Gym Rat Wannabe

I rejoined the gym a couple of weeks ago (“rejoined” means I last belonged about four years ago—maybe longer) and am doing my best to go regularly so I don’t feel as if I’ve wasted my money. Now that for the time being I’m not spending time running early in the morning (insert frowny face here), it is easier than it was before to carve out some gym time in my schedule.

This morning I went there loaded for bear and probably overdid it a bit. I started off walking up the stairs to the aerobic machines. Stairs seem to be the last frontier with this injury—raising my left leg and then loading it with my body weight is a real challenge. I give my performance this morning a B-minus. Once I ascended, I walked 10 minutes on the treadmill to warm up, traveling an impressive 0.3 mile. I even supported most of my weight on my arms and took a small jog, just to try and remember what it feels like to run. I probably jogged 30 paces, twice, before realizing it wasn’t that great an idea.

Then I went on the exercycle, where I did 20 minutes and even got my heart rate up to 135 bpm. My hip ached, my quad ached—I kept on going.

Next, I stretched on the mat and threw in a couple of floor exercises that the divine Jamie, of PT renown, has prescribed. From there it was back down the stairs (another B-minus) and on to the Nautilus machines to work out the biceps, triceps, pecs and some other good things. I did a few reps on the leg machines, too—leg lifts, quad pulls, those lateral inny-outy machines. It was all good.

Feeling righteous, I motored on down the street and met my friend R for breakfast. We both had oatmeal with bananas, walnuts, and lots of brown sugar. And I had a low-fat mocha. Mmmm.

Frankly, I’ve been a bit depressed lately over this whole bad hip thing, and this morning’s activities gave me a boost. Yesterday I was idle—motionless, even—all day except for a 10-minute walk. At the end of the day I felt stiff and cranky, which has led me to think I might as well get stiff and cranky from too much exercise as from not enough. I know I am blessed in my full life and my basic good health, so I really don’t want to take up too much time whining. Staying active seems to steer me away from that moany-groany pit. (Inny-outy machines? Moany-groany pit? And me, a professional word person? I've no excuse.) So, my lesson for today is, keep moving even when moving isn’t easy. Here’s hoping I listen to myself.