Saturday Workout

My grandson was hanging around the house today and giving off his "I'm bored" vibe so I told him to put on his shorts...and we headed to the gym. I didn't do a lot but it was better than hanging around the house. I started off with 30 minutes of "treadmill fartlek." I walked at a baseline of 3.5 mph but randomly ramped up the speed to 7 or 8. Then I headed over to the dumbbell rack:

Seated Overhead Press
18 x 15lbs
8 x 20lbs
5 x 25lbs

Bench Press
15 x 20lbs
8 x 25lb
4 x 30lbs

Have I mentioned before how weak my upper body is? :-) Hey, it's been awhile since I've done anything like this.

I went on to do a hierarchical set of leg presses on a machine. I regretted it afterward because my lower back was a little sore. I was afraid to do squats because of my hand injury. I also tried to do pushups but there was no way--my left hand immediately protested. Monday I plan on calling for a doctor's appointment. So not a great workout but it's a step back in the right direction.

Morning Weight: 209lbs

Injury

I started commuting to work on a bike several months ago. From the beginning, I had trouble with my hands getting numb. I bought gloves, adusted the seat postion, and put on some bar ends, but nothing seemed to help. I even dumped the hybrid bike with the straight handlebars for a Jamis Commuter 3.0 with "city" bars. The problem eventually morphed into some serious hand pain in my left hand, and that pain would extend up my arm when I had to grab things. A little research convinced me that I was suffering from what is known as "handlebar palsy" and other names. It's the result of irritation of the ulnar nerve. One of the things that I had to quit doing was pushups--too painful. It also affects my ability to use a kettlebell to some extent.

I'm pretty sure I've eliminated the source of the problem. I traded in that new Jamis bike on a recumbent (something that's worthy of its own post later). Now I have NO pressure on my hands, and I'm much more comfortable on my commute. But the healing process is going very slow. I'm going to call for a doctor's appointment to see if there is anything I can do to speed up the recovery other than gobbling up some Motrin. The one good thing is that my left hand is feeling the brunt of the problem--I can still swing a racquetball racquet with my right hand.

Morning Weight: 209lbs
Bike: 0 miles (combination of the gym showers being closed for repair, and the forecast of 30+mph winds)

Getting Re-Motivated

I had all but decided to just give up on my blog. I came down with the flu a couple days after my last post, and that floored me for a week. Then I had to quit riding my bicycle because I was having some bad hand pain (irritated ulnar nerve I believe). My will power to avoid the high-carb snacks that my wife insists on buying for the grand kids waned. I couldn't get motivated to go to the gym although I continued to play racquetball at least twice a week. I hopped on a scale and got a bit of a shock. I weighed 199 on Thanksgiving morning but last week I tipped in at 214!

I was losing it.

I have had the experience twice in my life of losing over 50 pounds only to eventually gain it back. I really don't want to make it a third. So one of the steps I'm taking is to get back to keeping this record. Again, it doesn't matter if anyone reads it (although I've continued to get a few hits a day despite not posting)-- I need to do this for ME. So even if I can't come up with anything particularly interesting to read, I will still post my morning weigh in. I'm not going to let some up and downs from the scale bother me, but I'm going to use it for motivation. I don't want to go back to Fat Dave. I have a couple real nice pairs of Nike golf shorts with a 34 waist that I want to get into! Gonna make it happen!

A.M. Weight - 211