The Year Of Soreness

Hello my little orange friend!

The past two seasons have been quite painful so I am glad to feel the weather beginning to warm. For the first time in at least a few years, I had to either work from home or take a day off because of the unrelenting soreness that invaded my body earlier this year. And it didn’t take long after we changed the calendar for the bitterness of winter to remind me that my body doesn’t take too kindly to frigid temperatures. There were two days in particular when I woke up in the morning, slowly got out of bed, and came to the quick conclusion that my back and knees in particular were going to be particularly ornery that day.

In each consecutive instance, after sending a short message to the office letting them know I would be working from home and taking an extra hefty dose of Motrin, things began to loosen up and I was actually able to get a reasonable amount done those days. It is not commonplace but the reality is that sometimes I need to take the time and try to take care of my body. It took two days but the strategy worked and I returned to the office later that same week. It was actually the only time that I had to work from home this past winter.

Of course, the next bout of soreness was a completely different situation entirely. While the first accident in March happened on a Friday evening on my way home, I made the mistake of not getting checked out over the weekend so that by the time I tried getting up on Monday morning, my body was none too happy with my decision. In this instance, I simply called out. I went to see the doctor and did my best to take it easy the rest of the day (with some help from my friend Mr. Motrin and I think one muscle relaxant). The next day I was back in the office.

The next accident, less than two weeks later, I didn’t have much of a choice as I was taken from the scene in an ambulance. Being that this collision occurred during my morning commute, it was guaranteed that I was going to be taking the day off. More violent than the first, I learned from my previous mistakes and paid attention to what I needed to do to get back to work which I did the following morning. March was a very sore month which did carry over into the early part of April during my business travel.

Hopefully all of the soreness for the year is behind me at this point and that this next season, or two, or three, will allow my body to recover a bit from the challenges experienced during the first six months on the calendar. Of course, this is also a good reason to take better care of myself beyond those difficult situations as I might be able to recover faster if I were in better shape. I guess there will be a little soreness in the coming months but for a completely different and much better reason.

A Return To Soreness

It has been a week since my wife and I joined Planet Fitness and while not everything has gone to plan, we are both making some surprising progress for only being one week in. On our first day we were in the gym for 30 minutes, we are now gotten a pretty solid and tightly packed routine down which, at the moment takes us about 45 minutes. There are a few things that I still have to add but, overall, it is a pretty good start.

I can notice a little bit of change with this new routine. While the strength has yet to return, my muscles seem to have been activated and are bigger than they have been in years (especially my shoulders fro some reason). I don’t know if I have lost any weight because I haven’t been on a scale in probably a month but I don’t think any weight has come off since my clothes still feel the same.

Our diet is something that really is a work in progress. Myself more so than my wife (by far). She has been doing really well, she’s not where she wants to be but who is? As for me, I have made some improvements in that I am eating more salads but can’t say that my portions are any better and there are the occasional times when something really unhealthy seems to find its way into my hand. Small steps though. Just going to keep trying to take them ne after the other.

One thing that I haven’t been looking forward to but I have once again learned to embrace is the soreness. I kind of missed this feeling. The feeling like I actually did something physical during the day. You never get the same feeling by just walking around. I once again feel the comfort on the machines, lifting weights, and on the treadmill that has been absent for many years (especially the last few times that I tried getting into a workout routine).

This is why I can already tell that this time is going to be different. I can feel the difference and I already know where all of the locations are around home and work. Now it is going to take time to get to where I want to be and where I know I can return. One of these days I will post a picture for reference but, for now, it is my motivation Even though it is early, there is progress being made and a comfort level that I have been missing. This is just the beginning.