Overdoing It

Sometimes I'm amazed at my own wussiness. I always thought I was a strong dude, although that whole 'crushing the egg' experiment kind of let the doubts creep in. But back in 1992-93, I used to go to the gym religiously for three hours every day, and even before that I had one of the most physically demanding jobs on the planet--rowing rubber rafts full of cruise ship passengers out to explore icebergs, then taking them down a whitewater river twice a day up in Alaska. But that's a story for another time...

Anyhow, once I quit going to school, and lost free access to a gym, I sat on my ass for ten years straight behind a computer. Clearly, it didn't help the physique.

So a few nights ago, I had the sublime pleasure of spending a couple of hours grinding dancing with the Future Mrs., and whenever we weren't doing the slow ballroom-style stuff, I had my hand on her rock-hard six-pack abs while we impressed the locals with our mad white-people-gettin'-jiggy-with-it skillz.

Excuse me, while I take a moment to reminisce...

Ok. Anyhow... So while this was going on, the thought struck me that I *really* need to start going back to the gym. So I started working out again, every day this week. But I think I overdid it. First of all, last night, my arms and shoulders were so sore that I could barely deal cards. I didn't complain, and I worked through it. And this morning, I could barely do three sets of leg curls with just 60 lbs. on the rack. I swear I thought I was going to get a charlie-horse right there, and get stuck, paralyzed on the machine, unable to extricate myself. So I did the sensible thing and scaled back the leg workout.

(Oh, and for all of you 'experts' that want to chime in and tell me that I should take a day off between workouts, I know this already--I took weightlifting classes in college and have spent $$ on personal trainers in the past--I know what I'm doing. And believe, me, I started out this week very slow and I alternate my exercise rotation daily-- so I'm in no danger of injuring myself).

Once I got out of the lower body torture device, I hit the overhead pull-downs and the butterfly press pretty hard. Just to the point where the last few reps were very difficult, just beyond my comfort zone. Once I finished, I did my time on the treadmill before heading back home.

After I showered and changed, I was enjoying the tail-end of that warm endorphin rush, and noticed that the muscles in my arms were twitching. Definitely a sign of over-exertion. No problemo, I thought--I could use a little over-exertion. But by then it was breakfast time, and I was hungry, and I wanted to cook some scrambled eggs and salsa.

Knowing I could never smash an egg in one hand, I broke them open in the traditional method, on the side of the stove. But I swear, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the salsa jar open! My arms and hands were useless. Well, not quite, but I didn't have the strength reserve to open a damn jar. I struggled with it like an old woman for entirely too long, but after a few minutes of grunting and groaning, I finally broke the seal. But then my arms went back to being useless again, and just lifting the frying pan was a test of my will.

Yep, I definitely overdid it this morning.

I'll be ok though, besides my eggs, I had some yogurt that had a monstrous dose of potassium in it, so I won't get any cramps and I'm feeling better already. But man, I've got a looooong way to go.

Mikey