Musings of a Crazed Gym Rat!

This morning when I woke I realized that every time I moved during my sleep I experienced Pain, everywhere. While sleeping seems to have helped it subside a bit, when I finally mustered the courage to move my body to get up there was a whole lotta  Pain. Aching everywhere, head to toe, my muscles, my joints, I felt as though I’d been hit by a train. Because of my training, this has become the norm in my day to day existence. I wonder if those guys in the Jack-Ass movies are numb to Pain or whether they just really love it.
When it comes to fitness, I know Pain very well. The pain one experiences when first embarking on a weight loss and exercise program, getting the body back into shape. The pain of tearing my hamstring and the long recovery, post training muscle pain from lifting heavy stuff, joint pain from lifting really heavy stuff, and the pain in the a$$ it is to drag my self to the gym and stick to my diet when I really don’t want to (of course there are lots of things in this life that are a pain in the a$$, but this isn’t what this is about).

Yesterday and today Pain and I met once again. I have had ongoing pain in my left shoulder and neck for some time. My doctor sent me for X-rays, thought the AC joint in the shoulder was the main culprit. Turns out the X-rays show nothing for the shoulder, the neck has mild arthritis in the C5-6 joints. On to physio….again….I don’t know that physio does all that much for me, I have never had any satisfactory results from it, but maybe that’s just me. I know though that I will still work out with Pain in these problem areas and maybe factor in any suggestions of what to avoid, maybe. Pain doesn’t scare me, I embrace Pain.
Yesterday, as I was doing an incline leg press, I did 2 full sets of 12 at 430 lbs, this would be my cue to add more weight…so I did…another 10 lbs, 10 lousy little lbs. I managed a full set of 12 on that….wooo-hooo! Took a rest, did a stretch, got back in there and squeezed out another 10 reps before my legs decided that nope…that was enough. I couldn’t get my legs to budge to get the foot plate up high enough to rack the damn thing. I had to let it go. Now you have to understand that when you have 440 lbs stacked on a leg press and your legs quit working the foot plate comes down very quickly and forces your knees practically into your chin, rapidly!!! It also makes a good deal of noise when it all comes crashing down, which is probably a good thing because it drowns out my swearing. In an acrobatic feat known only to the elite members of the Cirque de Soliel, I untangled myself and tried to look cool and dignified, o.k. maybe a little pissed off would be a better description. I removed all the plates so I could raise the foot plate and then re-load and start over (a little more lightly).  A slight twinge of Pain now making itself apparent in my right upper quad. Dag-nam-it! Don’t tell me I’ve injured myself again and am going into physio for that too….I finished a final set and let me tell you I HAD to go lighter and I don’t like backing down to ANYTHING, even weights, ya hear!? So I wasn’t happy about that.

When I hit the squat rack next, the quad Pain made itself VERY apparent. Work through it! I told myself and did, same Pain with the weighted $&*#ing lunges…work through Pain…Pain is my friend, I love Pain, I’m used to Pain, Pain and I know each other very well, very well indeed.

Pain likes ice, I do too, in my scotch, I gave Pain some ice when I got home. I got my 8 hours of shut-eye and surprisingly, Pain is being less of a pain today, oh except when I first got up, but Pain is being quiet now. Shhhhh….Pain, rest now…shhhh. The thing I love about Pain is that it is honest. Pain tells me when to ease off, when to stop, when I’ve gone too far and most importantly that I’m still alive. Pain is always with me, day and night, training and resting, I can always count on Pain. Pain, my new best friend. Have you given your Pain a hug today?

If you’ve ever seen me at my gym and I’ve completely ignored you, I apologize. There are several reasons for this, the first being that I am probably so zoned out and focused on what I’m doing I am unaware of my surroundings, another is that I am short sighted and I don’t wear my glasses to the gym, and the final reason…I’m ignoring you.

So to rectify the vision issue I’ve been trying to make a change. Instead of staggering around blindly in the gym and not being able to acknowledge people I know or would like to know or read stuff from far away I’ve decided to give contacts a try. This is a game of trial and error until you get the right ones. So far I’m on my second set.  I also think that I’m allergic to my gym, seriously! My left eye waters almost constantly when I’m there (with or without contacts) and I have the sniffles the whole time.  What is it? Dust? perspiration, cleaning chemicals in the air, the stinky guy next to me on the cardio machine (that’ll make anyone’s eyes water)? Who knows, it happens every time I’m there.

As far as changing my training focus…nuh, uh…not gonna happen, I’m zoned out, grooving to some tunes, layin’ down my thang at da gym. Am I ignoring you? Very likely not on purpose,unless I’m thinking your build is better than mine (you have to be a girl for that one) and then I’m definitely not going let you catch me checking you out for a compare. Just know that I plan to make you look bad when I finish my bulk and cut, then you’ll be sayin’ DANG! Mostly though, and to be truthful, I’m jealous of you now and want to meet you so that I can hit you up for some training tips. The gym is a  solitary place for me, I’d love to get to know lots of people there.

So I’m not really ignoring anyone, I’m not the cold stuck up b*%ch at the gym, I’m blind, weepy eyed, hell bent on training and we haven’t met yet. Speak up and come closer so I can see you.