Born Again Gym Rat: Sometimes Not Thinking is Better Than Thinking

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Sometimes Not Thinking is Better Than Thinking

It took me a while to get to the gym because I was waiting for my body to deal with morning coffee and breakfast (Greek-style yogurt with maple syrup). It sounds silly, but in truth, I'm a very regular person in that respect, and if I miss my "window", then it doesn't happen until the next day. And I feel better when everything runs like clockwork. The gym has bathrooms, but due to the low-energy, water-saving toilets, nothing solid really flushes properly. Which is fine if all you're doing is peeing. But not fine if you have other needs. Hence, my decision to wait. The only thing worse is being "bound up" and having severe sciatica, because the nerve seems to run past the colon walls. Any sort of pushing or straining results in a lot of vibrating pain from the lower hip through the thigh and down into the ball of the foot. It's not fun. Now I understand padded toilet seats! Ugh!

I do a 10 minute warm up on the elliptical, pedaling both forward and backwards. It's warm and rainy today so I don't wear the sleeveless sweat shirt. I'm doing well during the warm up rounds until the power suddenly fails. The Nexersys machine doesn't save anything unless you've actually finished the program. 5 rounds of data lost. Bummer. The power returns, and I reset the machine to do 5 rounds of Intermediate. There's nothing to do but move on. I finish with 5 rounds of Advance and feel pretty good. I'd like to do 15 minutes of low-level cardio, but the Step Mill is out of my routine until the leg feels better. Instead I do 15 minutes of Steady State on the elliptical, pedaling 5 minutes forward, then 5 min backward. Then alternating until I'm done. Lastly, I knock out a bunch of pull ups. They do feel easier than my first set yesterday. Not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow though...

Wednesday Workout

Impromptu Lat Spread
credited to daily Pull Ups