I Am SORE

I am SORE from my calves to my shoulder blades. I am SORE front to back and side to side! This is almost laughable. I've been swimming and such twice a week for a two or more months. I only added a very few exercises yesterday, most with no extra weight and one with ridiculously light weight. But I feel like I had a marathon work out session.

I guess that just shows the effectiveness of a few well chosen exercises and swimming! I almost hate to think about how I'll feel tomorrow. Usually the soreness is worst on the second day after a workout. It'll be interesting to see how my currently under-trained forty-seven year old body responds.

Four Hour Body, Aqua Walking and Swimming

So, I pulled The 4-Hour Body ( T4HB ) off my shelf last night. I am going to get into the best shape of my life. However, I must deal with the reality of my various chronic injuries and physical limitations. T4HB focuses on finding and doing the minimum work necessary to achieve the maximum results. It also has extensive sections on rehabilitation, correct muscular imbalances and healing "permanent" injuries.

Today I added a few exercises to my routine. Over the last two or three months I've just been going straight to the pool as I noted yesterday. I started out with the what Tim Ferriss recommends as the two most effective ab exercises which for his Six Minute Abs routine and the simple version of the Perfect Posterior routine.

1. Myotatic Crunch 1 x 10
2. The Cat Vomit Exercise 1 x 10
3. Two-legged Glute Activation Raises 1 x 20
4. Flying Dogs 1 x 15 per side
5. Kettlebell Swings
• Point A 5 x 22 lb. dumbbell
• Point B 5 x 22 lb. dumbbell
• Swings 5 x 22 lb. dumbbell
• Swings 20,20,10 x 30 lb dumbbell

Then I head for the therapy pool and the lap pool. I repeated the same workout in the pool as I did yesterday. I was already a bit sore after yesterday. I'm completely wasted now. I just want to eat and go to sleep, but it is way too early.

Swimming

It has been a long time since I posted. I started having some serious pain in my left hip around Halloween 2012. Sharp, stabbing pain. I could be walking along fine and all of a sudden PAIN! Pain so intense I would nearly fall down.

Fast forward to January 2013. I finally decide to go to the doctor. I have Xrays, an MRI the works. All they see is evidence of arthritis. I go to physical therapy. The exercises I do for my hip set off some severe back pain, pain even worse than my hip. I have some deteriorating disks in my lumbar spine. I miss a lot of work. I finally get in to see a spine specialist. He wants to do epidural steroid injections but he's about to go on vacation. I have an MRI of my spine and start taking oral steroids.

Spine doctor gets back from vacation two weeks later. My back feels enough better that I decline the epidural steroid injections. Also I've been going to the heated therapy pool at Furman University. In the therapy pool I spend 20-30 minutes walking then another 20 minutes doing mobility exercises for my lower body and treading water. When I first started going to the pool I was limping and walking all hunched over like a really, really old man. Now, my hip still hurts but I'm walking like a normal person. I even started swimming laps in the lap pool a few weeks ago.

Today I walked in the therapy pool for 20 minutes.

• Five minutes walking forward
• Five minutes walking backward
• Five minutes walking sideways
• Five minutes walking sideways crossing one foot front then back

Followed by ten minutes of mobility exercise. Then treading water 4 x 90 seconds on and 30 seconds rest. After that I swam 22 lengths of the lap pool which is about  three tenths of a mile. I repeated the following four times

• kick board one length
• freestyle one length
• breast stroke one length
• freestyle one length
• back stroke one length

That was twenty lengths. I finished off with two fast, for me, freestyle lengths. I'm beat and sore tonight. Last week was the 2nd annual Running Nerds 5K. I ran the first one for my 46 birthday in 2012. This year I can't run. This Friday is the Swamp Rabbit 5K which I ran with Laura and Miles last year. This year I can't run but Laura, Gabby, Isaiah and Miles are going to run it. I'm just going to keep on swimming and maybe start walking again.

I had been swimming and working out in the therapy pool only twice a week on Saturday and Sunday as I thought those were the only days the therapy pool was open to the public. As it turns out it is open to the public after 530pm during the week. Just this week I went on a Wednesday after work. I'm going to stick with three days a week for a while then maybe move up to four days a week of swimming.