I've been putting on shorts for the drive home after the gym but I'm a bit self-conscious about the horizontal pressure lines around my ankles. They're impressions left by socks I wore under my boots over 4 hours ago. I have highly impressionable skin. Skin that doesn't have that normal resilient bounceback.
Anything even vaguely tight shows up like an incision. My body displays elastic bands as if I were made of dough. No turtlenecks, scarves, belts, or anything even mildly constrictive for me! It isn't just the weird appearance on my skin, but that such pressures make my extremities numb and tingly.
I'm not sure if this is related to the genetic skin condition IV, ichthyosis vulgaris (a defective filaggrin gene), but it's a trait shared by my mother and her mother. Include joint laxity and collapsing/rolling veins and I'm worrying about EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome), a connective tissue disorder, as well. I'm convinced it's related to the IV because while collagen defects make sense, I don't come close to having the issues suffered by my husband's niece. She's certified EDS-POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). Maybe filaggrin affects more than just skin?
It's been unseasonably hot all week but finally, the humidity has dropped enough to make outdoors bearable. The dogs definitely acted friskier with their canine pals today. The gym is populated with regulars and HS kids again. And after my cardio session, I cool down in the Aerobics Room doing core and stretches. While I'm seated doing mild neck stretches, I attempt to try a few eye yoga moves. I read about Paul McCartney's claims that eye yoga has preserved his vision. It could just be that he has good genetics but I'm willing to spend a few minutes flicking my eyes to the left and then to the right. Up and then down. It's not going to make anything worse. I'll post his video below. I haven't done all the exercises yet--I'm working up to it!
There are the same HS boys in the free weight area that I've seen for the past few months. At least they know to rerack their plates and wipe down the equipment. I do my standard shoulder routine with the 15 and 20 lb dumbbells. And of course, by the very last set, I'm thoroughly warmed up enough to add an extra 5 reps. Normally, I'd also do a few sets of V-bar Press Downs at the cable station, but there are other priorities today. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe it'll just be a "cardio plus" day. Both ClimbMaster machines are up and running now. And it's been a while since I played Dragon Island on the Expresso Bike...
10 June 2021 Moderately Hot Thursday
Precor elliptical 30 min + 5 cool down Program 1 HR 134-188, 84 Cal 320 Distance 2.87
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch 40 Dead Bugs x 2 Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 30 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Skip Push-Ups Mat stretch w Seated Twist
DB raises supersets lateral standing 15 lbs x 15 x 3 Rev Incl flys (w/u) 15 lbs x 20 x 1 20lbs x 20 x 2, 25 x 1
I spent a good part of yesterday reading up on how to wipe an old computer hard drive when the computer itself won't boot. Just because you can't get it to start doesn't mean some dedicated hacker can't access your sensitive info. Granted, the infamous blue and white power Mac G3s were discontinued in 1999 but data is data. There are no "big box retailers" in my county so I have to drive to the next state where Staples will take my old electronics. It's illegal in NY to toss such items in household trash or recycling bins: the fine is $100. I feel better taking the items to someplace that will recover any valuable components, but I'm not sure how to get the hard drive out until I watch a few YouTube videos. It's true: you CAN find a how-to for just about anything.
I'll hang onto the hard drive until I figure out how to properly destroy it...maybe a sledgehammer since I don't have a fancy hard drive shredder or a drill press to put holes into it. Someone recommends spraying degreaser on it and soaking it in vinegar overnight since the acid will dissolve the magnetic tape eventually. A giant magnet works well too but who has one of those lying around? Not me. Maybe an auto salvage yard but perhaps that's something I saw in a movie once?
Because the dogs are spending several hours at the park in the morning (before temps become unbearably hot and unsafe), I've had to make sure I eat breakfast before I go: oatmeal with a beaten egg, dried cherries or raisins, and a splash of maple syrup. The egg makes the cereal fluffier, and with the added protein I'm full longer. However, I think it's making me fat. Seriously. I'm hungry again by the time I'm on the elliptical at the gym!
The gym is a lot more crowded than I'm used to and I suspect that the HS there has let out early. Kids that normally don't arrive until after 2 pm are already gathered at the MaxRack doing squats. I do cardio, core, and stretches. I divide push-ups into two sets and am distressed to find them difficult, perhaps because I'm trying to keep my elbows closer to my body. But that makes my elbows click painfully so I adjust them outward with each rep until they don't hurt. I feel weak so it's a good thing that the Smith machine is available. Nothing like feeling like you've lost strength to encourage weight-lifting efforts.
