2/2/12 Day 9 of Exercise to Fit commitment
It’s kind of amazing that I’m already seeing results..
1. Yesterday, Day 8, when doing “long jumps” in the front room, I could only do a little more than 2.5 tile squares (10” each, so about 26-27”) and at best almost make 3 tiles. This morning, my 2 jumps easily hit 3.5 tiles!
2. This morning I did a back roll on the mat.. the kind where I hold my knees to chest and roll from top to bottom longwise. Usually (meaning always), my spine sticks out so much that doing this exercise hurts a little as my back bones feel exposed and bruised by the hard surface even thru a mat. THIS MORNING I did the roll and did not feel any hard spine contact, no pain. Can I already be changing the landscape back there? or maybe the spine is tucking differently? I can’t figure out what happened.
3. Day 1 when I was trying a little of everything I could think of, I was doing a little jumping jacks without the arms part and I started to hear a loud clap with each jump. What in the world was that? It totally took me by surprise but it was my butt cheeks slapping together. That’s gotta be a great measure of flabbiness. It was quite the amazing trick. Yesterday, jumping still could produce a clap but it was already more muffled, less loud. wow. that’s progress. : )
4. The first thrill actually came the very first night when I lay down in bed and decided to try to do leg lifts. To my shock and dismay, when I lay on my left side and tried to lift my right leg, the one with a persistent hip bursitis problem that wakes me briefly at least 1-3x a night if I’m not laying on my back.. that leg would not lift for me.. not even a little fraction of an inch. It hurt but it was not pain that was keeping it down, I just couldn’t move it. Was this like my frozen shoulder of some years past, where the tissue had “frozen” into its folds from lack of use? I kept trying, and found that if I turned my body to different angles, forward or backward, I could lift my leg. I kept doing leg lifts in every angle I could as I continued to vary my body angle, having to skip around certain positions to avoid pain and weakness.. but to my delight, after some half hour including lots of rests, I was able to do leg lifts from a straight side up angle! I had somehow worked my way thru the stop and was thrilled. Had I just averted an impending long term “frozen” (at least from the side) condition? Still had certain weak positions but no locks.
5. Night 7 was the first night in a long time when I was not awakened by bursitis pain, even though I caught myself sleeping on my side. It’s still there, but apparently not as bad.
My “program” is far from any “routine”.. I’m still looking up exercises online to try, and I have to rest a lot between little bursts of exercise, but my simple commitment is to do at least 10 minutes of exercise a day. I try to be balanced (not exercise in one direction only) and not do anything too strenuous. So far some of my menu includes: bed or standing: leg lifts in all directions, bed: bicycle motions, semi-squat poses, lunges, step up/step down lifts, push ups against the door frame or counter top, arm band stretching in all directions, arm lifts while prone as posture exercises, stretching and twisting in different directions, ...
Progress is encouraging. And marking my wall calendar with an E every day I meet my 10 minutes minimum is rewarding more than I’d have guessed. 1 week ago