Injured just enough
The problem with this post is it keeps growing and changing the longer I don't write it. I almost didn't write it this morning, bc I'm getting more data later today (well, if I make it to the gym on time) so it might be invalid by this afternoon. Rinse and repeat.
I found a really awesome prenatal yoga class. You have to understand, I hate yoga. I once walked out of a class bc I thought, "I have so much stuff to do. I don't have time for this nonsense." I showed up for this yoga class and while it wasn't really what I'd consider exercise, it was great therapy. I started tearing up every time the instructor said, "Put one hand on your heart and one on your baby." All this talk of my baby made him seem more real. (My obstetrician tells me the baby will seem real when he starts kicking.) I liked it so much, I signed up for a 10-class card that expires in 6 weeks when I went to yoga 2 days later. That class wasn't quite as good - part of what made the other class so great is the instructor is a doula, so she'd give specific instructions about what to do (or not) based on the baby's age - but it still helped open my hips etc. (I don't know if my hips are tight all the time because of the chair I'm using in the new apartment or because my loose ligaments are getting floppier due to pregnancy, but I assume it's a little of both, like everything in life.) This class is one of the only things I have found that is better or cheaper in Brooklyn than Manhattan.
Unfortunately, it's crowded out weightlifting. I was trying to fit at least my 15min, at-home kettlebell workout, but there was a week where I went to yoga Tues and Thurs, kettlebells on Weds, and Fri I completely failed to start my workout. I was at the gym, dressed, lying on the mat, and I could barely do the (essentially) hip thrusts I've been doing for multiple years on the advice of my physical therapist. Even without weight, it took massive willpower to get them done. Apparently in my condition, yoga counts as exercise, even though it's mostly organized stretching. This seems like a total rip-off to me.
Now that I'm in my second trimester, I decided to try running again. Prior attempts at running left me with horrible cramps afterward, but I thought maybe now that I was in the second trimester, it would be different. It was an unusually cool night, so I headed along the greenway to the Brooklyn Bridge, figuring I'd run until I couldn't, then come back. I ran a mile, not particularly fast but not horrific, and found myself thinking, "I should stop," so I did. I turned around and started walking home -- when I suddenly got sharp pains in my left hip (i.e. the one connected to my bad ankle). I limped home, periodically stopping to double over from the pain. I came home and announced to my husband and Twitter that I'd run for the last time in 2014. It felt like the same kind of IT band pain I had when I overtrained for my first trip to Rainier, which my PT told me was too much weight on a frame that couldn't support it, that it's an injury that pregnant women get as their body increases in weight and decreases in stability in a short period of time. I had occasional pain/inflammation near my tailbone several times after the run, including one night where I was miserable and could do nothing but go to bed. Ok, no more running.
Yesterday, Jon and I went to the Great Swamp with my ex-boss and his wife for what was originally billed as a hike and turned out to be a walk along the trail to wildlife viewing locations and then a little walk in the woods near a historic site. Jon tells me the longest distance we walked was 0.8mi -- and it was plenty for me. I was a little stiff when we got home and this morning. Ai yah.
On the plus side, I didn't immediately require ice cream afterward, even though it was hot. I've been finding that when it's hot, walking around to do errands is debilitating and I have to go find air conditioning immediately. We live 15-20mins walk from the subway, so I get some activity that way and that walk is usually okay (although a couple of weeks ago it wasn't).
Anyhow, I'm going to try doing my PT exercises at the hour-away gym where I can do almost all of them and hope that works, and finish reading what Exercising Through Pregnancy has to say about you know, in case they have suggestions besides "be fit when you conceive", bc the alternative seems to be just yoga and hope that's enough. ugh.
I found a really awesome prenatal yoga class. You have to understand, I hate yoga. I once walked out of a class bc I thought, "I have so much stuff to do. I don't have time for this nonsense." I showed up for this yoga class and while it wasn't really what I'd consider exercise, it was great therapy. I started tearing up every time the instructor said, "Put one hand on your heart and one on your baby." All this talk of my baby made him seem more real. (My obstetrician tells me the baby will seem real when he starts kicking.) I liked it so much, I signed up for a 10-class card that expires in 6 weeks when I went to yoga 2 days later. That class wasn't quite as good - part of what made the other class so great is the instructor is a doula, so she'd give specific instructions about what to do (or not) based on the baby's age - but it still helped open my hips etc. (I don't know if my hips are tight all the time because of the chair I'm using in the new apartment or because my loose ligaments are getting floppier due to pregnancy, but I assume it's a little of both, like everything in life.) This class is one of the only things I have found that is better or cheaper in Brooklyn than Manhattan.
Unfortunately, it's crowded out weightlifting. I was trying to fit at least my 15min, at-home kettlebell workout, but there was a week where I went to yoga Tues and Thurs, kettlebells on Weds, and Fri I completely failed to start my workout. I was at the gym, dressed, lying on the mat, and I could barely do the (essentially) hip thrusts I've been doing for multiple years on the advice of my physical therapist. Even without weight, it took massive willpower to get them done. Apparently in my condition, yoga counts as exercise, even though it's mostly organized stretching. This seems like a total rip-off to me.
Now that I'm in my second trimester, I decided to try running again. Prior attempts at running left me with horrible cramps afterward, but I thought maybe now that I was in the second trimester, it would be different. It was an unusually cool night, so I headed along the greenway to the Brooklyn Bridge, figuring I'd run until I couldn't, then come back. I ran a mile, not particularly fast but not horrific, and found myself thinking, "I should stop," so I did. I turned around and started walking home -- when I suddenly got sharp pains in my left hip (i.e. the one connected to my bad ankle). I limped home, periodically stopping to double over from the pain. I came home and announced to my husband and Twitter that I'd run for the last time in 2014. It felt like the same kind of IT band pain I had when I overtrained for my first trip to Rainier, which my PT told me was too much weight on a frame that couldn't support it, that it's an injury that pregnant women get as their body increases in weight and decreases in stability in a short period of time. I had occasional pain/inflammation near my tailbone several times after the run, including one night where I was miserable and could do nothing but go to bed. Ok, no more running.
Yesterday, Jon and I went to the Great Swamp with my ex-boss and his wife for what was originally billed as a hike and turned out to be a walk along the trail to wildlife viewing locations and then a little walk in the woods near a historic site. Jon tells me the longest distance we walked was 0.8mi -- and it was plenty for me. I was a little stiff when we got home and this morning. Ai yah.
On the plus side, I didn't immediately require ice cream afterward, even though it was hot. I've been finding that when it's hot, walking around to do errands is debilitating and I have to go find air conditioning immediately. We live 15-20mins walk from the subway, so I get some activity that way and that walk is usually okay (although a couple of weeks ago it wasn't).
Anyhow, I'm going to try doing my PT exercises at the hour-away gym where I can do almost all of them and hope that works, and finish reading what Exercising Through Pregnancy has to say about you know, in case they have suggestions besides "be fit when you conceive", bc the alternative seems to be just yoga and hope that's enough. ugh.