Thursday, December 8, 2022

Not a Quick Cure

My sciatica always feels better leaving the gym than when I first arrive. I treat myself this morning by tossing my gym clothes into the dryer for a few minutes to make them comfortably toasty. Cold clothes just make me shiver and that's the last thing I want to do when I'm balancing on one leg trying to get my sport pants on. Putting my socks on is the most painful thing I do lately.

The one positive thing I have to say about taking ibuprofen and gabapentin before bed, is that I've been sleeping soundly through the night for a solid 6 hours. It works better than the tiny dose (3 mg) of melatonin I used to take. I should probably go to bed earlier and try for 7 hours but that never happens during the week.

I do my routine cardio, get warm and sweaty. I try "curl ups" for a few reps before returning to my standard core routine. I'm not sure how those differ from crunches or how they benefit us lower back pain sufferers. Sitting on the mat is still really uncomfortable and I wind up kneeling to do eye yoga movements. Sitting is going to be an issue for weight lifting as well.

The Step Mills are vacant so I do 10 minutes there while assessing the free weight area. The chatty regulars are all back, congregating around one of the breaker benches. I decide to skip all movements that either involve sitting or that put stress on my hamstrings, which means no Inclined DB Presses, and no Rip Skulls. However, that also means I can do everything else. And I do. It seems to work because driving back from the gym is so much less painful that I almost forgot about the sciatica. At least until I had to sit down in front of the computer.

8 December 2022
Brighter Sciatic Thursday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30 + 5 (5620)
Distance: 2.84
Cal: 316
Avg Hr: 143, 182-83

Curl Ups 10 each side
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 / Cobra Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga (sitting is still a problem)

StepMill (L)
Manual 10 min
Speed 6 (52-55)
Steps 519
Floors 32
Cal 76
Hr 126

Light Combo
Skull Crushers
30 lbs x 15 warmup
35 x 15 x 3 sets
30 x 20
Lateral Raises s/s Rev Incline Flys
10 lbs x 15/25 warm up
15 lbs x 15/25
15/20 x 15/25 x 3


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