Saturday, June 15, 2013

Day 34: Muscle Rub and Ibuprofen

I slept in this morning and it felt good.  When I got up, surpisingly my legs didn’t hurt and finally I could have a good and proper jog.  Without wasting anytime I laced up and hit the asphalt.  I kept my tempo slow and concentrated on keeping good form.  Two and a half miles later I was done.  By lunch my left leg was killing me.

My wife suggested I use this muscle rub she gets from her chiropractor called Bio Freeze.  It’s green and smells of mint and I set about liberally applying to left thigh. I had to ask Kelly if she was sure it helped the muscle it was applied to or if it simply burned your skin to a point were you could no longer concentrate on the other pain in the area where it was applied.  She assured it was helping. 

All day I popped ibuprofen like tic-tacs and by evening my right knee was bothering me I assume from the limping and over compensating for the pain in the left. It has been a long time since I have had this kind of pain. 

It used to happen as a kid every baseball season.  As a child I loved video games and Little Debbie snack cakes.  I was an amateur snack cake connoisseur.  Oat meal cream cookies and Star Crunches were among my favorite.  Since I spent most of my year inactive every baseball season for the first couple of practices I would have to reacquaint my body with physical exercise, to which my body would enact revenge on me and hurt in all different kinds of places for several weeks. That is part of what this pain reminds of me of, the beginning of baseball season.

Second, as you may remember I spent several months in pain the first time I tried running.  I would wrap my thighs in ace bandages and ice them to ease the pain.  This time I am blaming the fact that I way over did it with the dead lifts, squats, and probably mowing my grass yesterday since my house is on a hill. It may take a few more days before I can reliably jog again until then I am going to have to find alternative exercises and maybe a wheel chair.  I’m not going to give up jogging because there are so many great benefits. 

Jogging makes your heart healthier and improves you cardiovascular systems as a whole.  The book I read about morning exercise stated that 30 minutes of exercise daily, especially jogging, would release endorphins.  These endorphins help relieve stress, clear your mind, and contribute to an overall better since of wellbeing.  I only wished these endorphins would kill pain that would be nice.

Luckily I have an extensive collection of yoga and pilates videos in case it takes a while for my legs to get better.  I wouldn’t call up my old friend Bill Blanks since his Tae Bo is kick intensive and my cause further injury.    

Daily Recap:
Matt: 30 minute jog

Kelly: TBD

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