I’ve been doing daily heel raises since late October. And finally I start to feel like some normality is taking hold in my right foot. Heel raises are good, and now I’m going to do them for the rest of my life.
I’ve been away from my fitness recap posts for a while. But they’re a great way to stay accountable with my fitness work so I’ve decided to come back and keep them going.
In these posts I join a weekly link-up to share my weekly fitness routine and the ups and downs during the week with barbells, walking shoes or else. This is good for accountability, for my own documentation, the fitness/running blogger community is lovely, and I hope these posts might inspire someone to start lifting weights and generally getting more active. I usually also add in some bits from everyday life as well as some photos. Let’s get into it!
You may notice that I’m back on my old domain! My Jävlaranamma url was great, but instead of building a separate website for my photography, I decided to put everything together on one blog instead. The jävlaranamma goes on here, though. And a lot more photography too.
After the autumn overwhelm and then the drama here at the end of last year, Christmas and New Year was all about relaxing and recovering from stress. Then there have been cold snaps, website rebuilds, various tech stuff to solve, and the storm of the century… life is never boring.
I’ve kept going to the gym, and only missed one gym session when my husband was in the hospital. During Christmas I trained at home, and I’ve kept doing my post-injury physio program, which now is a maintenance program for foot strength and general balance and stability.
My foot is now very much back to normal and I can’t wait to get back to proper walking! 4 km is the longest I’ve done so far after the injury, but it’s winter so I’m not pushing myself with it right now. The weather decides, but if it’s somewhat dry, no frost or ice, 4-5C (39-41F) or more and no crazy wind, then I’ll walk a few times a week.
Previously I’ve talked about how sometimes we had no weather, but this week we certainly had weather, and lots of craziness! But it’s been a good week.
Monday – gym
I started the day with my foot exercises, then in the afternoon it was time for the gym.
3 sets x 10 reps
- Barbell squats, 50 kgs
- Romanian deadlifts, 50 kg
- Inclined chest press, 12,5 dumbbells
- Barbell row, 30 kgs
- Chest press, barbell 35 kgs
- Straight arm pullovers, 9 kg dumbbells
- Upright row, barbell 20 kgs
- Forward raise, 6 kg dumbbells
After the foot injury I’ve felt so wobbly with squats, but recently I’ve been much better. Today I felt strong with them, and likewise with the RDLs. I was surprised when I was told they were also 50 kg – I was certain it was 45! My range of motion could have been better but my lower back was a bit stiff and achy so I tried to take it easy.
Everything else was good. My arm is much better and the forward raise isn’t particularly troublesome anymore. And doing two variations of chest press in one session has worked quite well lately too.
Tuesday – walking
I did my foot exercises, and after lunch I went out for a walk, about 4 km. It was a lovely day, it felt like spring! There was a lovely sunshine and about 10C. My foot felt like normal and only complained a little bit when I was almost back home.
I knew this would be the last walk for some time because at this point, I started hearing about a storm approaching, Storm Éowyn, that was expected to hit Ireland in the early hours of Friday, and the weather would start getting messy from Thursday.
Wednesday – gym
I did my foot exercises, and wanted to go out for a walk, but it was colder again with frost. At least I got to the gym.
3 sets x 10 reps
- Reverse lunges, barbell 20 kgs
- Side step-ups
- Inclined flyes, 8 kg dumbbells
- Renegade row, 8 kg dumbbells
- Good mornings, barbell 35 kgs
- Dumbbell row, 15 kgs
- Bent-over lateral raise, 6 kg dumbbells
- Shoulder press, barbell 15 kgs
The side step-ups were a great exercise! I can’t remember I’ve done it before. I thought they would work on the hips but learned later it involves most leg muscles except hips and glutes. I felt them mostly in the quads.
I really enjoy the Renegade row with this heavier weight. It’s good to get more of a challenge with the lifting part too. This is such a good exercise, for basically everything. Everyone should do some Renegade rows!
During the day, the upcoming storm was upgraded to big RED weather warnings for the entire country.
Thursday – storm prep
Oh, did those step-ups work on more than quads!! I did very little foot work this morning because my legs were so sore!
The day was mostly about getting updated info about the storm, and thinking about what to prepare in the garden. We have way too much rubbish around since my husband built his new office and since we moved out of the old office. It’s remaining building materials and things we need to take to the recycling centre. Including an old dishwasher! Our garden isn’t the prettiest right now.
My husband did a quick clean-up behind the house and secured a few other things. That’s all we could do.
All sorts of apocalyptic-sounding messages were coming out on the news, about how Storm Éowyn would be one of the worst storms to ever hit Ireland, and similar scary things. We haven’t had any problems after any previous storms so far, but there’s always a risk when you live so close to the sea and on the top of a hill like we do, and we need to take such weather warnings seriously.
I know that this is nothing for those of you who live in Florida or in the tornado-stricken areas of the US! But I was quite worried when I went to bed.
Friday – gym
Éowyn made landfall, and at 3 am we woke up by the doorbell ringing. That’s a sign there has been a power cut (it rings on its own when it restarts). It was absolutely wild outside the window, but nothing we hadn’t experienced during other storms.
Others weren’t so lucky, there’s been quite some damage around the country, including one death, and massive power cuts. It was a very strong storm with winds up to 182 km/h. As usual the west coast was worst hit. Clare, Galway et al certainly are beautiful areas but… I wouldn’t want to live there.
When we got out of bed around 7 am, the storm had more or less passed, and by lunchtime everything was calm here. In the afternoon I made it to the gym.
3 sets x 10 reps
- Squats with a heel raise, barbell 45 kgs
- Deadlifts, barbell 45 kg
- Parachutes
- Bilateral dumbbell row, 12,5 kgs
- Flyes, 8 kg dumbbells
- Chest press, 12,5 kg dumbbells
- Lateral raise, 7 kg dumbbells
- Cuban press, 3 kg dumbbells
I was quite distracted during this session, perhaps from all the tension the day before. But I’ve also had an issue with a hip/glute for a while, which now (I think) triggered some lower back pain when I did deadlifts. Exactly this happened last spring after the same kind of hip/glute issue. Then my trainer thought it was related to my piriformis, and I got some exercises to do. I will need to give this area some extra TLC for a while. This includes taking a break from some balance exercises (they work a LOT on hips and glutes!).
I still had a good gym session. It’s been a long time since I did the Cuban press. They were very much needed!
Saturday
I did some of my foot exercises but skipped some of them. Instead I did some hip mobility, piriformis stretch, deadbugs and a particular glute bridge my trainer recommended last spring.
In the afternoon I took some time to play around with the camera, testing a DIY lighting setup and different indoor photography ideas. We’re having a food competition in the camera club soon and as usual, I’m not doing it like most people…
I bought these figurines on Etsy a while ago and you can do so much fun with them! This is my first set and I’ll buy more variants later. I’ll share more about this project, with more photos, in a separate post.
Sunday
This will be a slow day with more photography, but I’ll also do more hip & glute TLC. The weather is absolutely insane with heavy rain and wind. My experience is that around here, the most damage is done when we have unannounced storms, and I’m starting to worry about one of our trees. But I worry more about the runners in the local 5 mile race today, which is going ahead despite forecasted wind gusts up to 80 km/h. Sure the skin is waterproof but they forgot to mention the winds…
I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm, dry and safe. How’s the weather where you are?
Thanks to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly rundown link-up!
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