I have to keep reminding myself that I'm a lot older than these youngsters although I don't think of myself as being old. Old is being in your 80s. Not sure about 70 since that's less than a decade away. I guess I should be happy I'm still able to do the routine that I do. My sciatica and the hip twinge barely register today although they're never completely gone. One careless step or "off angle" and there's discomfort. When I get home, there's a postcard addressed to me advertising funeral plots for "peace of mind" because I'm old and I should be planning for these eventualities. Ugh. Never mind that they've been sending me these reminders since I hit 50, when I was young!
9 June 2021 Heatwave Humpday
Precor elliptical 30 min + 5 cool down Program 3 HR 81, 192-133, 92 Cal 319 Distance 2.86
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch 40 Dead Bugs x 2 Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 25 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Push-Ups 25 x2 Mat stretch w Seated Twist
Smith Incl Bench Bar (30) x 20 reps +20 x 15 +30 x 15 +40 x 15 +50 x 12 +30 x 21
Temps hit the low 90s yesterday and promise to do so again today. It's a good thing I got scheduled for the a/c repairman to come this morning at 8 am. Which meant taking the pups to the park at 7: they got to sit in the car with my son while waiting for the school bus. My dogs are not patient creatures, especially first thing in the morning, and especially when there's a wee dog in a window on a house on the corner barking at us.
At 7 am, it's still warmer than the dogs prefer and after a mere 20 minutes, one has his tongue lolling out of his mouth panting. There are two other dogs who come early, but they're both smallish 9 yr olds and not much interested in playing with my dogs. Just as well. My dogs say hi but aren't insistent on any interaction. Dogs keep their own canine buddies just like people.
The repair fellow runs diagnostic tests and discovers that the power switch is bad. Other than that, and needing the filters to be washed out, the unit runs fine. It's also the oldest Fujitsu wall unit he's seen that actually works. Credit to benign neglect. Unfortunately, there's no replacement switch in the truck so he hooks up the a/c so that I can shut down the power through the breaker box in the basement. He'll come back with a new switch when he can get it scheduled. They have a lot of units to service. I'm really really happy we don't need to buy a replacement!
Some people just can't live without their a/c. I don't do well with heat, which is why I'm never moving someplace where I'd have to live in a/c all the time. What happens when the power fails (because we all know that infrastructures often do)? Not having a/c is unpleasant but it won't kill us. Of course, we try to keep the pups cool: having fans strategically placed around the house helps a lot. But it's not the same as running an a/c unit. We only have one in the attic room and if we leave it on long enough, the cool air will float downstairs through most of the house. It won't reach the kitchen though, or the master bedroom.
I'm packing my bag to hit the gym when I get several phone messages and emails telling me that the tech is on his way back to my house. He had been scheduled to return tomorrow but he wanted to be able to close the ticket today. Ben Franklin's adage "Never leave off to tomorrow what can be done today." Total agreement here. Now my a/c unit works properly! I get to the gym and it's nearly 2 pm. Well, at least I'm here in the cool a/c with hardly anyone around. HS kids trickle in over the next 30 minutes. I see a few regulars from the "before" time.
The hip twinge is intermittent and horribly painful when it does strike. So, it's getting worse, not better. Grrrr... The sciatica is still there but relegated to nuisance status as long as I don't do anything stupid to aggravate it. (More annoying are the countless bug bites I keep incurring. Got several this morning while chatting with the repairman.) I wish it was colder in the gym. After less than an hour, I catch a whiff of myself. Ugh. Cardio made me hot and sweaty with a beet-red face. Then I cooled down in the Aerobics Room, only to get my temps up at the Seated Cable Rows... I thought it was my gym clothes, but I catch a whiff before I step into the shower. Nope, it's me. All that sweating. I'll be cool and dry for the drive home, but sweaty again just doing mundane things like laundry. I guess we're having a heatwave!
