The Kids Are Back

The parking lot was so devoid of cars I had to check to make sure that today wasn't a holiday. The gym isn't crowded but there are newish faces, young faces. Colleges in New York State have mostly graduated last weekend and the "kids" are home now. So they're at the gym too. At least they're not in the way. Yet.

I just squeak past 2.8 during cardio. The first set of pull-ups doesn't feel great because I'm still tired, and inexplicably not quite awake. I'm better after doing core. The part I dread the most are the back-to-back push-ups and air squats. I'm not sure why except those are probably the hardest things I do in the Aerobics Room, and in actuality, they're not very hard. Then back to cardio with 10 minutes on the step machine.

I'm sweaty, breathless and a bit flushed when I step off and approach the Stretch Cage. But I feel much stronger than when I finished off the elliptical earlier. The pull-ups feel better and I'm so surprised that I stop at rep 20 out of habit. But truly, I could have gotten a few more reps. On the other hand, I never know when the forearm will stress out from pull-ups. My body has been very reactive lately and that's troubling. I woke up with a spasm in my lower calf, just over the heel. 

It's not a muscle cramp, rather an Achilles tendon injury. But it's not a typical Achilles tendonitis where there is a burning pain. Nope, this is an actual spasm that lasts for a minute or less and then remains sensitive and sore for the rest of the day. (Online literature suggests that spasms aren't possible in a tendon but I beg to differ from actual personal experience. Doctors are often soooo wrong just because they've never experienced it themselves.) My hamstring is also sensitive and threatens to spasm if I move the wrong way. My lower back on the left side reacts the same way to a prolonged pencil stretch. (Stretching is supposed to prevent injuries, not create them!)

I suspect they're all responses to old injuries. Ugh. It's very limiting to limit how you move just because it might trigger a really painful cramp. Lately, it's never really over, as if the spasm just sensitizes the afflicted area to react even more quickly to whatever triggered it originally. Maybe if I took a month off, the tendons and muscles would calm down. But damn, I'd get soooo fat so that's not happening.

18 May 2023
Calf Cramp Thursday

Precor elliptical #1
Program 1
Time: 30 + 5 (5502)
Distance: 2.81
Cal: 310
Avg Hr: 131, 180-81

HGPU 20

20 Hip Bridges
Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
20 Hip Bridges
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 30 x 2
Child’s Pose / Cobra Pose
Bird Dog Planks 60s x 2
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Upper body stretch
Eye yoga

StepMill (R)
Manual 10 min
Speed 6 (52-60)
Steps 549
Floors 34
Cal 80
Hr 148

HGPU 20