Born Again Gym Rat: Moving Through, Not Around

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Moving Through, Not Around

Sweeping snow is almost as taxing as shoveling. It's certainly a warm up. I half expected the school's to post a two-hour delay, but the phone is silent this morning. Two other towns have delays, but not ours. If I don't clear the driveway, it'll be treacherous tonight when we take the dog for a walk. I sweep and then salt. Hmmm. I could use with another bag of salt even though I have 50 lbs of the stuff inside the house. But I like to be prepared. I'm not happy with the -6F forecast for later this week. It means I need to bring more firewood inside.

Sciatica persists but is not debilitating. Yet. Not happy about the slow creep of my weight. My pants feel too tight in the hip and thighs. Yep, time to cut out the sangria and apple ale, and probably even the oatmeal. Back to basics like Greek-style yogurt with maple syrup, and salad. Lots of salad. The sciatic pain is only noticeable when I'm trying to put my socks on, or I'm leaning on my right leg, as in pressing the accelerator when I drive. Sometimes there's a weird ache in my outside ankle or the ball of my foot. It's all the same nerve.

If I wait any longer for the sciatica to heal, I'll become a fat, dumpy old lady. Or that's how I feel. I'm turning 56 next month, but in my head, I'm already there. Back to my routine, more or less. 30 minutes on the cross-trainer leaves the front half of my right foot numb, but I know that's temporary. There's an ancient man stretching at the Cage so no hammer grip pull ups just yet. I do a round of push ups, followed by planks, then more push ups, then different planks. I want to bench at the Smith, but of course, I can't find the small bench, the bench that actually allows me to place my feet on something solid. Not the ground, but the cross-bar foot.

I'm too short to have my feet planted flat on the ground, and it's a major problem when benching heavy. I only do a few sets, dropping reps as I add weight. A hamstring spasm during heavy benching is scary, but since it almost happened last week, I'm sort of prepared. My legs are bent with my feet on the bench. I'm in the middle of a press when the hamstring muscle seizes so I immediately straighten the leg out. People don't usually bench with legs straight out. I'm sure I look odd. I keep the left leg bent for stability while I finish the set. I know I can bench heavier than 120 lbs. I've done 130 and more in the past. But I guess I have to wait until my body will let me do it.

When I get to DB Lateral Raises SuperSet with Reverse Incline Flyes, I feel weak. But I do them anyway. I've modified the Reverse Flyes so that I do 5 reps in each direction, starting with high (pointing to the anterior delt), then low (pointing toward my hips), and finishing with straight out (perpendicular to the body). That's 15 reps per set. Six sets. Pushing through exhaustion means it was mostly in my mind because obviously the body could do it.

I only do 3 sets of Rip Skulls at 40 lbs — my left elbow hurts a little during the movement and increasing the weight only increases the chance of injury. But I can use the 50 lb bar for Drag Curls. Weird. And then I do another set of pull ups, keeping my elbows bent except for the last rep. Just because I need to prove to myself that I can do it. Because I'm so damn competitive and combative by nature.

With all my joint issues, I find bent-arm pull ups spares the biceps and elbows, especially since I can do them after bicep curls. Only my hands really get tired, especially my thumbs because of how I grip the "roof bars" on the Stretch Cage. I can see some growth in my lats which is very exciting, and in my delts as well. That makes me happy. Now to shed some of this excess weight... Today the gym scale read 110.2 lbs. At least it's moving in the right direction again.

Wednesday Workout
(6.62 miles total cardio, JeFit app 20,059 lbs moved)