Ahhh, exercise again!

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AnneW
AnneW Member Posts: 4,050
edited June 2014 in Working on Your Fitness

Today was my first trip back to the gym since bilats with expanders 10 days ago. I've been feeling so much tightness and constriction--as much from this post-surgical bra as from the surgery. I still have a drain in. And I'd been pretty darn fragile emotionally for a day or more.

I got on the recumbent bike and just pedaled for two miles. My heart rate didn't get above 100, but it felt okay. I tried the elliptical, and it just didn't do it for me. Then I got down on a mat and stretched. First my lower body, then some crunches. Then working my arms up and out, wherever they'd let me take them. (My pec muscles are paralyzed with Botox for the next 3 months.)

I was sore after, but not nearly as cranky. After lunch and a nap, I felt a subtle shift in my body--there was no more pain, no more tightness, and mood was 100% better.

I guess the body knows what it needs more than the head does. I feel like I've turned the corner today!

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  • LisaSDCA
    LisaSDCA Member Posts: 2,230
    edited October 2007

    Aren't endorphins the most wonderful brain chemical of all!?! Smile Of course, I am amazed that you did this with a drain still in, but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do! How wonderful that you feel you have turned a corner - a big step in your healing, I'm sure!

    Since my bilat. and DIEP/SIEA recon. 4 weeks ago, I've been pretty restricted, but I am walking nearly every day, yoga 3x/week and have got my range of motion almost entirely back. But lawdy, what I would give to heft some real weight! I've even been doing Overhead Squats with a broomstick (an assistance lift for Olympic-style weightlifting) because the upper body part is not all that different from prescribed ROM exercises for post-op. I'm desperate, I know. Undecided

    Lisa

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited October 2007

    I just LOVE hearing stories about those who listen to their bodies when they tell them that they need exercise....and then rewards them for listening! ROCK ON, GIRLS!!!! Cool

    ~Marin

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  • AnneW
    AnneW Member Posts: 4,050
    edited October 2007

    Well, I won't be bench pressing for a while, till the botox wears off, and I can't climb until I can reach over my head and pull up. But that will come quicker than the wieghts...Right now I'm itching to get back in the rock gym and just do some foot work, using my hands only for balance. Improved technique will be the silver lining in ths little cloud...

    I feel like my body is finally accepting what I'm asking of it. It's stretching in foreign ways, some muscle can't even move, but there seems to be a better connection between my brain and body in the past day or so. I'll keep stretching and slowly challenging it.

    Anne

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