May 28 – Too Much Rowing

I was having so much fun!  I was using the cheap commercial gym and the community gym at the senior center as my own personal playgrounds.  It started with my notion to achieve some of my bike mileage by rowing along Lake Superior.  (Superior Rowing)  

When I explored the different gyms in my vicinity & their equipment (& fees), I didn’t find the perfect rowing simulation, or cross-country skiing either.  So I decided that, for a greater variety of exercise & for more playful opportunities than I was getting from cycling alone, I would use both cheap gyms like children’s playgrounds.  

I did a little of everything fun!  I met with the trainers at each place to set up a program & learn to use their equipment, but I was really looking for a chance to flex muscles & feel stronger & competent.

I was sure that by using machines that cradle my body & keep me in correct position for each exercise, I wouldn’t hurt myself.  I was just enjoying the sense of movement & expecting eventual gradual improvement.  I didn’t strain any muscles, & awoke the next day with a pleasant soreness in the muscles I had used.

But before I knew it, my arms were prickling, like pins-&-needles when a limb “falls asleep” & then wakes up.  And it was getting worse!

I was so afraid that this was a neurological problem, probably progressive & incurable! 

My doctor told me that I must be overworking my shoulders & neck.  I learned that the prickly pins-&-needles feeling, since it’s not really numbness, is called paresthesia.  I felt betrayed by the very thing I was doing to feel better.  I stopped going to the gym for a week to let my shoulder nerves calm down, but continued cycling for mileage. 

After a week, my nerves had, indeed, calmed down, and I went back to the gym to find out what I could do for my back without overworking my shoulders.  I was amazed at how many of the back-strengthening machines involved shoulder action.  I had to cut out 2/3 of them.  I decided to imitate an allergen re-introduction approach: cut out all shoulder activity, then re-introduce one at a time.  I’m moving again!