How many times do you do something when you should know better? It doens't matter if its a minor infraction, such as sneaking a cookie after dinner, to the major blunders of life that land you in serious doo-doo. We all do it. We all make mistakes and neglect to listen to our own advice.
Today, however, was a different matter for me. I actually listened to the professional advice that I gave everyone in yesterday's blog post about skipping your workout if you are sick.
So no matter how many times I tried to justify working out with this cold, I used common sense and didn't do a heavy lifting session. I did however, do 15 minutes on a recumbant bike - something I haven't done for years. But there was a purpose for that as well.
So I stayed away from the gym where I lift, because
a) I didn't want to make this cold worse
b) I wasn't going to have a quality workout anyways
c) I didn't want to spread my germs on the subway and in the weightroom.
Very altruistic, aren't I?
So I snuck down to the empty gym in my building to ride the bike to help my legs recover from the weekend and Mondays' workout.
Turns out my quadriceps (mostly my vastus lateralis and rectus femoris - outer and middle areas of the front of my thighs) have had severe muscle soreness the last two days. I've been doing foam rolling on them, but the soreness remains. The soreness is a result from mondays' front squats and a 3-hour hike I did with my dog on Sunday. I wore some heavy boots and I think my legs weren't accustomed to it...so the duration of the walk led to some soreness.
By riding the bike, the theory is that doing low intensity activity helps increase blood flow throughout the damaged muscle and will help speed recovery.
I would like to have pulled the sled at the gym, but since I didn't go, I was stuck with the bike. I did more foam rolling after that.
For more on sled training, see this article by Jason Ferruggia:
Sled Dragging for Strength & Recovery
I'm going to try for a real workout tomorrow or Friday,
CB
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