7 June 2021 Blistering Monday
Precor elliptical 30 min + 5 cool down Program 2 HR 186-136, 89, 97 Cal 317 Distance 2.85
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch 40 Dead Bugs x 2 Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 25 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Skip Push-Ups Mat stretch w Seated Twist
HGPU 17
EZ Seated Cable Rows 70lbs x 15 reps 77.5 x 12 85 x 10 92.5 x 8 85 x 12 77.5 x 12 70 x 15
I woke up with an injury I don't remember incurring. It's an intermittent twinge in the crease of my front hip, right at the top of the thigh, but only in one tiny spot. If I move slowly and purposefully, there's no pain. But increase my gait and perhaps add a bit of sloppy maneuvering and the sharp stab immediately halts forward motion. Is it the sartorius muscle, the longest muscle in the body? Or something else? Ugh. This happens to me a lot: something slips out of place imperceptibly and then there's pain until my body figures out how to wrangle everything back into proper position. It's not as severe as a dislocation, but it's still annoying.
Because I don't know if pedaling backward will help or hurt, and since someone's already on the elliptical I favor, I opt to do 25 minutes on the cross-trainer instead. My hip doesn't hurt while I pedal but my foot goes numb at the end of the session. Temps have been rising all week. It's around 80F at noon and there are few people inside the gym. Thank goodness the air conditioning is on full blast.
I pare my abs & core routine further to save time. The piriformis stretches don't help the hip twinge, but they don't make them worse either. (Is it hip flexor strain? It's not persistent so probably not.) I plan to do shoulders before showering and leaving to find triple-A batteries and kale salad. Most of the remote devices and flashlights at home use AAA batteries and so now we have a surplus of AA, C, D, and 9 volts, because nothing we use on a daily basis uses anything but triple-As.
The HS kids arrive just as I'm about done. I'm hoping my hip will calm down and that the twinge disappears. It's going to be in the 90s on Sunday and almost as hot all next week. Dogs don't like the heat much and neither do I. Thankfully, places like the gym have full-blast air conditioning!
4 June 2021 Friday Left Hip Twinge
LF cross-trainer 20 min + 5 cool down Program Manual 1 HR 125-157 Cal 199 Distance 2.79
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 25 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Mat stretch w Seated Twist
DB raises supersets lateral standing 15 lbs x 15 x 4 Rev Incl flys (w/u) 15 lbs x 20 x 1 20lbs x 20 x 3
Dogs don't shrink in the rain, especially when it's the type of rain that makes the air wet but not much else. My pups and I go to the park this morning but no one else is brave enough for the weather. There are severe storm warnings but that hasn't manifested itself here other than rain. After a half-hour, the dogs are bored enough to start digging and nibbling at dirt. Ugh. Time to go home.
When I get to the gym, I recognize a few more regulars from the "before" time. I don't feel much different but it is nice to get "workout sweaty" without a mask on. Because it's Thursday and school hasn't let out yet, the gym is fairly empty. But I'm only here for cardio. And some core. And some stretching. While stretching, my abs and ribs feel mildly sore. Just as well. I break up the push-ups into two sets figuring as long as the total is fifty, I'm good. While a pair of 25s makes sense, I opt for 30 and 20. I experiment with my head position as well because I've seen some people on YouTube do push-ups while looking up at the camera instead of forward, which would be the floor.
Tomorrow I'll do cardio and shoulders. And then I'll have to run out in search of kale salad and coleslaw for our Troop's Court of Honor at the park later in the afternoon. It's a potluck and all the parents have signed up to bring something. Normally I'd bring donuts or something sweet but one of our senior Troop members has revealed he has diabetic neuropathy in his fingertips and toes, i.e., those extremities are numb and don't register sensations. He's not on insulin so he's controlling his blood sugar purely with diet and exercise. Donuts would be cruel.
3 June 2021 Rainy Cardio Thursday
Precor elliptical 30 min + 5 cool down Program 1 HR 140-199, 89, 87 Cal 313 Distance 2.83
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch 40 Dead Bugs x 2 Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 25 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Push-Ups 30, 20 Mat stretch w Seated Twist
I walk into the Aerobics Room after a hot sweaty jaunt on the elliptical and see two adjustable benches and no trash bin. WTH? Immediately my grandmother's voice in my head says, "Put things back where you got them from!" It was a constant refrain in my household, especially with younger siblings. I'm not a neat and organized person by nature so I have to try extra hard in order to keep chaos at bay. I'm not always successful.
I'm sure that some idiot decided to train his friend/girl/kid and dragged two adjustable benches out of the free weight area and into the Aerobics Room just so they could work out in tandem in front of a big mirrored wall with plastic dumbbells. And once done, they sauntered off and never put anything back. There are signs in the free weight area asking members to rerack. Some do and a lot don't. Because they're oblivious to everything except their immediate needs.
