Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Pros/Cons of My Recumbent Bike Efforts


Time to update you all on my recent exercise efforts. 

Back on the 6th, I posted, here, about my reasons and motivation for beginning what turned out to be 15 minutes a day on my recumbent stationery bike. My first full session was Saturday the 6th, and I weighed myself that morning. A week later, after doing only 15 minutes a day, on Saturday the 11th, I found that I had lost 2 pounds. That was nice to see.

There are pros and cons to this new routine.

Pros include the weight loss and my expectations of more to come, gently, gently, as per my plans. I also found that my energy level increased a little.

Cons - well, there was only one of those. And it might not even be connected with the exercise. About 3 or 4 days after I began, I developed a strong ache (not a pain, an ache, soreness)  in what I first thought was my hip. I really did not want to think that the exercise caused that. But I am 78 (79 in just 2 or 3 weeks), so it’s possible. But I realized that the ache could easily be from one of three different causes.

It could, of course, have been the exercise. It could also have been bursitis which I get every couple of years in either a hip or a shoulder. And it could have been a simple muscle pull from moving or bending, or whatever, and doing it rather carelessly for my age.

I decided to try to try 2 things that would work for either of the two latter reasons. For the possible bursitis, I did what I always do for that - warmth. So I went to bed the night I decided on that, and wore old slacks and a tee shirt instead of a nightgown. And I picked up a generic Tylenol extra-strength, which the pharmacist assured me will not mess with my blood pressure med. That next morning, it already felt good from the warmth, but I took 2 of the generic Tylenol. An hour later, I was walking very well, for me. So it was either bursitis or a muscle pull and not related to the exercise. That made me very very happy because it meant I need not stop my new routine.

I’ll keep you in the loop...
Rolling along...

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