Wind Breaker is pedaling elliptical #3 and all the rest are vacant. I get on #1 and proceed with program 1. There's a loud noise outside of the normal clunking and I look down to see that the plate covering the pedal rods has slipped out of place and is banging against the frame. I can reach down with my toe and slide it back into place. Once the program hits a severe incline, the plate slides down again and I have to pause again to toe the plate back into the position.
While I started off with my quads feeling quite depleted, but by the time 35 minutes was over, I was actually less tired. My sciatica was still upset, as always, and my toes were numb. This got progressively worse when I did a few stretches at the Stretch Cage. Pull-ups were better than last time, probably because it's been literally an entire week since last I did this. There's only one of the two older Step Machines working and luckily, it's vacant. I do 10 minutes there, again, at the slower speed of 4. Because the machine varies its speed, the step count is different than last time, when again, I did 10 minutes at speed 4.
The gym is getting crowded, especially with HS kids. Maybe I'll do the DB Shoulder routine tomorrow if I can arrive early enough. I've been crunched for time since I started walking the pups in the morning while waiting for temps to warm up a tad. Then I can defrost the car windshield and we can mosey off to the dog park. Also, dog friends don't arrive at the park until 10ish so another reason to wait instead of getting to the park at 9.
I was rather surprised that my second set of pull-ups was as good as the first set. Maybe slightly better. The sciatica didn't hurt as much during this set and I stopped at 15 from fatigue, not pain down my right leg. Then off to the Aerobics Room to do some stretching and bodyweight movements. Dead Bugs and Bird Dog planks are really the only movements that aggravate my sciatica. Push-ups are fine with the legs apart. Air Squats have always been okay. Should I add Walking Lunges? Probably not just yet.
I did see the Orthopedic specialist with my MRI results. I'd been warned that he's pro-surgery, and while he's soft spoken and not at all pushy, he did state that he could only recommend either a pain management doc for steroid shots to relieve inflammation, or surgical options to reduce the narrowed vertebrae space inside the spinal column. I'm not inclined to do either of these things. Instead, I'm probably going to continue doing what I'm doing to see if I can regain my former exercise routine with less pain. Or I might visit the chiropractor with my x-rays and see if there might be a way get my spine back to a more stable position.
No comments:
Post a Comment