Half the gym is masked, mostly kids. Some people wear the mask under their chin. Some people like me don't wear one at all. Later, at the CVS, the cashier (a chatty older woman I'm friendly with) advises me to wear a mask at the store if only because too many people are coughing and sneezing. She's worried that "nice people" like me will catch the flu or something because of all the sick people. I'm hoping it's just seasonal allergies. With all the rain, there's a bounty of biting insects and flowering trees. I'm still waiting for the cicadas to appear.
Yesterday's workout left me a tad sore. Not sure about today's. While I'm at the Seated Cable Row station, I'm surrounded by lots of HS kids. Some are tiny little boys but there are a few gymnast-like girls. I cut back the core exercises because even my abs are slightly sore. No one's supposed to train abs every day anymore. But cardio every day is fine. I'll do at least that tomorrow.
2 June 2021 Hump Wednesday
Precor elliptical 30 min + 5 cool down Program 3 HR 148-198, 96 Cal 327 Distance 2.92
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch 40 Dead Bugs Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 25 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Skip Push-Ups Mat stretch w Seated Twist
HGPU 17
EZ Seated Cable Rows 70lbs x 15 reps 77.5 x 12 85 x 10 92.5 x 8 85 x 12 77.5 x 12 70 x 15
I hadn't planned to do Inclined Presses today even though it's the first time I've been to the gym in four days. And it rained miserably those four days with temps hovering in the mid-40s. Not conducive to any sort of garden cleanup or even cleaning out my car since it sits in the unsheltered driveway. Dogs did not go to the park either and got cabin fever. Yesterday was their first day to romp after being cooped up and they were delirious. To the point of one of them catching (but not killing) a baby squirrel and proudly displaying the shrieking rodent to three other intensely interested pups.
To spare the wee thing from being torn to shreds in a canine game of tug o'war, I grabbed my dog by his harness (that's why it has a handle) and kept him from scooping the squirrel back up once he'd dropped it to the ground. The other dog owners kept their pups at bay while we put the kit back under the tree we think it came from. But mama squirrel never came back for her baby and fearful that it wouldn't survive alone in the Bark Park, it finally got taken home and then to a wildlife rehab center. Whew!
Today there's hardly anyone at the dog park. I get to the gym and nod at an old guy I haven't seen all year: SnowBird. He must be back from Florida. Yep, the regulars are trickling back in but it's not crowded and I'm glad. In the cool Aerobics Room, I note how flushed my face is. It always gets pink like that when I get hot. Sometimes I feel like a model for the propaganda posters for the communist Chinese back in the 70s and 80s. Just give me pigtails and a little red book. Kidding! Some people think that my natural coloring is actually applied makeup. Weird, right?
After cardio and core, I have a mind to do Seated Cable Rows but the handle I want is affixed to the Lat Pull Down station where there are a couple of HS boys goofing around. However, the Smith is free and the big adjustable bench is nearby. I haven't done Inclined Presses in several weeks so I'm worried about how it'll affect my shoulder and sciatica. The big bench is definitely easier on my sciatica because it has a footrest. It's the little things that "makes or breaks" this well-worn body.
Just as well that I don't do any pull-ups. I should probably cut back on my push-ups too since they might contribute to a higher than advisable IOP (internal eyeball pressure). The shoulder feels okay as I cautiously press with ever slightly heavier weights. It's actually my IOPs that I worry about because with just 50 lbs on the bar, I can feel myself start to hold my breath to press up. Not good. So 50 on the bar is my max because sight is more important.
Tomorrow I'll do Seated Cable Rows and a few pull-ups... I'd like to get some yard work done but all the things I can handle are either manual or electric. As in electric weedeater and electric hedge trimmer. And electricity and rain don't mix. There's rain in the forecast for the coming weekend too. Manual trimmers and loppers work in any weather but they make my hands really sore. And I have no hope that they'll get any bigger or more muscular. They're just bony little hands...
1 June 2021 Post-Holiday Tuesday
Precor elliptical 30 min + 5 cool down Program 2 HR 91, 149-189 Cal 323 Distance 2.89
Crunches x 60 x 2 Piriformis Stretch 40 Dead Bugs x 2 Plank 60s Fire Hydrants 25 x 2 Bird Dogs 60s x 2 Push-Ups 50 Mat stretch w Seated Twist
Smith Incl Bench Bar (30) x 20 reps +20 x 15 +30 x 15 +40 x 15 +50 x 12 +30 x 20
