And if you believe that, I have a few acres of pristine, swamp free land to sell you in Florida. Still, it was worth asking, as I was coming into the day somewhat injured. Not especially, and due completely to my own ineptitude. I smashed my hand with a hammer while putting stakes in the ground. That happens. What shouldn’t happen is doing it twice. Egad that hurt. So here I was, at Ultimate Fitness, nursing a sore hand.
I got there a bit early and since I’m still trying to keep my running focused on outside, I hopped on the rower. It is a fantastic workout, and a great warm-up. I had it on the easiest setting so I could just get into the groove and 10 minutes in I was all warmed up and ready to go. With a bum hand. Your move SFF.
Of course, The Sac Fitness Fairy is a good trainer because she adapts. So we avoided any movements that required pressure on that part of the hand. Luckily I could hang without any pain, so we started in on pull-ups.
This part of the workout went back and forth between two movements. We started with 10 pull-ups (wide grip until I couldn’t get my chin over the bar, then hammer-grip). Once done we went to the floor with a weighted ball, 20lbs, and with only my lower back touching the ground, did side to side ball slams with the ball straight up over my head in between each side. 20 total, 10 each side. We then moved back to pull-ups, but dropped it to 9, then another 20 on the ground, lowering the pull-ups by one until we got to zero. That was section 1 of the workout.
We then moved to a declined bench with a preacher bar with about 15lbs on it. I laid back with the bar straight up and did full sit-ups, keeping the bar at a 75 degrees angle to the ground during the entire movement. 10 of those, then back to the floor. We were going to do roll-outs but gripping the roller hurt like hell, so we brought out a punching shield and, on my fists, I got into a plank position and walked my hands on and off the shield. 30 total on/off. Time was running out so we went back to the bench and did another 10, then 30 on the floor, 10 and then a last 30 on the floor.
We ended on my favorite torture device, the TRX. To avoid my hand issue, I did an elbow plank, feet suspended. I brought myself into a pike, then brought my knees to my chest. I think I managed 2 rounds of ten, but everything was a bit blurry after that.
Sometimes people use minor injuries as excuses to not workout. Thing is, if you’re like me you always have some kind of ailment. If I went a day without stubbing my toe or banging my head on something it would be a miracle. It is too easy to excuse yourself. The thing to do is to alter your workout to avoid your injury, but make sure you still get what you need.
Now, granted, some injuries do mean laying off. If your doctor says not to workout, you should probably listen to her. But if you got a paper cut, suck it up buttercup. Put a waterproof band-aid and get your ass on that rower.
