<p>
</p>
<p>I hate a stiff neck from sleeping on it wrong. I’ve had fewer of those ol’ fat guy maladies since I’ve been on this move more kick, but I’ve got a long way to go on flexibiity and range of motion in just about every joint in my body. These side lunges are stretching stuff in my hips that I didn’t even know I had.</p>
<p>oh, jeez! D2 and I finished baking pies, setting table, making stuffing, artichoke dip for the crostini, cranberry salad and herb butter and I am not feeling well. Scratchy throat, stuffy/runny nose and my ears are blocked! I can not get sick!!! Still have so much to do but I am tired. H will have to pitch in when he gets home. Anyone have a good cold medicine to recommend?</p>
<p>This is my third week of that cold. Not enough from keeping me from working ; just mildly annoying.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Oban single-malt scotch wiskey</p>
<p>Cold medicines mask the symptoms. I don’t know if they help you to get better faster. The usual rest, liquids, humidified air and a low-stress environment probably work best. Of course that combination of things can be very hard to come by.</p>
<p>Which means that the whiskey may just works as well as anything from CVS.</p>
<p>It’s Wednesday. Workout day. I don’t care if it is Thanksgiving tomorrow and if I still have to make creamed onions and some kitchen cleaning tonight. I’m doing my Wednesday workout. Time was short, so I went with the most bang for the buck. Spartacus again. Same as Monday. If I do say so myself, I kicked it. With any luck, EPOC metabolism will carry me through burning calories even as I stuff my face with turkey!</p>
<p>Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I have found myself exercising nearly daily and to my surprise I’m starting to like it. It’s been nearly a month now and while I see no problem sticking with it, I thought it might be good to start a support system/habits to make sure it keeps going on.</p>
<p>This all started a month ago when I threw my back out at Parent’s Weekend in Boston (I live in Texas.) Luckily my sister lives in western MA and she (& her husband) are saints so they came to get me, put me up at their house and, along with my parents, took care of me. For the first week I could only crawl without a lot of help and they would take me to the heated pool at their Y so I could float around. I literally just floated around and it was heaven, my only pain free time of the day or night. </p>
<p>As I got better (ie worked towards standing upright), I worked with my Spine doc and my chiropractor to come up with stretches and exercises to do in the water. I returned home on Sunday, joined a gym with a heated, rec pool on Monday and have gone all thee days this week. To this day I do a very, very slow routine that lasts 30 minutes and I have to take a nap afterwards. </p>
<p>Anyone else work out in the water? It’s my only option right now and I’m thankful for it but it’s a bit strange to only be doing that. Anyone else come back to a pain free life from a blown disc without surgery? That’s my goal right now.</p>
<p>Very frustrated. I think I am just meant to be fat and out of shape. Had tried walking…pain. Tried yoga…pain. Tried BOSU…pain. Tried wii…pain. Tried exercise bike …some pain. Wore very short heels to a wedding and crippled for 2 days.</p>
<p>Finally went to see orthopedic foot specialist. Have arthritis in big toe joints (both feet) and bone spurs throughout those joints and in some of rest of foot joints. Am going to be fitted for some kind of carbon steel orthotics that will keep foot flat and not allow bending of the joints. He says that will control pain but nothing will make it go away, which is what I want. He says that I should be able to start walking again, what I don’t understand is if your foot doesn’t bend, how do you walk?..like a duck?</p>
<p>Bone spurs are usually caused by calcium deposits building up from bleeding internally. For pf, they can be removed with surgery. Did the doc identify the cause of the one spurs?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I had a pinched nerve at the C5/C6 vertebrae that was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. It sent me to the emergency room thinking the shooting pain through my chest and arm was a heart attack. They said my heart was fine and sent me home. I then spent the next 24 hours standing up with my arm reaching over my head – the only position that would stop the pain. I stood in a doorway until I fell asleep and fell down, then stood back up and stood up for another hour or two until I fell asleep again. I’ve never been so miserable. On Monday morning, the nurse practitiioner at my doctors (8am) took one look at me with my arm up (we had driven in my wife’s convertible with the top down!) and said I had a pinched nerve. Some massive painkillers let me get a little sleep and a course of steroids to reduce inflammation and the problem resolved itself. I am now sensitive to any twinge in that area and I stop doing whatever caused it.</p>
<p>I very much pay attention to the “protect your back” school of exercise. For example, I don’t do cruches or sit ups or any of the back bending stuff.</p>
