Last week I finally accepted the obvious and bought a folding cane. My ankle’s been doing much better since, I’m down to only using it for long walks or heavy loads now, but generally it’s been very helpful for not pain overloading myself. Between that and a compression brace, I can actually keep the goofy thing in joint, even when it’s really messed up. This definitely helps it heal faster, and hopefully will help it heal more permanently. I do the most damage to it when tensing muscles trying to keep it stable on a bad day, the brace lets me keep it relaxed enough to not injure further without it sliding out and the cane keeps me from having to force as much balance through it.
Cooking experimentation is mostly stalled, although eating experimentation isn’t. I’ve been eating a lot more fruit, trying out as many varieties of oranges as I can find, etc. So far my favorite breakfast, other than “more oranges!”, is cream of rice with frozen blueberries tossed in. Should get more variety into this soon though, as I’ve got pears and avocados ripening in the cabinet.
Tuesday Gym Summary
Run: 5 minutes, much harder than expected, barely got up to 4mph pace.
Weights: Successfully killed my pects. 5lb is not the same amount of torque at full arm extension.
Pulldowns: 45lb 4 x 15, bored.
This was mostly a “get myself back into the right room” sort of exercise day. Not what I’d call a real routine. Mostly looking over the equipment, trying to memorize what was available, getting an idea of my current condition, then going back to hit the books and come up with something better.
Thursday Gym Summary
Run: Did two segments instead of one long, pushed up to 5 mph for most of the second segment. Not as difficult as I’d expected, ankle put up with it, should try in pants that don’t chaff next time.
Squats: Hah, I’m a wimp. I’m glad I went for 1/4 of 1RM est. for first time playing with this. As much as, yes, I CAN squat my groceries, doing 10lb 2 x 12 was plenty. (Dumbbells, I hadn’t found the bar yet, bastards hid it.)
Lat pulldowns: 30lb 2 x 15, and I barely even noticed that I was doing anything. Definitely underestimated on this one, should have tried rows as well.
Presses: Angle ones looked fun, so did that. Dumbbells again despite having found where the bar went, because the only hooks I could find for resting the bar were on the Smith machine and too far apart for the bar to go onto. 5lb ea. 2 x 12 was just right, mostly because my pects are barely recovered from Tuesday. I like the extra attention it takes to move dumbbells accurately as opposed to barbells, and I like needing less “ach I’m gonna drop a heavy bar on my face” concern.
Situps: 0lb 2 x 12 flat, and I’m embarrassed to say that was difficult. Doable, reasonable, I doubt I’ll be sore, but I was definitely having to focus.
So, not bad overall. Still got more reading to do, and I should be doing some stuff for my bad ankle other than subjecting it to controlled running, but progress. And didn’t kill any muscles today. Only one problem: I couldn’t find any place in the gym appropriate for chin-ups unless I can get the Smith machine stuck at an appropriate height. I’m not ready for them yet, but they’re on the eventual menu, so having appropriate equipment would be nice. Ok, so having appropriate equipment would be nice in general… The city gym is rather minimal in a way that indicates that the purchasing agents had probably never actually used a gym. As much as I don’t want to end up at 24 Hour FUDness, their weight room was at least complete-looking, and a year of compensating for the city gym may drive me batty enough to go for it.
It felt good to spend more of my time on free-weights than machines. I need to find the holes and fill them, but this was just an exploratory round anyway, so really… I did what I intended to do. It’s important for me to learn not to overdo it, and this was a key point in doing so.
Links
For gym stuff, I’ve been studying the articles at Stumptuous.com: Women’s Weight Training.
Some of my fruit-eating success was inspired by The Steve Pavlina Blog.
