October 28, 2024 - Saving Myself

Here is a new post under the subject of PLACeS TO GO - Planet Fitness in the Brooklawn Shopping Center.

For the past few years, I have been in a kind of rapid and shocking (to me) decline. It began with an injury to my hip joint at the Planet Fitness when I was going to the gym regularly and decided to use two machines for thigh and hip work. I used too much rigor, apparently, and pulled something in my groin/hip area that was so bad, I went to th doctor's. I got x-rayed, of course, and I was told I had arthritis of both hips, worse on the left side. That was the beginning. Shortly after, I had the first of 3 falls, first down the cellar steps (no bone injuries but a lot of joint pain). Then I fell in the driveway last summer - I was getting the dog out of the car and she tackled me by mistake while jumping out. Crash, I went down on the grass between the drive-ways which was good because it was soft, and again, no big injuries but my joints got wrenched around and twisted even worse. Two weeks ago, I fell again on a tiled floor and really banged up my hip, twisted my knee, and wrenched my back.

Meanwhile, I had been to my general practitione and to the hip doctor and got more x-rays of my back and hips and knees. Same story with the hips and knees but the news from the hip doctor was that my problem wasn't my hip but my lower back. He said the arthritis was far worse there and there was calcified soft tissue as well. He wanted me to do more physical therapy but in the past 3 years, I have tried physical therapy three times, twice at Cooper and once at Regional Orthopedics.

The main gist of it is a pt gives you a sheet print out of exercises to do at home. He then send you to a table or chair with a band, and tells you to do an exercise three times with 30 repititions each set. Then he goes to sit at his computer. When you are done the process repeats - an exercise, 3 sets of 30 repetitions until you have done an hour and about 15 excercises. I did this for 6 weeks, then another season I did it for 8 weeks. Mostly I had some minor initial improvement but the final 8 weeks course left me almost unable to walk, my hip got so sore. My gp said the repititions may have inflamed the joint.

Through all of this, I had been doing Chair Yoga which helped a little with stretching and relaxation but not with strength.

This last fall was my wake-up call. If I didn't do something to get strong, things were going down hill fast. I felt determined enough to really get motivated and today I signed up and started at Planet Fitness again. Sabrina is the person you usually see at the counter at Planet Fitness and she is a bright, beautiful, friendly, out-going and super encouraging human being.

I have had so much pain, there was no fear of me overdoing it. I could hardly turn the pedals around on the bike, my knee and hip were so stiff and painful. But I was able to do five minutes on the bike as a start, then I did each of the arm and back machines in the 30 minute room and one abs machine, only 20 reptitions on each. The seated stepper was the easiest for my legs in terms of pain and I did ten minute on that.

The main point is that when I left, I could already walk better than I was walking when I went in, the push of blood through my muscles and the loosening of my joints on the bike made a big difference. I am encouraged already by my progress and glad I took this step to save myself from the rapid and wholesale decline that was happening to me. I hope I feel ok tomorrow. My plan is to go Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, then throw in an extra short work-out whenever I have free time and feel like it. I am hopeful and confident that this is going to make a big improvement in me. It may even help me get a grip on my weight!

If you are looking for something to do for yourself that isn't expensive, I couldn't think of any better way to begin than by signing up at Planet Fitness and getting started - start small and build big! I will keep you posted on my progress.

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com