Things have been tough the last several months from a workout perspective. I’ve been dealing with a wonky shoulder, broken wrist and burnout. After temporarily wrecking my shoulder, I fell and broke my wrist, then spent 12 weeks in a cast. I waffled between general burnout and depression throughout all this, so working out just didn’t feel like an option most of the time.
After getting my cast removed, I resumed physiotherapy on my shoulder as well as my wrist, then COVID happened. My physio went online and I’ve spent the last 4 weeks trying to find the right chair height so I can work at my home desk without wrecking something else.
All in all, it’s been hard to get back at activity. My smart watch alerted me to the fact that I had 12 move minutes in my first week of working from home and I managed to work my way up to 15 the second week. Everything hurt and the only things I was doing was physio once a day. I’ve gone from lifting pretty heavy weights to barely being able to carry a half-filled plate, so really needed to do the strengthening work. Did I mention the lack of sleep? Turns out that my already tenuous sleep habits got significantly worse without movement.
Getting back into workouts has been mentally challenging and so I’ve started with doing my physio as often as I’m supposed to, maybe a little bit more. My physiotherapist has given me exercises for my wrist, hand, shoulder and back which is a bit above and beyond the original issues, but much appreciated. So, I’ve started turning off my video camera so I can do physio in longer meetings, and while watching the Marvel movies in chronological order. I’ve paced out a quarter mile in my backyard and am walking laps, when it’s not too cold, because I’m still a big baby, and I’ve pulled out the DVD I bought just before I wrecked myself to do some stretching.
This is stretching for circus performers, so for those of us who lift, but don’t stretch EVER, it’s so hard! Turns out I am NOT a circus performer. A full hour of hip opening, hamstring and calf stretching and back and shoulder stretching. Should I be out of breath when I stretch? It’s like aerobics, but worse! Anyways, it turns out the stretching is a good antidote to sitting through COVID and is a great way to get back into exercise. I may not be able to start my circus career in my 50s, but maybe I can at least keep myself from feeling so old! Hopefully I can keep it up.
I’ve been using this video for a couple years! You might not be a circus performer, but I am and can confirm that this video is challenging even for those of us that are already stretchy 🙂
The good news is that if you keep it up you will definitely develop greater range of motion. My entire back is currently still aching from working that final part on Friday.