Day Forty-Eight – I’m Gonna Steal That Jack Hammer

Today’s workouts:
• Stretching (1 hr)
• 1-on-1 session (1 hr)
• Spin class – my first ever! (1 hr)
• Cardio (1/2 hr)
• 2-on-1 session (1 hr)
• Massage!
• Gym Boot Camp (1 hr)

It was finally very warm in Marina Del Rey today. Yaaaay! Even Shelly Ann from Trinidad donned a short-sleeve t-shirt instead of her track suit jacket. It was a clear day as well, thus I was looking forward to the bike ride. Recall that I took a day off yesterday and thus didn’t collect my schedule for Monday. It turned out that instead of the bike ride, my first spinning class was scheduled. First there was stretching, which I always enjoy, followed by a “progress meeting” with my coach Marco (each of us has a trainer assigned to us as our “coach”), the nutritionist Karen, and the counselor Claire. The meeting went extremely well. I think since I blog about my experiences every day there isn’t much that anyone doesn’t know about how I’m doing or feeling. We did address the fact that I’m not sleeping straight through the night. Last night was particularly difficult as my entire left arm, shoulder, and neck are extremely sore and the tingling has returned to my arm and hand. It actually put me in a bit of a cranky mood – but just with myself (well, I’ll elaborate on that later) because it prohibited me from fully working out to the best of my abilities today. Marco worked with me afterwards and tried a few exercises to help it out.

The next session was my first spinning class. Those seats are NOT pleasant but as I had bought a removable cushion for my own bike, I used it to soften my tushy on the spin bike. I can see why people love spinning. You burn a lot of calories, sweat a lot, and can work out frustration to some good music if you want. I tried to master pushing the pedals while keeping my butt off the seat…but I need to practice that some more. I found it hurt my knees a lot, so I have to work on using my thighs and butt more than my lower legs to do the spins. I’m looking forward to more spin classes. Karen, besides being our well-informed nutritionist, leads the spin classes as well as the yoga classes. Karen is fun to watch ‘cause you can tell that she’s REALLY INTO it. So, I look forward to the yoga classes, too. ;-)

Following lunch and cardio, I had a partner training session with Jason. By this time my left arm was absolutely KILLING me. It didn’t matter in which position I was holding my arm, it hurt and/or tingled, so no matter what exercises Jason assigned to Belinda and me, I felt pain and just became crankier by the minute (Sorry, Jason!). My massage was scheduled immediately after this so I just dashed to the massage room and let Nina know what was ailing me. Before that Michael had asked how I was doing and as I was not feeling great I let him know, and he suggested that I go to the chiropractor with him after his last session. I was meant to attend the late boot camp, but I went ahead and rescheduled to attend the gym boot camp so that I could go with Michael. Nina obliged and did extra work on my left shoulder blade and arm. There was (still is) a big ol’ knot there and Nina dug deep to help work it out. I must admit that she did help a bit. Nina has unbelievably strong fingers and when the situation calls for it, she is able to dig deep and find the spots on us that are causing discomfort. I have another massage with her tomorrow, thankfully!

I joined Schuyler’s Gym Boot Camp at 4pm; there were only 4 of us, which I liked, and he had us work in pairs, which I also like. Shelly Ann and I were paired up and had to start with push-up holds. Marco had warned me not to do any pushups and had written a note to the other trainers about that, so Schuyler had Shelly Ann and me doing the pushup hold on a raised bench. This put less strain on my shoulder. Didn’t make it any easier though! While we were doing that for a whole minute, the other two ladies had to balance on an upside-down Bosu ball in squat position with hands extended forward (without holding on to anything). That wasn’t easy either! After the minute was up we pairs switched. OK, guess what…I actually did OK on the Bosu ball and would have preferred to do that over and over instead of the pushup hold. I’ve included a photo of a Bosu ball, since I’ve mentioned it a few times. In the photo the girl is stepping on it; in our case this time it was upside down on the “ball” side and we balanced on the flat side. Yikes. We alternated with cardio and also did some bicycle crunches and metronomes on the mat and some boxing on the bag. Normally I love the boxing but my left arm was killing me again so I just did some right crosses and barely did the left jabs. I really just wanted to get to the chiropractor as soon as possible.

Michael and I left soon afterwards and arrived at his regular chiro who accepts walk-in appointments. My goodness, what a happy place to be. The receptionist Rose was delightful and happy to see Mike, and the doctor (also Mike) was just as glad. He worked on Michael while I took care of paperwork, and then saw me. I told him about the knot just under my left shoulder blade and he took out this “jack hammer” contraption that made hard, directed “punches” into the knot and the area around it. I wanted to steal that thing and take it home with me to jack hammer the crap out of that knotted muscle all night long! Dr. Mike also did the usual neck and back cracking. I definitely need to see him again for a few more adjustments. Some of the tingling is gone but as I’m sitting here writing today’s blog, I can feel the pain in my shoulder blade like a dull knife that can’t be removed. Waaah waaah waaaah. It woke me up several times last night so I hope that it won’t be as bad tonight. I think I will try to go see Dr. Mike again this week, perhaps Wednesday.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow as it’s my usual weigh-in day. I hope that the little bit of running that I did has made a difference and that I have lost several inches and at least 5-lbs! I also hope that missing one day of workouts doesn’t have an adverse effect on the measurements. I really want to have lost at least 5 lbs, but if I have a big number in inches, I’ll be satisfied. I hope to exceed the 50-inch mark! I am also excited about tomorrow ‘cause one of my closest friends from Bermuda, Amy, arrives. I haven’t seen her since my last night in Bermuda on February 2nd and she has been super-duper busy with tax season ‘til last week. Amy’s going to work out with us this week and even try The Hell of Sand on Friday before she leaves. What a good friend, eh?

Tomorrow I also have swimming; I hope my left arm/shoulder will be OK. The warm weather is brief, too, and the temperatures are dropping again. Ugggh – that makes for a chilly swim. The pool is usually kept at 85-degrees, however last week it was only 80-degrees and there was a cool breeze, so it was not that pleasant of a swim! I’m spoiled by the beaches in Bermuda….that water has to be 85-degrees before I will go for a swim, OR, the air temperature has to be hot enough to make me want to go into cooler waters. I’m pretty sure the water at the beaches here doesn’t get much over 70-degrees so I will not be going for a swim there voluntarily! Maybe I should wear my shorty wetsuit tomorrow…would that look silly?

I hope your week started off well. I know of THREE people who had surgery today (two family members and one grammar school friend and it was her birthday!); I hope all three are recovering comfortably and will heal quickly. Have a great Tuesday, y’all!