At the start of 2011 I hadn’t yet decided to participate in the Belron Triathlon, nor was I yet back to being a member of the gym. Now, 12 months later, here I am writing about my gym sessions like a dork and have a open water swim race under my belt.
I remember when going to the gym was just something I did, daily. Maybe more than once, like eating. As a competitive swimmer, waking up, burning 1000 calories and then starting my day was normal. I didn’t think about it, I just did it.
When you have the momentum, it’s easy to keep it going. It’s when you lose that momentum, when the cycle stops, that’s where it gets difficult.
My momentum stopped in 1997, maybe it was 1996. My first injury. Only someone like me could start a sentence with ‘my first’! I tore two ligaments in my ankle right before my sophomore year in high school. This meant I wasn’t able to try out for the Swim Team and I spent a semester riding a stationary bike and freezing my ankle off in an Ice bath.
From there I decided to join cross country to stay in shape – I was over swimming after 13 years of it. If you know me, I’m not a runner. That lasted a semester, 6 miles a day – 2 miles at 6:00 every morning and then 4-5 after school. I actually hated it so much that I didn’t want to go to sleep at night because I had to wake up & run. I did it though. Every day.
Off to university I go – gym included in tuition. Win. Pool – meh. So to the gym as I felt like it – decided to try the pool second semester. Joined the Swimming Club – great group of friends, great work out, fell in love with the coach – ahhh… fell out with the coach; stopped swimming – back to the gym.
Around 2000 I went to the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans, LA. So much fun. Ended the evening by crowd surfing to 311 – did such a decent job on my first try – that I got near the stage and dropped about 6ft onto dirt ground that had been stomped on all day – felt like cement. Injury number 2: Separated shoulder, cracked my shoulder bone & fractured my shoulder blade… Ahhhhh…
Needless to say, once I got out of the sling months later and did physical therapy I had lost all the muscle in my shoulder & arm I had built up over the years.
What is my point and why am I going on about all this?! Well, I’m making excuses – or am I? Ankle, shoulder in 3 places, 2 spinal surgeries… Getting fit again is hard! Injuries never fully heal and new injuries shake up old injuries. It is a pain in the ass.
So with my injuries, scar tissue, asthma, crooked knee caps and whatever the hell the pain is shooting down my hip and I look back and think (in fact have to remind myself a few times a day) – considering everything – I’m doing a pretty damn good job.
… so what I didn’t go to the gym all of December – nor have I swam since the triathlon 😉
Sept – Dec 2011 Gym sessions
| 28 Sept 11Cycle to work, OT at lunch, home long way total 20minsElliptical 15 L8 Random 146 cal 2.65 kmRowing machine 1000m 5:30 10#4: 30kg x 30 (40kg x 10reps) x 3 Calves Abs Stretch 10 Oct 2011 Sit down bike Inner outer thigh cardio Crunches Back lifts 10 Stretch 5 22 Oct Bum/quads/hamstrings Deep squats |
Calves 30kg x 50Biceps #17 6 x (2×10) 5 x 20Triceps/shoulders #16 5x30Abs Swiss ball crunches 30 Hold 5 secs Rt/lft/top plank 30 sec eaAbs/back Medicine ball legs up twists 30 Orange ball Swiss ball back x 10 25 Oct #19 #23 #22 #21 Crunches Pilates – opposite lifts 15 sec Ea stretching 5mins 19 nov PowerPlate Stretch 6 mins 21 Nov
|
*Notes for Gym workouts – machine definitions:
Upper:
#20 – lat pulldown (lays & biceps)
#23 – chest press (shoulders, pecks & triceps)
#14 – abs
#19: Seated Row (lats – upper & lower, biceps & shoulders)
#6: lower back: settings #2 on both
Lower:
#18: squat (glutes & hamstrings)
#22: seated leg curl (hamstrings)
#21: seated leg extension (quads)
#4: Lying down squat machine (glutes, Hamstrings, Quads)
*photo via Courtesy- http://www.medicalbillingandcoding.org/
