Good and Bad

The newest itch creams don't contain antihistamines. Instead, the active ingredients are topical analgesics: menthol and pramoxine HCl. And they seem to work much better than the topical lidocaine cream I applied yesterday. And loads better than the nearly useless hydrocortisone cream one gets from the grocery. Still, my bug bites are distracting and my head is as foggy as the weather this morning. 

I'm happy just to get decent cardio done, whip through the core routine, and tried a few reps of one-leg hip thrusts just to see if it helps or hurts the lower back stiffness. I definitely feel it so the movement is doing something although I don't know if that's good or bad. 

Everything is good so far as I snag one of the Inclined Breaker Benches in the free weight area. It's getting crowded with regulars and HS kids. But something is amiss in my Inclined DB Press execution because with just the 10 lb warmup set, I manage to develop a knot under the left shoulder blade. Ugh. I stretch my back as best as I can but proceed with the DB Lateral Raises, followed by the Reverse Inclined Flys. The knot doesn't get any worse so that's a win. Of course, it doesn't go away either. So that's bad.

It isn't bad enough to prevent me from doing the rest of my shoulder routine, and in the mirror, the shoulders look pretty good in spite of me having packed on several extra pounds. (It's definitely the lighting that makes muscles more visible.) Not only am I too shy to shoot a selfie with half a dozen folks milling about, but I'd need another pair of hands to level the phone and hit the button. (My small hands have a lot of trouble taking a pix single-handed even with the newer, smaller iPhone 13.) I'm a knotty person and really miss getting a good deep-tissue sports massage. Yep, that's on my wish list...

17 June 2022
Hazy Friday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 3
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5658)
Distance: 2.86
Cal: 318
Avg Hr: 132, 196-87

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
(5 one-leg hip thrust)
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
Pull-apart band 25
Gentle upper body stretch
Eye yoga x 3

DB Incline Press s/s Lat Raise s/s Rev Inc Fly
10 lbs x 25/15/20 warm-up
15 x 20/15/25 reps x 1
20/15/20 lbs x 20/15/25 reps x 3 sets