As a woman, I often find that we lack the upper body strength of our male counterparts. While it's not a certainty that every male on Earth can automatically do one-handed pullups or some such,but many women (myself being included in this) figured that we'll just never be as strong, so why even TRY to do such a thing as pullups?
Well, I just did my FIRST unassisted pullups at the gym this past week with my trainer. I've always been the stubborn kind, not wanting to drop to my knees in pushups, not giving up in farrier class when the instructor came around to ask if I was tired and wanted to stop. Of COURSE I was tired, but that didn't mean I was going to quit just because I was a girl! So I have been known to push myself in the past. However,I have a shoulder injury (in addition to the issues plaguing me from the car accident in 2009) that kept me from doing any pushups at all for a year and a half. The shoulder had partially dislodged from its' socket, the collarbone had popped out of place, and a tear in the front of my pectoral muscle all connived to cause me a lot of pain. So I stopped using it because it hurt so much. And consequently, I developed a "frozen shoulder" and my range of motion was so severely limited that I started to struggle just accomplishing simple tasks. Putting on a jacket was a chore, involving wriggling the jacket up my "dead arm" and then squirming around until I could get the other arm into it. Driving my 3/4 ton pickup truck around a corner required turning it with my right, my left arm in my lap and hand holding the wheel so I could quickly maneuver my right around the wheel again to complete a turn. Putting a bra on required buckling it in front and swiveling it around, trying to get all associated anatomy into correct placement. I actually took a photo of the "PUSHUPS" board at TKD as a goal for myself to reach (not being punished for... say, talking in class - which would be my most likely offense) since my body was incapable of doing such.
Working with my chiropractor, breaking the "strictures" of scar tissue that had interlaced over the scapula to put it back into place, continuing with martial arts and modifying the maneuvers that my left side can't acomplish (I physically lack the capability to lift my left arm to 90 degrees behind me - a move we dubbed "making your muscles" to chamber for a front block... so I had to modify by bringing my fist to my ear as an alternate chamber and changing so I was doing the same on both sides, although my right arm has full range of motion and is perfectly capable of said chamber. Takewondo's modifications for the new Sport Poomsae has now changed all of that, and with it bringing a whole alternate set of challenges for me to face, like the uber-narrow front stance in which my accident-induced lack of balance becomes notably apparent, but that's a story for another day....)
In working with my lovely trainer, and lifting weights (an endeavor which I had never truly embraced formerly), doing her workouts and so forth, I have developed a lot of upper body strength that I never knew I possessed. Workout by workout, week by week and month by month I have seen noticeable changes. But my shoulder still doesn't work quite right. Sometimes my shoulder partially dislocates out of its' socket again. Particularly in crab walk. So I don't do that anymore. I'm also careful of pushing up off a squishy couch, as I did it a 3rd time that way. So I'm mindful of what I can and cannot do. I'm better that I've been since before I hurt that shoulder, but there are limitations.
So an Upper Body workout in Yoga sounded like a definite challenge, though with all the pushups that my trainer just LOOOOVES to have me do, and buoyed up from my recent success in doing unassisted pullups for the FIRST TIME EVER, well, I was ready to try it.
Holy planks! I did regular planks, low and high planks, held pushup position, and worked my arms, shoulders and triceps like crazy! It was definitely a challenge! You know you've worked hard when your arms are burning while lying in relaxation!
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