Monday, January 12, 2009

In all the excitement, I forgot.

What with vertigo and hospice and not a lot of sleep mid-week, I forgot to tell y'all about my appointment with Doc Bassman.

I don't have to go to physical therapy anymore. I have a decent range of motion (I lost a few degrees, but that was supposed to happen. I needed a tighter joint, and that's what I got) and now it's time to work on regaining the muscle strength I lost when I was confined to an immobilizer and sling for a total of 7 weeks.

"Cool" I said "so, I can do push ups and pull ups now?"

The response, whilst it was polite, had undertones of not just NO but FUCK NO to it. Not unless I want to have my shoulder re-reconstructed, that is. I certainly don't want that, so....no push ups on the living room floor for me. Or pull ups on the bar across the doorway in the garage. Or dips off the edge of the coffee table. Not that I've tried to do any of those things already, I'm a good girl and I ALWAYS do exactly what my doctor tells me to do. Really. I do, honestly. Ahem....so anyway, I was looking for those stretchy tubes that you can use to do resistance training, and found this thing called a 'Door Gym' - it's stretchy elastic cords and pulleys that you can hook up to a door and do all kinds of upper and lower body stuff with. I'm doing bicep curls and triceps extensions and lateral rows and this punching exercise where you hold on to one of the cords and literally throw a punch. It feels pretty good - there's enough resistance to make me work, but not so much that I feel like I'm asking too much of my shoulder.

I go back to see Doc Bassman on the 19th of February. Hopefully he'll be more willing to let me start to do some calisthenics by then. Until that time, I'm going to focus on cardio - running every other day (although I took last week off and I'm sure that the run I'm fixing to go do when I get done with this article is going to kick my ass) and riding either my own bike outside or the stationary bike at the gym. I'm also going to start rucking on a regular basis....I'm loading my backpack up with 15 to 20lbs of miscellaneous stuff, and I'm heading out on a mile or more march. I figure that will not only help my cardio along, but it'll get me somewhat accustomed to carrying a ruck full of gear.

Ok, I can't put the gym off any longer. Quit procrastinating NM, and get your arse out of here....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're an inspriation! Thanks for posting about your exercise adventures, they're motivating me to go out and get fit myself!

Ninja Pharmer said...

Aww, thanks, C! I worry sometimes that it'll get boring and that nobody wants to read every. single. detail of my eating and running habits....but by doing it; by coming here and talking about it, I'm kinda MAKING myself do stuff, you know? It makes me feel like I'm accountable to more than just myself.

So, how's your regimen going? What are you doing to get in (and stay in) shape?