Cigarettes are an insidious lot. I spent more years than I care to speak of at the altar of the devil's sticks. After the birth of a first child, and the inevitable coming of a second, I finally spoke to my doctor and got the assistance I needed to quit. However, for at least a year after quitting, I had dreams of smoking. I would sneak off in my dream and fire them babies up with abandon. What's this got to do with getting healthy you may ask? Simple, the other night I dreamed of jogging. In my dream I ran with the effortlessness and grace of a gazelle, swallowing miles upon miles under my winged feet.
Now I consider this a turning point in my training. If you saw me on the street and said "how's the running" I would spit at you "I hate it." But, can you really say you hate something that you dream about, and find enjoyment in the dream? I think not. Truth be told, I am finding a little enjoyment in the running, and certainly enjoy feeling good about myself when its done. My 1.5 mile jog has now gone from 40 minutes to approximately 23 minutes, and I foresee soon moving up to the mighty 2 mile run.
Now, I have for some time had a pain in my left shoulder. being the macho com-macho man meat I am, I have soldered thru to over a 200lb standing military press. then one day i couldn't raise my arm laterally in line with the shoulder except under extreme pain. I made an impassioned plea to my friend who is a physical therapist, who after several questions told me I been SLAPed! A SLAP stands for Superior Labrum from Anterior to Posterior, and generally is a pain in the tookus. what this boils down to is 1. stretching, and therapeutic movement to repair the shoulder. 2. a big hocking shot of cortisone into the joint. 3. surgery.
I opted for the least invasive of the three. this means my lifting has been on hiatus for 2 weeks while i have been running and doing what i call sissy stretching, which is NOT sissified at least for the first couple of days. I now can happily say most movement has returned to the shoulder, and next week I will resume lifting although it will be a modified 5X5 system, with shrugs instead of presses, and some serious attention to my shoulder in benching. if it hurts, push ups and light flies will be the order of the day.
Anyways, things are progressing, and that's the key slow steady progress is what built behemoths of men, and it just might turn me into a warrior.
Cigarettes are sneaky little buggers! Twenty year after quitting I walked out of committee meeting one summer night, there was a cool breeze, people were standing around chatting and I found myself saying what a perfect night for a cigarette! It was like I never quit, even after all that time. Hang tough Warrior!
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