Tale of the Scale: 2/2/08

Another week, with less weight!

No, not less weight on me, I'm still stable. We've discovered a rather dramatic muscle weakness/imbalance between my right/left leg that we're working on. And until I can use more weight with my left leg, I'm doing one legged exercises with very light weights.

This imbalance (and the subsequent pain/ muscle tightness)goes pretty far to explain my back pain, leg pain on the left side. Getting this addressed will be a major step forward for me. We didn't discover this problem earlier in our sessions because my core was so unstable and weak overall that we never tried one sided strength exercises on my legs before. We've done them for several months with my shoulders.. and the results have been dramatic. Here's hoping for the same results in a different body part.

I've also been told to change up my workout for a while:

1. only come into the gym 3 days a week. Getting lots of time to rest and heal and not over train my body. I'm not sure I agree with this and will see if I can get a full body workout plus balance and flexibility work this schedule. I know it is not wise to ignore the advise of one's trainer, but I grew to really cherish my 4 days in the gym.

That, and I don't pay for hot water for the showers there!

2. Oddly. Do the same cardio machine for 2 weeks, then change to a different one for two weeks, then change to another. Always getting two weeks on one item. I've been changing up every time I'm in there: one day hill routine on treadmill, next time speed and endurance on the elliptical, next time intervals on the crosstrack. Shoot. The lines for the cardio machines had better start getting shorter soon (the January resolution crowd is packing those machines even at 11 am!) or I will be touch and go about getting a machine of my choosing.

3. Go to less weight and work much slower, concentrating on perfect form and often challenging the whole body. Like slow food and slow craft, this is a change to slow movement. I found the workout as challenging as higher weights and faster movement, so we'll see what the results are on my body: less post-exercise soreness? less strain on soft tissue (tendons and ligaments)? more overall stability?

I also blog at: A Stitch In Time throughout the week and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.