My Absence Explained

So, you may have wondered what the heck happened to me the last several months. Sometime around mid-May, I pulled a muscle, or several muscles in my back on the left side. I still don't know what I did exactly, but I had four gigantic knots. One up by my left shoulder, one right below my armpit near my ribs, one near my kidney, and one right above my left hip.

The one by my ribs was the one that was giving me the most problems. Somehow, I believe the muscle knot shifted one of my ribs out of place, because it was hard to take a deep breath. It hurt every time I tried, and I couldn't yawn for about three or four days. After a few days of not being able to breathe deeply, I broke out the massager (duh!), and worked out the knots. Well, it worked, but then the muscle spasms began. Once the knot relaxed, my muscle started to spasm, and it made it pretty tough to breathe. The only way I could comfortably breathe was if I stood up and raised my left arm over my head.

It was late at night and there was no way I was going to fall asleep. It actually started to spasm when I laid down. My husband had the brilliant idea to give me a straight shot of rum. Best idea ever! However, I felt like I was a dragon breathing fire when I downed the rum. Bleh! Straight rum is potent. It worked though. I was able to get to sleep, and there were no more spasms.

The next issue to fix itself was the shifted ribs. That was sort of freaking me out. I still couldn't take a deep breath without it hurting. I was about to call the doctor for an appointment the next day, but as I was putting laundry into the dryer, I felt something shift. Instant relief. I could breathe again. And yawn! I hadn't had a full yawn for days. It was still tender, and I couldn't do much, but I could at least breathe again.

For the next several months I took it easy with my exercise. I basically did none. Any little movement, and I would feel a twinge in my ribs, like things were shifting and moving around. Once it started to feel a bit better, I started trying to do things again. I was able to my leg exercises, but the strength training was a no-go for a while. My ab routine was pretty much nixed also. As was the elliptical. The arm pole movement wasn't nice.

It took me a good three months until I didn't feel any twinges. It was around the beginning or the middle of August by the time I was fully healed. I believe that was when I was able to do my full routine with no problems. My abs felt really tired after the first full workout, too. But I didn't care. I was just glad to be better again.

As a result,I have added a stretch to my stretching routine. I either stand up or sit cross-legged, raise both arms over my head, and bend sideways at the waist. This stretches the lat muscles which was what I pulled. I've also added a new strength exercise with my weights. Stand up and bend forward at my waist with the weights hanging in front of me. Then pull the weights up to my armpits. Sort of like if you're pulled weeds maybe.

Those additions seem to have helped a bit to strengthen my weak areas. The last few days I’ve been having a few twinges, but I think I just slept on my side too long or slept on it wrong. Hopefully that will go away soon.

I am back though, and am slowly trying to get back to where I was. I’m almost ready to start doing two sets of my strength training exercises again. And I am doing a full mile here and there on the elliptical. I at least do a half mile every time I get on. I need to start back up with my Walk Away the Pounds DVD. That seemed to improve my endurance when I did it.

Keep moving no matter what though. A little movement is better than none.