It's the snow, people! When we get yucky weather, we are down to one car. Yesterday was the first time in a long time that the temperature was above freezing and we had sunshine in the afternoon. Not so in the AM, which was why I was without a car.
Okay, today's topic is all about shaking up your regular routine. As you know, I'm a fan of routine. I thrive on it, but this weather . . . again with the weather! . . . has made it impossible for me to do my daily 4.25 mile walk, either it's the frigid wind chills or the ice covering the path, or both. Regardless, I haven't been exercising like I should.
The last time I shook up my routine was when I started taking a yoga class--last May.
And I Loved it!
I pushed myself, but I didn't think I pushed too hard until I wound up with a torn rotator cuff. After bunches of tests and doctors, I opted out of surgery. I honestly didn't think the tear was bad enough to warrant the expense and hassle of surgery. I felt as if I was being railroaded into it, so I told them I changed my mind.
But the mistake I made was not requesting Physical Therapy (PT) to slowly work my shoulder. I tended to baby this shoulder and that caused stress on the OTHER side of my body and I've had a sore trapezius muscle (top of shoulder from neck to arm joint) for months now. And when I sleep, I wake up with both shoulders aching.
Fast forward to a couple days ago.
I finally got our Wii Fit game to sync on our WiiU system. Actually, I was slightly ticked off when we got the WiiU because it wiped the memory of my game from the system and I really didn't want to "start over" on it.
So it had been over a year since I had done Wii Fit.And cocky-a$$ me thought, "I got this!" Talk about getting slapped around by a stupid fitness game. Boy howdy, am I out of shape!
True, up until a few weeks ago, I had been walking regularly.
And that's great for my cardio.
But it didn't do diddly-squat for my overall fitness or upper body strength.
So I started off on the Wii Fit at the most basic of exercises--Yoga, Strength, Aerobic and Balance.
Yes, I hurt. Yes, I'm sore. And yes, my balance was crap.
But I changed my routine up because I had to due to the weather
And guess what?
My shoulders stopped aching as much. . .
The first day I had to cheat on the push-up/plank exercise (on my knees instead of my toes), but the second day I did the exercise correctly, even though it wasn't pretty. I did it.
Yeah, it was hard. And yeah, I could feel it in my rotator cuff, but it wasn't as bad as I expected.
New plan.
It's a beautiful sunny morning, so I'm going for my walk. And then I'm coming home to work on the Wii Fit for about 30 minutes.
Remember, it's good to shake up your routine. If you don't you'll end up like me--living in a fantasy of contentment that I'm physically fit, when I'm really allowing my muscles to atrophy through complacency.
Shake it Up!
Later, Peeps!
