Emiko: Day 38, A Crick in My Back

This morning I got up, stretched a bit, and was happy to note that my back was much less sore and achy than yesterday. As I mentioned in my previous post, after jumping around on trampolines for an hour on Friday, my back was in quite a state on Saturday. So I was really glad that it felt so much better.

I went out behind the house in the evening to do my jump ropes. It was then that I realized that my back was not in much better shape than yesterday. I noticed that my back would curl slightly with every jump, and with that curl I felt strain in my muscles and spine. It was a little challenging, but I did all of my sets and went upstairs the rest of the workout, on the other hand, was much much harder (Pistols!).

I just finished sitting half an hour of zazen, and my back was a continuous source of distraction. It was difficult to maintain my posture, and toward the end was painful to just sit there. It makes me really appreciate Tim's strength to go through all of this, as I know he has chronic aches and pains. I can see why he goes to get massages regularly.

Definitely can't wait to lie down in bed and rest my back muscles. Adrian also promised me a back massage before bed, so off I go I can't wait!

G'night!

Adrian: Day 33, Some pain

I haven't been able to get much sleep for the past two days. I've been thinking too much at night and I've been completely unable to relax. I felt tired all day today. My right knee's been aching too - I hurt it yesterday during meditation. I could really feel it while doing jump ropes today, so I tried to keep most of the action on my left leg. I cut the jumps to 1200 instead of the usual 1600. I skipped the floor jumps altogether. I did manage to get through the rest of the exercises. I feel like I've gotten a little bit stronger, though Emiko says my muscles look a lot more defined.

She suggested that I skip the workout completely today, because of my hurt knee. That idea sounded pretty good to me. But, I've been feeling very motivated lately, and the idea of not working out for two days in a row (I took my rest day yesterday) just seemed wrong to me. I think I'm starting to like exercise... Weird.

I did the 8-minute abs video Patrick sent us for the second day in a row today. It's hilarious. Two or more people watching together in the same room will result in fits of laughter. But the workout really does burn. Some of the exercises feel like they put too much strain on my neck though, and that's not fun.





That's all for now. I'm gonna go cut my hair. Have a good night everybody!

Adrian