Zebras, Not Horses

I woke up this morning with my right thigh bicep on the verge of cramping but managed to stall it by jutting my heel out. It's the same technique to prevent calf cramps. The right side of my body seems prone to these indignities. The right foot has three hammer toes and lately they've been spasming at inopportune times, usually while I'm walking. Today on the elliptical I feel the toes start to curl and lock but I'm able to press my foot down flat to squelch the contraction. My lower back aches a little but it's not full-fledged sciatica. 

I haven't used elliptical #3 in a very long time. It also registers my rather erratic and eccentric heart rates but doesn't clunk as badly as #4 which has a broken HR monitor. Program 2 is what I call the twin peaks and I find it the hardest of all the programs. But today I score the best stats of the entire week even though I'm tired and a bit spacey. I even manage to beat my best rep count for hammer grip pull-ups and surprise myself. If I hadn't been running late then I might've finished with the step machine. But I want to make sure the dogs get enough play time at the park today...

When I get home, I do an online search for hammer toes, their causes and treatments. Not everything online is helpful. A lot of websites echo basic information, and some are so horribly written that they imply the opposite of what they're trying to convey. Most suggestions are sensible and completely not applicable in my case: wear comfortable shoes, stay hydrated, stretch, blah blah blah... Some websites have toe exercises that seem reasonable although I might've lost the dexterity I used to have to wrangle a towel with my toes. Aging is a bitch.

The fact that only my right foot has this issue means that it's trauma that's caused the nerve and ligament imbalance that is the root of the bunion and hammer toes. There might be a genetic component but that would mean both my feet would be affected. Not the case. It's nerve trauma from the removal of a schwannoma, a rare but benign nerve cell tumor on the inside ankle of my right foot over 30 years ago. I remember thinking it looked like a blob of chicken fat when it was sent out to the biopsy lab. My ankle and foot was never quite the same even though the surgery was a complete success with just the hint of a scar to mark the event. Sometimes when you hear hoof beats, it really is zebras, not horses.

29 April 2021
Frigid Friday Morn

Precor elliptical #3
Program 2
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5966)
Distance: 2.96
Cal: 334
Avg Hr 166, 201-81

HGPU 24 WTF!

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga
Band pull-aparts single strand 25

HGPU 22.5