Let’s get back to the weekly rundown. Not only for the community aspect but it’s also good for me to have blog posts to look back to, and see that I can still do some good stuff in the gym (and more).
I’ve been away from the blog for a month, and been in misery and despair for a while after being diagnosed with osteoporosis and osteopenia. Like, WTF? You can read the details in this post. My head was a complete mess of different thoughts and emotions, and I wasn’t able to make any sense of it and settle down until after several conversations with my physio and trainer, and after being away distracting myself by doing NORMAL things. We went to Donegal again for the bluegrass festival, and after that my sister came over from Sweden, so I’ve had some good times recently which I really needed.
For a while I was wondering if I would ever do any proper fitness work again. But of course I will. I’m not dead yet! I have crappy bones but they could have been worse – and for this condition, weight lifting is the thing to do!
My trainer is more important than ever now, and he certainly makes sure I work on my muscles, and bones. OMG do I do that these weeks! After doing a full body maintenance program for a long time, I now do a hybrid program with some heavy strength training mixed with whatever is possible to do with my legs. It’s quite heavy lifting compared to what I’ve done recently, which is seriously challenging and I’m loving it! After months of injury and misery, pushing myself a bit extra in the gym feels SO GOOD.
Here’s how the week of fitness played out. This was the first week in ages that I did more than my gym sessions!
Monday
The Monday session was focused on legs and shoulders.These heavier lifts are done 4 sets by 6 reps.
- Leg lifts over a dumbbell
- Side leg lifts with resistance band over bent knees
- Leg press with resistance band
- Hamstring curls with resistance band
- Upright row with bar, and left knee on bench
- Seated shoulder press, 7 kg dumbbells
- Forward raise, 6 kg dumbbells
This variant of leg press is a nice exercise my trainer started giving me a while back. I lie on my back, place the band under my feet, bend my knees, and hold on to the band at about knee level to create tension, then straighten my legs.
I was very happy to do a proper upright row again! I’ve been doing it with dumbbells but that’s different. It was a bit hard to place the bench properly but at least I could do an upright row with the bar like in the good old days!
Tuesday
Tuesday was all about work and my physiotherapy exercises for the foot (which of course I do every day).
Wednesday
Today was this week heavy upper body session. We started last week with this setup, and then I had a brain burnout with dumbbell chest presses, and just couldn’t do them. He’s upping my weights quite a bit for these sessions, so I simply chickened out. For today I had tried to collect some bravery and oomph (the jävlaranamma mode is coming back, yay!). I started warming up with lat pulldowns with a resistance band followed by 10 pushups (full pushups with the injured foot on top of the right foot). Then it was time for the real stuff, 4 sets by 6 reps.
- Chest press with barbell, 32,5 kgs
- Flyes, 10 kg dumbbells
- Upright row, wide grip, barbell. Uncertain about weight, maybe 15-17 kgs.
- Chest press with 12,5 kg dumbbells, I did them this time! Failure at 4th rep on last set
- Tricep pullover, one 17,5 kg dumbbell
- Dumbbell row, knees on bench, 17,5 kgs
Thursday
Work, work, work, and some music. No fitness activity today except physiotherapy exercises.
Friday
Another good session at the gym. It was time again for some shoulder work, but first we mixed leg and abs/core.
- Hanging leg raises from dip machine
- Wall sits, 3 x 45 secs. OMG, these are so hard! But I nailed them this time. When doing them, I make sure we keep a conversation going for the distraction!
- Jack knives
- Side leg lifts with resistance band around bent knees
- Bent over raise, 6 kg dumbbells
- Seated shoulder press, 7 kg dumbbells
- Lateral raise, left knee on bench, 6 kg dumbbells
Lateral raise has always been one of my hardest exercises, no matter the weight! My shoulders were the reason I started going to this gym and trainer/therapist in the first place, to begin with because I had frequent pain, but of course I wanted to build some muscle too. I do ok with most other shoulder exercises but the lateral raise… I never seem to make any real progress. Today it worked a lot better than usual though, so a big yay to that.
We had some great, empowering conversations too. A perfect session altogether! I’m beginning to feel strong and hopeful again.
Saturday
Since a while back, we have a new friend in the house.
I started using it a bit after I got the boot, and did short rides to see how it worked and how I liked it. The main problem was how hot my booted leg became after a while! I did a few km a few times a week for a while, and really enjoyed it.
I got back on the bike on Saturday afternoon. I still have some days left of the Kinomap subscription, so I started the app on my iPad, and did 10k along some nice road in southern Italy. I’ll continue the route tomorrow!
Sunday
Today I was back to a proper at-home workout session! Sort of. I miss my planks, but I should be able to do them soon again. And today was absolutely NO day to do core/ab work! Ouch, my abs are still smashed after the Friday gym session. Instead, I did donkey kicks, fire hydrants with resistance bands, various hip mobility, rotator cuff mobility, and inclined pull-ups with some clever handles I bought some time ago. We’ve attached them to the pull-up bar and this exercise is step 1 to get in shape to do full pull-ups.
Next week is a bit different because tomorrow is bank holiday so the gym is closed, and on Friday my trainer is away (he’s doing an ultra marathon!) but we’ve arranged two gym sessions, and I’m planning to do some indoor cycling. The rest is all about music because we have a gig next Saturday. Should be a good week!
A few words about the foot
You might be interested in what’s going on with the foot. The good news is that I’m finally walking in normal shoes, after 8 weeks in the boot.
When I first took my first steps, it was awful and scary. I felt so weak in my leg and knee, much more than expected. I first walked around with the help of two crutches in the physio clinic, under supervision, and he gave me a program to follow to gradually wean off the boot and getting used to walking. It’s been anything but straightforward, with odd things going on all over the foot, pins and needles, and random aches and pains that scared the **** out of me. I thought I was doomed and the injury was back with a vengeance.
In the end of this week it suddenly started getting a lot better. According to the plan, I would use the boot outdoors for the first two weeks, and this week, ironically the foot has been much happier on days when I didn’t use the boot at all. So last night when we went to play music in the pub, I actually went boot-less.
This coming week I’m supposed to ditch the boot altogether, and I’m seeing the physio again on Tuesday. For now I have high hopes I’ll be back to some version of normal walking within a reasonable future. It will take a while before I’m back to go for proper walks, but just walking from place A to B without second thoughts will be reason for celebration. I’ve even bought a pair of nice walking shoes for the occasion!
Thanks Deborah and Kim for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!
Read about the Liftmor study and related studies, for more information about resistance training for people with osteoporosis and osteopenia. Your starting point will depend on your own bone health level, overall health situation, fitness level and experience with training and movement so do consult a physiotherapist and/or certified personal trainer!
Leave a comment and make my day