Health Update: My Mate Gym

I'm getting a tad tired of sleepless nights and sleepy days. I'm not sure what's up with me at the moment. My sleeping pattern isn't technically out of whack, but I've been spending too many nights tossing and turning and feeling sick rather than getting any proper sleep. I don't know if it is a side effect of the medical cocktail I'm taking, but it's fracking annoying.

This last week I started going to the gym on my physio's recommendations. The purpose of these visits is twofold really:

1) to exercise the core muscle in my back to improve its strength and thus my overall balance and stability. With a stonger core muscle, I should be back to my normal "on-my-feet-all-day" self in no time.

2) to improve my overall fitness level. It's no secret I'm not a huge fan of how I look. I've always had a bit of a weight problem, but that has been steadily declining since I started uni (apart from a blip during the six months I was off having a breakdown). I'm still slightly overweight, but I'm not hugely bothered about that. I'm worried about my actual fitness level. There was a time when I used to play badminton every week - that stopped when I buggered my ankle up in a night club. (Don't ask!) While I still played after that, it took a very long time for my ankle to heal up - yes I should probably have gone to see someone about it: benefits of hindsight I know. Obviously with a knackered back, running around, twisting and swinging a racket on a badminton court is unlikely to do me a great deal of good currently, but I desperately miss playing badminton (it being the only sport I was ever really good at) and would love to get back to it as part of a healthier lifestyle to balance out all the crap that my sweet tooth demands I eat.

The gym at the local leisure centre is a temprary one: they're in the process of refurbishing the real gym. But it's good enough for my needs. I had a 30 minute induction session with a personal trainer, who worked up a pretty simple regime for me based on the kind of machines I was going to be able to use. Obviously anything involving lifting was going to be right out. It ended up with a simple rotation of treadmill > reclining exercise bike > normal exercise bike. 10 mins on each, and build up in pace as I progress. Easy stuff. I was fine for all 3 machines, memorised how to use them, and was ready to start properly this last Monday.

Monday I got to the gym at around 1:30pm as recommended (it's quiet in the afternoons) and started off with the treadmill. 4.8km/hr speed on a slight incline. Not gruelling by any means, especially as I'd already spent 10 minutes or so walking at a fairly brisk pace to get to the centre through the pretty damned chilly weather. Unfortunately, cold weather + bad back muscle = not good. But I was fine for the treadmill anyways.

Next was the reclining bike. I'd been fine at this on the induction. The seat was relatively comfortable and supported my back well. But my back hadn't been hurting already on that induction day, and sitting down on that reclining bike was agony for the five minutes I gruelled out on it. Not sure I got any benefit at all out of that, and in fact I probably did myself more harm than good. "No pain, no gain" only goes so far in my book.

Finally the upright bike. By the time I got to this I was in a fair amount of pain. My knees were hurting, as were the back of and inner thighs, where the nerves connect from the back down the legs. This has been a problem throughout the last few months. If my back is really bad, my legs start to go weird with it. Not a fun thing at all! I managed about 4 minutes on that bike before I called it and left the gym. No point pushing myself any further than that. Not a hugely successful or beneficial workout, but as I walked round town to cooldown,

I didn't feel too bad. Popping a couple of tramadol obviously helped too.

But the next two days were absolute hell. I haven't felt that bad in months. I couldn't bend at all. Every single twist or slightest movement sent needles stabbing into my nerves. It took me 15 minutes to get my fecking socks on because every time I tried to bend to reach the end of my annoyingly long legs, my back said "Nah, fuck you!"

My regime of Monday/Wednesday/Friday fell apart in the very first week. Tuesday was hell.

Wednesday was less so, but I could still barely walk. No pain, no gain, I kept repeating to myself. I knew something like this would happen, after all. Just didn't expect it to be so severe.

Thursday I was finally feeling better. I got up late though. Crawled out of bed after a crappy night's sleep at about 1:30pm. Couldn't even be arsed showering. Just pulled on my gym stuff, stuck on a hat, and made my way into town. This time I changed some stuff.

Firstly I took a couple of tramadol BEFORE I started the exercises. I don't actually know if this was a particularly good idea, but in retrospect it seems to have at least helped.

Secondly I swapped the two bikes round. The one with the back support, which I had assumed would be easier for me to handle (and was dead wrong about ><) I left till last, while the upright got stuck in the middle of the workout.

I stuck with the treadmill at the start, this time working at it for a full 15mins at the slightly faster 5km/hr. Still not gonna win any medals, and its certainly not an impressive statistic, but for me, it's a start.

The tramadol helped. I didn't manage the two bikes any better than before - they were still pretty painful - but I made it out of the gym feeling relatively good. I expected Friday to be a nightmare though.

Surprisingly, the last three days haven't been too bad. Yeah I've been feeling really sick, my appetite is a bit botched, and I'm still suffering some of the nastier side effects of the tramadol, but I at least feel like I'm DOING something.

Hopefully I'll be able to swing the Mon/Weds/Fri thing properly this coming week. Fingers crossed.

~J