So I hurt my back while carrying books on Wednesday morning and thought it was the better part of valor to not go to the gym. (It was, too.) I had not been looking forward to going at all, but once I couldn’t I was really annoyed, so that’s…perverse.
Friday the bus ran so late that by the time I got to the gym it was time to leave again, pretty much. I mean, in between arriving and going I had my first follow-up consultation about how the workout was working for me, but basically I didn’t work out.
Gym review consultation lady: So one of your goals is stress relief?
Me: Yeah, but let’s face it, I’m not gonna get anywhere on that as long as Trump is in office.
Lady: O.O
I did tell the nice lady who consulted with me that the walking lunges were not working for me, and that I wanted to give leg extensions a try to strengthen my left quad. She wanted me to do leg press, too, and since I’ll do leg press all day long any day of the week, I was down with that.
She took me over to the leg press machine and put it on 50 pounds. I began to object, but realized she was showing me the ropes and thought ‘well okay’. Then it turned out the foot plate stays still and the chair moves, so it appears you’re also moving body weight, so I was a bit more like “well okay,” but also said we’ll need to move that down for me, 50 pounds is not going to be enough.
She put it at 70. I was like “–okay,” and sat down and did a few reps to show her that I could, in fact, just about literally do that all day long. “So we’ll need to move it down some more,” she said, obviously a little surprised even though I’d told her we’d need more weight, and started to move it to 90. I was like, “Put it at 150, we’ll start there.”
She gaped, honestly, but did as she was told and I did a set of 15 reps while she continued to gape. I might not be so phlegmatic at the end of a leg-heavy workout, but really, I used to make the big dudes at the weight room gawk at my leg press, and while I’m way the hell off *that* game, my legs are still stronger than your average bear’s. And frankly, I’ll be embarrassed if I can’t do 3×15 even at the end of a workout, although if I’m right about the body weight being included I’m moving, uh, well over 300 pounds there. And if I’m wrong about that I’m completely humiliated by my wimpy legs.
The leg extensions were not so cool, actually. I mean, I can do the weight and all, but there’s some uncomfortable grinding going on around the outside of my kneecap, in a totally different place from the walking lunge pain. I was somewhat disappointed by that, because while I don’t like leg extensions I didn’t expect them to be borderline painful to the joint, and I’ll have to consider how to go forward there. (Yes, E, I will talk to the PT about it when I see her next.)
Anyway, so that’s basically all the exercise I’ve done since Monday, so I’m afraid whenever I go back (probably Monday again) I’ll be starting all over again with the AAAAAAAGONY cycle, which sucks.