Workout 120314: Question Answered

Today's workout:

Hip Warmup Stretch
20 min Elliptical (level 2 - Hill Interval)
Side Lunges - 10 reps each side
Hip Abduction - 10 reps 2 set each leg
Modified Side Planks - 3 reps each side with 5 sec hold
Modified Planks - 3 reps with 20 sec hold
Stretch

The question posed yesterday about not returning to physical therapy... It was answered today.  I will be going back next week.  This morning's side lunges were greeted by pain in my left knee.  I was able to modify enough to make the pain go away, but something is still not right there.  Then I went to do the Modified Side Planks and my elbow wouldn't support my weight without pain; enough so that I called it quits after 3 of them.

How did I get like this?

All I keep thinking is sedentary job, sedentary hobbies, sedentary life.  I have struggled with my weight for years...  decades now... but I wasn't in pain.  I went hiking with friends.  My jobs involved being on my feet for hours in service positions or contorting myself in to inconvenient spaces in computer rooms.  My weight wasn't getting in my way.  That's why I never fixed it.

Even today it really isn't getting in my way technically.  It's a symptom of the lifestyle I have, just like the pain in my knees.  But for the first time, I am beginning to see it as an aggravating factor.  Maybe I am not getting better as quickly because I have so much extra to whip into shape.  Maybe the added impact just makes everything that much harder.

So I'm working on it.  I'm proud of the progress I'm making.  I'm also proud of the time I've kept at it.  But I still have so far to go.  It's hard to see that I'll ever reach my goals.  Going back to PT?  One more step towards making this right.