scanning the web for images of planks, I see variations that call for the top leg extended. I think I might try that for 15 to 30 seconds on each side of a 2-minute plank. Not only does it look goofy, it could be fun.

This could be fun to try!

I've heard back from the Nexersys people on FB about how to deactivate the Punching Too Hard warning. It's another option listed under Settings in the User Profile. Excellent! I'm hoping the hip will be better tomorrow. Because I'm still going to whack that machine, and give the Advanced Level a go. It'll probably whoop my butt, but that's just another challenge. Wednesday I'll have my son in tow so it'll be an abbreviated workout. And I haven't decided whether I'll attempt working out after having SLT performed on my left eye. I'm just gonna wing it.

Monday Workout
(5.77 miles total cardio)