<p>I have no idea if your disc issue is similar or what the outcome might be. My wife does most of her workouts in the pool – water aerobics, water zumba, swimming laps.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There are a whole bunch of low impact strength exercises that you can do without being on your feet. You should be able to come up with good workouts that don’t aggravate your feet. I’d get this book and start thumbing through the exercises, seeing which ones will be OK:</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> The Women’s Health Big Book of Exercises: Four Weeks to a Leaner, Sexier, Healthier YOU! (9781605295497): Adam Campbell MS CSCS: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Health-Big-Book-Exercises/dp/1605295493/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290658476&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Health-Big-Book-Exercises/dp/1605295493/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290658476&sr=1-1)</p>
<p>Need a stability ball, some dumbbells, maybe a weight bench.</p>
<p>Here you go interesteddad… try out this workout :)</p>
<p>[Trainer’s</a> Tip: Laurie Miller](<a href=“http://videos.stltoday.com/p/video?id=31651531]Trainer’s”>http://videos.stltoday.com/p/video?id=31651531)</p>
<p>Cool. I can actually do all those. Now, convincing anyone else in my family to join in might be tough.</p>
<p>BTW, that woman had awesome depth on her squats. Dang. That’s some serious flexibility. This ol’ fat guy can get to parallel, but not that deep.</p>
<p>idad - I hate to break it to you, but I did 30 lb. dumbbells today. When I got to the gym, my trainer told asked me why I had texted him about how much weight I was doing. So I told him I was reading this website and wanted to know how my progress on the dumbbells was in comparison to the bench press. He told me he easily thinks I could do 25 lbs, but he sometimes gets nervous training someone with dumbbells. He said if you are going to break, the break is going to occur at the elbow and the dumbbell will end up in your face. He’s seen it happen before… even with spotters. However, we discovered today that, when I bench press (incline or flat), even though I’m doing a lower weight, mentally I just feel more confident when he keeps his hands on the bar, although he’s not supporting any weight. And when I feel more confident, I somehow manage more energy when I’m not worrying about keeping the bar up. So when we went to dumbbells, he spotted me without giving me any help, began me with 20 lbs. for 15 reps, then 25 lbs. for 12 reps, and then 30 lbs. for 10 reps. It’ll be interesting to see if I’m sore tomorrow as I did both incline and flat bench presses, as well as the incline dumbbell presses.</p>
<p>Also wore my elbow brace to the gym for the first time today. Saw the chiropractor and he’s going to do some electrical stim and ultrasound for a few times and see if he can’t facilitate the easing up on the inflammation. With all of the cooking, etc., I’ll be doing in the next couple of days (just us four tomorrow, but Friday night we’re having a party here with about 25 people expected to come), I’ll definitely need to keep the brace on for support.</p>
<p>Oh, and I FINALLY wore my new skinny jeans with my new boots today… looked awesome!</p>
<p>Skinny jeans **and **30 pound dumbbells. Damn. That’s a good day!</p>
<p>I stuck with the wimpy 20 pounders for Spartacus today. I need to break out the 30 pounders for a few reps. Maybe after turkey tomorrow! I don’t know about you, but those 30 pounders are frickin’ heavy for me. They are even heavy just to get out of the rack and into position to bench press on the stability ball.</p>
<p>Way to go teriwtt! Congrats on the weights and the skinny jeans!!! Awesome!</p>
<p>mkm and pugmadkate…several of us on this thread know what it is like to either have started our exercise program due to pain or have pain while exercising. In my case a knee injury brought me in to the game. If I don’t bike the pain is worse. It is a strong motivation to keep exercising. I also want to wear beautiful heels to my daughter’s wedding in August and a dress with no sleeves! My vanity is also a strong motivator! ;)</p>
<p>My silly cold has kept me up through the night. Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to all! </p>
<p>I’m determined to “step away from the table” before doing damage to my diet. 
I keep telling myself it’s not all about the food – it’s the gathering of family and friends …</p>
<p>Awake at 4am to run a race I’m not really ready for… I have turned into some kind of nut. At least S will now be done with volunteer hours, so if I do this again, I won’t have to be there hours ahead of time. By the way, it’s freezing here (says the So Cal girl). But at least it’s not raining.</p>
<p>NorthMinn, I always keep Airborne around the house. I take it at the first sign of a cold. Maybe it’s just the placebo effect, but it always works for me.</p>
<p>Re: cold – try Cold-Eeze zinc lozenges. </p>
<p>Good luck to those running races today!</p>
<p>Thanks for the cold tips!</p>
<p>Go blankmind!!! Sending thoughts for speed and endurance! You can do this!</p>