Born Again Gym Rat: Heavy Arms

Friday, January 8, 2016

Heavy Arms

Just as my knuckles seem good to go, my fingers start to ache and sting. It's this weather. As we age, our skin loses it's ability to hang on to moisture. Add a genetic predisposition to dry skin and we have winter skin fissures. If I let them go long enough, I'll find blood oozing from the hairline cracks in my finger tips and along my nail cuticles. My fingertips seem swollen and sensitive to every touch. Thank goodness I'm not susceptible to chilblains as well, although I've been making good use of Hot Hands® pocket warmers. But it's not enough. Gloves aren't enough. Using heavy creams and petroleum jelly isn't enough.

The only solution I've found is to use "liquid skin" which is a sort of plastic-like glue you can paint over the breach in your skin. It dries like clear-coat nail polish, and smells like it too. There are several brands. Most of them sting like the dickens too. If you look hard enough, you can find some with an anesthetic like lidocaine to numb the area. I paint my fingertips liberally and try not to touch anything while they're drying.

I use a double patch of moleskin on my right pointer knuckle today, and it seems to help. Although my session isn't quite as good as Tuesday's, I'm very pleased. It was a great workout. The machine did blank several times, and I've informed the gym staff that perhaps something needs to be tightened. What I really like is the ability to ramp up for the very last two rounds of a 15-round routine, calling on stores of endurance and strength that aren't readily apparent. It's a head rush. My arms and especially my shoulders feel really heavy today. I'm wondering if the DB delt workout from Monday is finally catching up with me? Who can really tell?

Morning Selfie pre-workout

Afterwards, 15 minutes on the Step Mill and then some pull ups before doing most of my Mat Stretch. I've decided to see if doing pull ups every day will help or hinder my progress. Today, I felt a bit tired for the last 2-3 reps. Sometimes I underestimate myself, because I almost broke my nose coming up to the cage roof so fast for that last rep. I'm still waiting for my ZMA to show up. I've been taking chelated zinc gluconate and magnesium oxide at bed time, but it's not the same as the ZMA. I'm assuming that the A stands for "acetate", which is how the zinc and magnesium appear in this formulation. My sleep hasn't been great. But eating dark chocolate-covered espresso beans for a late afternoon caffeine boost probably isn't helping.

Friday Workout