Disarmament#
Sun, 15 Feb 1970 00:40:00 +0000
My arms have been sore for three days now. This might be due to (a) changing my armswing, (b) using more of it, or (c) adding some (light) free weights stuff to my training. Or most likely, some combination.
In order of appearance, then.
(a) I haven't found a decent photo of me skating all year: every time the shutter catches me I'm doing some kind of gorilla impression. So, after the class the other week, I am concentrating on keeping my elbows tucked into my sides as my arm goes back and forward.
I'll have to wait until next season before I can get new photos now, but it does seem to make a difference to the skating as well: more of an armswing, less of an armwave. The first few strides from a standing start are still arms akimbo, but I think the rules are different for starts anyway.
(b) well, obviously. New toy, must play.
(c) I have a natural antipathy to gyms, formed out of 32 years of never having set foot in one (not to mention "forty quid? That's a set of wheels a month!") but I was looking at it again recently. Because, honestly, the only difference between my arms and pipe cleaners is that pipe cleaners are greener and furrier - maybe just maybe if when falling forwards I could absorb more of the impact in my arms I'd absorb less of it in my teeth. So I spent a long time on the Intarweb and found that to a first approximation gyms cater too much to the fitness crowd, that the customers don't know what they're doing, hog the facilities and don't clean up after themselves, that the staff are unhelpful and often also clueless, and that the membership contracts are worse than the ones that mobile phone users put up with. So I'm still not a gym member. But also, unless you have a particular need to develop one specific muscle to the exclusion of all others, free weights (used properly) are usually "better" than machines, because the movements are more likely to involve other muscle groups for balance and stability. Balance, stability, where do I sign? I have acquired for myself a pair of dumbbells, of the cheap (and as importantly, compact) kind with separate plates, and am looking for a bench (also looking for a sofa and a new bed, and a miracle of interior planning that will let me get them all in the same place at once, but that's by the by). So we'll see how that goes.
- Friday, rode bike on LFNS first half, then back to base after the skate was cancelled at half time. Max HR 192 (and not dead) which I find mildy amusing. But I'm like that.
- Saturday, skated to park, few lengths, skated home
- Sunday it rained
- Monday, aforementioned weights stuff
- Tuesday RC
- Weds skated to work (5km), and back via Decathlon (13km). Which was a bit of a waste of time from the "buying stuff" point of view, because I arrived there after it closed, but a nice skate anyway.
- Thursday, today, I ache all over and I thumped my knee on the furniture while getting up this morning - it hurts. So, rest day.
In passing: while browsing exercise-related sites I also found that my swiss ball is about three sizes too big - you're supposed to have your feet on the ground, but mine don't reach.