Progress

Not quite sure what to say here. Have avoided this so far, but this is one of the stated reasons for having the blog - a record of effects, so have at it. Behold a mixture of facts and feels.

Timetable

I have one now, and so far I haven't cheated. It's only been a couple of days now, mind. Basically, I have to treat exercise (physio, strength-builders like press-ups, etc., and gym) as an entity like gigs or arts admin meetings or dates or stuff, only the main difference being that I can move them without asking anyone else. And that's move, not cancel. I try to make sure there's at least one rest day per week in the mix (and some of the other days are physio-only).

Let's see how that goes. I've learned from tonight's experience that I can do a day's work, go to the gym for a short but thorough workout, and drive a 100-mile trip round a gig without dying. I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Physio

This is going well, and I'm building back in some of the weird micro-muscle exercises I can do in my chair at work as well. Doing 15-20 mins of mat-physio in the morning does seem to make me feel more energised. It does, however, need to be timetabled with real discipline, mind...

I'm up to the proper number of reps for everything, and it's neither a burden nor a literal pain at the moment.

Gym

Gymnasia are weird places, no? What the...? Yeah. So re-calibrating my weirdness scale again to fit gyms in is proving interesting.

I've worked out how to make the stationary bikes do stuff that works for me and doesn't make me frustratedly confused. This is good. I'm up to a whopping 13.5 minutes (oooh) on each type of bike (beginning and end of the workout) at around level 8 (whatever the hell that means), and the time doesn't drag.

Much. I did have to start reading on my phone for the final 5 minutes of the second set. I should look out my Kindle - that worked well last time around, in the gym I understood.

This gym is shiny and doesn't have thick, slightly manky mats on which I could stretch and do floor exercises like the old one. It also has an alarming number (one so far, but where are the rest?!) of work colleagues in it. And there's a hot tub on a fire escape. I don't even...

Okay. Right. I'm using 2kg weights for the free weight exercises - up to 20 reps for the "easy" ones, and 15 for the "people with a screwed-up shoulder probably shouldn't... fine..." ones. I'm doing a mix of biceps and triceps and I have to try hard not to smile encouragingly/ snigger at the other people with (much bigger) weights. (Listen, if you look at me out of the corner of your eye while mashing big lumps of metal around and grunting, I have to assume that you want me to pay attention and validate you somehow.)

I'll switch up weight and down reps when 15 and 20 get easy. They have 2.5kg weights. They're barely used...

My arms don't burn like they did at first; the final five reps of any set are a lot less Sisyphean than they were last week.

Rowing machines are fun! :D Especially when you remember that time your partner taught you how to row properly on one of these things. 800+m in 5 mins? Something like that... More next week, and to think I only got on it because someone was using the chest press.

Up to 14kg on the chest press - two sets of 15-ish reps (second set always shorter than the first). Starting to come to the conclusion that either all chest press machines are wonky in the  same way, or I actually have one arm shorter than the other.

Strength exercises

Up to 20 on press-ups, 15 on leg-raises (old injury I'm being careful of), and 60s on front plank (get in!). I do four sets and the reps/ holds definitely vary after the first one.

How does it make you feel?

Chuffed, really. My top pulse rate appears to have reduced on the bikes, the weight reps are solid, I haven't injured myself yet, and it feels like progress.

And how does that make you feeeel?

I definitely feel more confident and more present in my body (as opposed to disconnected/ avoiding sensations from). I'm not exactly free of pain at the moment, but I seem to be less bothered about it - it's just information.

I tend to start to groan when I pull myself up from sitting, then realise that's not that painful. In fact I've only just realised this week how much I move through the world as though in expectation of pain. It would be good to stop that.

Dietary Stuff

Drinking more water is brilliant! And it turns out I was already pretty good at getting five a day. But pushing it more is good. Eating more raw vegs always gives me this weird sensation of a light belly (no, not hungry!) after a few days of putting the effort in.

And I'm therefore eating fewer snacks as there's no room for them.

Right. I'm.crashing. See you soon!