« Trifecta | Main | Cane Shopping »
May 08, 2005
Asymmetric
My knee hurts where the blue dot is. (To give due credit, the picture is from emedicine.com.) It doesn't hurt very much at all now and my calf feels okay. I can jog a couple of steps (this was attempted in the deserted computer lab of my school) without it feeling weird. I have spent more time researching swimming...and I am not going to go, at least today. I really don't like swimming. I am giving myself permission to not go. I mean, if I have an extended layoff from running I will go just to get some exercise and be a healthy person. Otherwise, I will probably not go. I guess I am on some sort of vacation from running/working out :)
I completely rely on the internet to treat myself. A problem I have never faced before with this method of treatment is that now when I google my injury I often come up with my own site or with the other elitebloggers' sites. For example, Leilani suggested a good recovery schedule when Becky came back from knee pain last year that I am going to try. But hitting my own site with google searches is completely unhelpful!
I want to say thank you to the people who have gotten in touch (through blog commenting and otherwise) to check in on my injury and mental state. I really appreciate it. I will be fine-but I have to say it’s a good thing I don’t make a living running! I cannot even IMAGINE the stress of fearing injury when you are in that position. Is there workers' compensation for hurt runners? Really, other jobs have it…
I lifted upper body today and all was good. Well, kind of. I am so ready to move up in weights-with my right arm. I have a gimpy left arm that I didn't even realize was gimpy until I moved up my weights to this amount. I have alluded to it before, but I had a bad softball accident in HS. I was putting down the tag at second and a girl slid into the base. It was my fault. You need to put down the tag and get your arm out of there (in a sweeping motion). My arm was just THERE. The accident broke my arm above the elbow. It was disgusting.
The other gross thing is that I had a body composition scan done as part of this runners/rowers research study I participated in. The women who read me my results told me my left arm had greater mass than my right arm. I couldn’t figure out how this made sense b/c why was my left arm weaker then? Then it occurred to me that the greater mass in my left arm was probably due to extra bone where the two edges of the break molded together over one and other (I didn’t have surgery but just let it heal as is and it necessarily wasn’t a 100% perfectly matched molding). So I think I have extra bone in my weakened left arm-not extra muscle.
Anyway, I am not sure what to do as far as weight lifting goes. I guess I will stick with these weights for a few more weeks but I have already been using them for a while. I can't imagine it's a good idea (at all) to go up in weight on one side but not the other. I hear everyone has a stronger arm (at least a little bit). What do you all do-same weights with each arm?
My last drama for the day involved leaving a copy of all of "My Documents" and "My Pictures" from my home computer on a burned CD in my school's computer lab. My home computer is on the fritz so I backed everything up and had it in the computer lab-and accidentally LEFT IT THERE. When I got to the gym and saw the empty jewel case I quickly doubled back to school. I am pretty sure it was untouched and I am very glad about that. Can you imagine if someone had access to everything important on your computer?
Posted by Audrey at May 8, 2005 12:30 PM
Comments
I try to do the weights all independently but I don't allow the wieght to increase on one side if the other isn't going up. I'll do the sets with the weak arm/leg first and then use that to dictate where I stop on the stronger limb.
Posted by: Jon in Michigan at May 9, 2005 10:56 AM