I did my first strength workout in a couple of months last night at the gym. Very modest. No gains that I’m aware of, but for the next couple of months the only embiggening I’m looking for is to regain lung capacity.
I was down by 20% at one point, but have gradually recovered half of that. I suspect getting the rest back will be harder because I’ll have to force them to re-inflate.
Mostly what I’m doing for that is deep diaphragmatic breathing, forcing the lungs to expand down, not up. Down is where mine are all scrunched up and scarred. To fix that I hop on the elliptical and maintain a steady state of exertion for about half an hour, focussing entirely on that breathing technique. Thankfully it’s a method of breathing I’m familiar with from jujitsu - filling the ‘hara’ with energy to be released in a kick or punch or kiai.
Last night though, I stuck to weights. Tiny little weights. Rather than going for long chains of reps or dirty big lifts I took thirty seconds to do a single rep with a tiny load, then followed up with 8-10 normally paced reps, and another long, slo-mo repetition. Apparently it’s a good way to build strength and muscle mass. Something about flooding the muscles with blood and keeping them under strain for longer. Or something.
So what you're saying is, this is the best time to kick sand in your face?
Keep up the good work JB
Look at you up in BrisVagas flaunting your ability to go out to gyms.... meanwhile we down here in Plaguetown..