Exercise again in Another Open Diary refugee

Oh my poor abdominal muscles… I tried a couple of the exercise machines yesterday and they didn’t seem difficult at the time, but my stomach muscles are complaining every time I cough today. Guess that means the exercise worked! Pleased with myself - I managed eight minutes on the elliptical. I did three minutes, then rested, then two more goes of 2-1/2 minutes each. My leg muscles would have let me do more but when my heart rate gets to 160 I stop and let it go back to 140 before I start again. I like the way it feels to move on the elliptical… it’s like running, but without any strain on your back. I tried to jog on the treadmill last week and it was excruciating, so I won’t try that again any time soon. I also found the dreaded thigh machines of horror and had a go at them. I HATE the ones that you have to push in and out - feels like it’s going to dislocate my hip because my range of motion is pretty poor… but I know it’s good for me, and I surprised myself with how high I could set the weight - 70lbs! I only expected to be able to move 30 my first go, but it was relatively easy to double it. Those big muscles are pretty strong even without working on them… The leg press machine was on 60, and I skipped the knee exercises for the day. I need to try to get faster on the exercise bike. I’d like to be able to do two miles in 10 minutes, but it takes me 12…

I wish John would sign up at the gym too and come in and exercise instead of sitting out in the car reading… but he says we can’t afford a second membership, even at $10 a month. :( I can often only manage to exercise twice in the week either because John’s working too hard to take me, or because I’m too sore, but I actually enjoy the exercising when I get to go. If John doesn’t want to go to church on Sunday I think I’ll walk it and see how much easier it is than it used to be - my legs are much stronger, and shopping is easier too, so I rarely use the scooter any more. (That said, we went from the gym to the grocery store and I had to use the scooter, because I’d turned my legs into jelly doing my exercises and I didn’t have any more walking left in me!)

Last updated February 11, 2015