100 things, fitness and exercise (42?)

[labelleizzy]

Made it to the gym again today. Woot! twice in one week!

I had a lovely LOVELY massage first. I will never know how it was we managed to spend most of 90 minutes just on my torso, and only the back side of my torso... except it was indeed rather painful in parts, and I had to do deep breathing, and he worked in exquisite detail on gluteal muscles and under my scapula and on those little and very painful muscles in my neck. I think I love him, it's a platonic and grateful love. =)

so after the massage I got some miso soup and some tea and a couple of hand-rolls (scallops and hamachi) for mid afternoon snack and electrolyte refresh, checked email, and then headed over to the gym. Where I only did about 22 minutes of cardio, only adductors/abductors machines (you'll note that I missed those during my last workout) and a wee bit of yogic stretches and a few hits at downward-facing dog, before spending my last little bit of endorphin-generation on rolling the muscles of my legs on the foam core rollers...

as I said on FB, "there are many ways of earning your endorphins. This one is mine."

edit: Note to self: You can now hold Down-Dog indefinitely, with flat hands and feet, at a more acute (sharper?) angle than ever before, and can adjust shoulder posture while still in the pose. Also: today during the massage you adjusted for comfort while lying face down and aligned your leg bones STRAIGHT, not splayed duckfooted. Your body is finally learning what balance and proper knees and hips really feel like and look like. this is SO FREAKING AWESOME.

Comments

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about those foam rollers but I see people using them a lot. What do they do?

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

I roll my body to a) break up adhesions I.e. where muscle fibers cling together in ways that are suboptimal, b) to stretch muscles and loosen joints and c) carefully, to loosen & elongate my spine.

It's like a really hard massage in a lot of ways, but you can (& I have) hurt yourself if you don't know/aren't careful. Sprained a rib, I did.

[aliyna.livejournal.com]

Talk to me talk talk talk to me about what you do at the gym, because I am HOPELESS and I have no idea what gadgets and gizmos and machines and medieval torture devices do what. I find I just do treadmill, elliptical, recumb bike, then go home.

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

Honey, get to know the folks who work there, and get a tour of the machines and free weights.

After your tour, tell the nice staff member about any aches and pains you have and ask for only 3-5 strengthening exercises that might help with the pain or weakness. (3-5 because remembering more is difficult, short term memory limitations.)

We women tend to be less physically strong in our upper bodies and backs; building that up slowly has been a long time goal of mine. Also because of the knee Surgery, I have been doing specific exercises designed to build up and keep the supporting muscles strong and the joints flexible.

But the hardest part for me has been changing how I think about myself, myself-in-my-body, and the idea of being "strong". I have had a number of emotional landmines go off and blow me off course.

Now I am willing to show up, do the work regularly, log the results (doing this 100 posts meme on my fitness journey is a stroke of genius: chaining my writing muse to my fitness observations works really well to help get my ass to the gym!).

And there's tons of older folk at my gym, anywhere from a couple years to many years older. They inspired me. I want to be moving and strong and trying new things like they do. :)

For you, doll, I'll work on a post talking in detail about my routine, which varies some but has enough consistency that I don't have to think about it.

:)

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

Danniel gives a great butt massage!! I have some hip issue that deep tissue in the gluteus maximus helps fix. So glad I found him!

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

If you are comfortable with the idea (and are getting used to the pain!) Have him work on hip flexors as well. Really really effective at opening the hips and relaxing the associated joints.

[eeyore-grrl.livejournal.com]

He does.

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

Awesome. So amazing what can be achieved with effective bodywork.

:)