This Running Thing

...is really putting a kink in my, well, everything! It's Thursday so I hit up World's again with Jen. It was a random crowd so not quite as distracting as last week. As usual, we started on the treadmills where I wobbled through an embarrassing 13 minute run. Yesterday at Planet I did the eliptical to give my body a break but apparently it wasn't enough. I don't know if its the way I'm holding my shoulders when I'm running (I know you're supposed to relax them but I've never learned how to relax!) or if its TMJ-related (a lovely disorder that seems to crop up at the most inopportune times in my life) but my jaw/neck/shoulders are so stiff right now that I have about 50% of my usual range of motion. Not the greatest scenario considering today was a shoulders day. It started with my jaw and neck yesterday and I stupidly pushed myself through 3 sets of stability ball leg lifts despite the neck strain they cause. Bad idea. I hope I can move when I wake up tomorrow :S

Anyway, I hadn't yet done a shoulders routine with Jen so I decided we'd go through with the workout and I'd just take it easy on the weights. We started with 3 sets of 8 on the assisted pull-up machine. I know I previously said that I wouldn't dare use this machine at World's but today it was either a) use the assistance or b) don't do it at all. Then we moved over to the free-weight area where we did 3 sets of 8 arnold press. I thought about getting some more pics to post here but my painful grimace probably wouldn't have made anyone want to use this move! Lastly, we moved on to 3 sets of 8 front raises and latteral raises. I decreased my weights considerably and skipped out on the third set but it didn't help much. I dunno, maybe the tightness has nothing to do with running or with TMJ and I just slept funny or something. Here's hoping...

For abs we did 3 sets of 12 rope crunches  on the cables and then 3 sets of 8 pushups using the bosu ball. I love doing pushups on the bosu ball; it adds a great stability aspect and you can really feel it burning your abs! Finally, we moved over to the mats to stretch out our shoulders and legs.  I really needed a good calf/shin/hamstring stretch-out but I got distracted by a friend who came over to chat and diss on my ex's recent choice of sub-par gym partners haha. Oh well, I needed the laugh today so I'll make up for the stretching tomorrow. I don't yet know whats on the workout agenda for tomorrow but I can assure you it won't include running. Going to make that an every-other-day thing until this kink gets worked out.