My thighs were killing me today. Of course, I shouldn’t have expected anything different. It had been weeks since I had incorporated leg exercises in my routine. That was because the last time I did the leg workout I managed to make myself nauseous after doing floor jumps. It seems that losing weight has managed to drop my blood pressure down from the high end of normal to where it is now. I guess low blood pressure is okay, but man do I need to be careful when I stand up from a squat position!
After the nausea episode, I backed away from the leg exercises. I figured that my usual morning routine of jump ropes would be enough to keep my legs in good shape. Well, part of my theory was true. It kept my calves in good shape, but my thighs began to lose the definition they once had, so I had to add some of the leg exercises back in to the program. Lunges, squats, and pistol squats were back in but anything that had me close to a squat position for a longer period of time (like the floor jumps and the “creep”) were out.
After only one day, I could see the muscle tone returning to my thighs. Of course, it also meant there would be some soreness from working them after weeks of inactivity, but it felt fantastic! I was energized and so alive! And I couldn’t wait to leave work and get home to do it all over again. I think Patrick has turned me into an exercise junkie.
So a bit of advice: don’t let your muscles rest for more than a few days. If you take a brief break from working out, your muscles will quickly recover. Yeah, you probably won’t be exactly at the peak you were before the break, but you’ll recover in just a few days with little soreness. If you ignore a muscle group for weeks, it will take a bit more work to get back to the shape you were in, and you will definitely feel the ache a bit longer.
Still, I think my thighs are thanking me for finally paying attention to them. And it’s a good feeling.
