Back Into Weights

The heat wave halted my running to a standstill, so I resurrected the set of weights I have at home to resume weight training. Turns out the last time I had done any weights was last summer, when I decided to take it easy on my heels to alleviate the plantar fasciitis that had developed. Following the recommendation of my chiropractor, I decided to start with especially low weights the first few sessions and see how it goes.

Today was the third session. My first two sessions, starting with 15 lb. dumbbells, identified weak area of my body. Currently at the top of my list is my left shoulder / upper arm, which appears to have suffered an injury. For the last two weeks, I've been feeling pain there when I do dishes. Now I feel it with any type of press, flys, especially pullovers, and lateral raises, but surprisingly not front raises.

My chiropractor adjusted it yesterday, but the pain was still there when I exercised today, suggesting it was muscular. Going swimming on Sunday and doing backstroke with an injured arm/shoulder overdid it, I guess. Will have to let it rest and heal. I suspect it's an injury because previously I could bench press 50 lb. dumbbells, but now had to drop it from 15 lb. to 10 lb. for my left arm to do the exercise.

Otherwise, I have soreness and tightness in my neck and shoulder muscles, quadriceps, and calves. I did a bit of yoga and foam rolled last night to ease some of that, and it helped. In future posts, I will feature some of the equipment I use so you can visualize my setup.

Overall, I feel good about weights so far, as long as I limit them to two sessions a week to give me time to recover in between.

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