Working on an exercise plan

[unixronin]

I’ve always had trouble maintaining a regular exercise plan ... and frankly, it’s mostly because I find exercise so damned boring. So to try to work around this, I’m going to try to remember to do some work with the hand weights while I wait for the espresso machine to warm up and build steam pressure, which typically adds up to about fifteen minutes that I’m usually not doing anything anyway.

Today I started with thirty each front and back forearm curls, wrist spins, inward/outward double blocks, outside raises to overhead, and half-circle sweeps at shoulder level, all left and right together, then finished up with fifty alternating full-speed karate punches, all with three-pound hand weights. The last had me coughing a little — I’m still clearing the last of the crud out of my lungs from a rather nasty cold — but not enough that I couldn’t finish the set.

Hopefully I’ll remember to do this every day until I manage to form a habit. I need to dig up my PT notes and see whether I missed anything, and figure out a good time to fit in the leg exercises too. I just wish there was some way to get my left foot and ankle fixed so that I could run again. I probably won’t ever get back to the physical shape I was in before Splat Day, but I should be able to get significantly better than I am now if I can just manage not to let it lapse out of boredom.

Comments

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

There is a Yahoo Group called "Tibetan Five Rites" you might want to look into. I'm one seriously out-of-shape fella, but I found out about the Five Rites about 18 months ago and, even though I've had to go slow, I've managed to move beyond anything that modern medicine offered me any hope to do. The body has some remarkable regenerative powers, naturally, if you know how to activate them. Using the Five Rites takes about 10-15 minutes per day, and kicks the regenerative processes into hyperdrive.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I assume I'd be right in believing that that's one of those things where an important prerequisite is that you believe it'll work, right...?

I think I actually have a Yahoo account somewhere. Damned if I can remember the login credentials.

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

No, you'd be wrong. It doesn't matter what you believe about doing the Five Rites. Most people would call the Five Rites exercises, just very specific ones that somewhat resemble yoga. The reason the group calls them the Five Rites is that the Rites come from Tibet, and in Tibet they are called the Five Rites. There is a free e-book available in the group files area that explains the exercises, how many reps to do, and you only do one set per day.

However, I need to make one correction. The name of the group is "Five Tibetan Rites", not Tibetan Five Rites.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

It shouldn't hurt to try. Even if you don't believe, an experiment can yield interesting results.

I am someone that loves science. I believe in modern medicine. I also believe that modern science does not understand everything there is available to access about the human body. I am fascinated by learning the various ways people go about trying to access aspects of the body. I think there are commonalities. Finding them is how we get new research into science and medicine.

[rbos.livejournal.com]

Speaking of somewhat dodgy treatments, have you ever heard of Prolotherapy? It refers to the practice of injecting saline into key areas to provoke swelling (and thus increased blood flow) to an area, promoting the regeneration of tissue.

I've been looking at it pretty hard, and there are apparently some supporting medical studies, but the only practitioners I can find with casual looking are the homeopathy-and-crystal crowd of woo-peddlers.

[rbos.livejournal.com]

Also, you find quite a bit of supporting anecdotal testimony.

It seems to fit into a category of "doesn't hurt to try".

I've got a back injury that might respond to it. :/

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Having looked at it, I don't know that it would be applicable. About the one thing we know for sure is that my foot is full of scar tissue. Even if this does stimulate healing, it's really not going to achieve a thing without getting all the scar tissue out, and then there's atrophied muscles and nerve damage and ....

"Sorry. It's fucked."

Five Tibetans

[ewen]

Google turns up this illustrated guide to The 5 Tibetans. They're fairly popular in various yoga communities. There's even a Wikipedia page. There are various books around too.

I've been doing them for about 18 months, pretty much every day, and would definitely recommend them. I've no idea about "kicking the regenerative processes into hyperdrive", but it's (a) about the right amount of exercise to do daily, (b) fairly quick (10-15 minutes normally), (c) exercises most core muscle groups in both directions, (d) is a fairly good progression of exercises. unixronin may want to take the fourth exercise fairly gently at first, given that it's flexing the knees a fair bit.

I've no idea if the Tibetan Monks history is true or a recent invention. But it's not the history which is making them work. It's exercising the right sets of muscles.

Ewen