Just the Basics

I haven't been to the chiropractor in over a week and the lower back/sciatica hasn't improved. Today I found myself limping through the Bark Park for 45 minutes while the pups galloped around like loonies. I blame it on sitting in my car yesterday for the hour and a half it takes to drive to kung fu class, the duration of the class, and the drive back. Because of the pandemic, parents no longer sit inside the school. We wait in our cars, or do errands, or the kid is old enough to drive himself. Sitting in the car always makes my sciatica worse even though it's not an awful seat. 

I have errands to do all morning and don't get to the gym until noon. It's Hump Day and not terribly crowded so I can use the elliptical. Pedaling on the elliptical is probably the only time I don't actively feel the throbbing in my right glute or the burning tightness in the outer calf. There are some regulars I recognize including creepy Pajama Pants. He's still creepy. I'm glad he doesn't use the Aerobic Room.

Bird Dogs aggravate my sciatica again and Fire Hydrants alleviate the pain. I've added another 60-second plank and more push-ups. Thirty feels kind of easy so I add ten more. If I wanted to push it, I'd've gone for fifty but I did that yesterday. I do feel guilty about not doing any pull-ups. Maybe tomorrow. 

Someone has loaded a lot of large plates on the Smith but is nowhere in sight. Because my whole lower right side feels compromised, I'm not inclined to ask if anyone is still using the station. Instead, I plant myself on the Seated Cable Rows. Of course, creepy PJ Pants is seated diagonally across from me at the Lat Pull Down station, but I'm good at feigning being oblivious to everyone around me. 

The weird rash down my left thigh hasn't changed either, not better and not really worse. I've looked up scary things like cellulitis but it doesn't look like that. I don't know exactly what it looks like, but it's not normal. It can't possibly be shingles again, right? I guess I'll have to make an appointment with my doc... 

I'm not even inclined to do a few minutes on the ClimbMill. Nope, not even a little. I've just done the bare minimum today: cardio, core and stretching, some weights. 

4 November 2020
Sunny Sciatic Wednesday

Precor elliptical
35 min
Program 1
HR 78, 85, 92, 148, 194
Cal 317
Distance 2.85

Crunches x 60 x 2
Piriformis Stretch
Plank 60s
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Plank 60s
Pushups 40
Piriformis Stretches
Quick Mat Stretch

Seated Cable Row
70 lbs x 15 reps
85 x 12
92.5 x 10, 10, 10