How to cope with T-rex arms

I seem to be one of those people who is either super dedicated to getting fit or becoming a full on couch potato. I wish I could commit more firmly to the first but somehow I seem to have doomed myself to continually rejoining the gym after a sabbatical of sorts and then suffering the consequences.

The trouble with muscles is when they don't get enough use they forget their function and returning to exercise after a few weeks, months of years of not weight training can be a bit of a shock to the system. I am sure anyone who has returned to the gym after a break can identify with the feeling of having legs so tender you walk like John Wayne, have to descend stairs sideways and wish there were handrails beside your loo to assist you back up again. Then there's the overly sore arms that you can't raise above your head (good luck washing your hair ) and struggle to change gears when driving or the abs in crisis when you can't sneeze or go from lying to sitting without major effort and a whole lot of pain.

None of this is strange to me. I have been through it all many times over. I stopped going to the gym for a few weeks for a number of reasons but eventually got it together to make it back down to the gym (which is 40 mins away in Clonmel) last week. I was duly rewarded for my effort. We had a workout which I managed quite well despite my time away. I thought I had lowered the weights enough to make up for my absence and I finished it. Not a graceful finish but a finish none the less. As part of this we did 75 ring rows and 50 (fairly light for me) power cleans. That was grand at the time but my comeuppance arrived when I woke the following morning to discover my biceps were like rocks and hurt like hell. Now I am a big girl (in every sense- hence the need for the gym) so I can take a bit of arm pain. If only it was just a bit of arm pain. Clearly my biceps had forgotten how to bicep and they were in shock. My arm was so sore that I couldn't straighten it. I couldn't drop my arm and carrying anything was a bit of a struggle. This was less than ideal as I was in work for the weekend and as a care assistant my job requires full motion of my arms. The people we support are in wheelchairs and certainly didn't ask to be looked after by someone with T-rex arms. That's what I took to calling it.

To make matters worse my legs were also a bit worse for wear so I had huge difficulties sitting on the loo. Normally when my legs are in bits I would gently lower myself down using my arms but that was not an option so I spent two days trying to drop myself down. Getting out of bed was a struggle as was getting out of my car. I would have to get my legs out and then sort of propel my midsection out of the bed/car arm free with a sort of lurching movement. 

As you have gathered it was a fun weekend but I got through it, trooper that I am.

Monday rolled round and I was still dragging my arm around. I had swapped with a colleague so I was down to work that night and It was getting a bit old having the one lame arm three days later. Firstly I tried soaking it in muscle bath salts. That worked out very messy but provided some relief. I probably would be still T-rexing around the place if I hadn't enquired in the chemist and the lovely woman there suggested a painkillers (with anti inflammatory properties - ibuprofen or aspirin) and a toxic smelling gel you rub on the sore muscles.

So I have finally recovered to normal human girl function aside from the dozy night shift brain I am now tackling and I am feeling optimistic about getting my lazy ass to the gym in the morning to work on getting fitter while my muscles still remember how to do that.