End of Self-Quarantine, Back to Exercise

 

Our Covid episode is over, with Tuk and I ending our self-quarantines.  And her parents did not catch it from us, so things are back to normal.  Tuk has been going in to work most days again. 

I am slowly working my way back to strength after over ten days of being couch-bound.  Before getting Covid, I had been walking regularly, and, because I was using my THC workout regimen, I was relying on my cane less and less each time out walking.  I had been lifting dumbbells too, but that also came to a halt when I tested positive – my reasoning being that I needed rest more than anything.  Getting started again with an exercise program after a lapse is frustrating and painful. 

The THC-regimen is the surest way to get me on my feet again and out the door.  Micro-dosing on just a few tokes of robust Cannabis sativa gets me immediately high, and makes me want to move.  I launch into the few Tai Chi forms I remember from decades ago, and it starts to loosen me up and get the breath moving.  I then add to this with light warm-up calisthenics bends and stretches, routines learned from Kempo and from USMC boot camp PT warm-ups – from over half a century ago. 

The cannabis, by itself, does not stop my pain.  It actually makes me acutely aware of all the areas of my body that are painful, tight and weak, so then I can carefully and mindfully move to stretch and work those muscles and joints without causing further injuries.  Strong C. sativa has a profound physical effect on me that way – it makes me move.  A morning micro-dose, and the movement routines it inspires, will find me at the end of the day with very little pain at all. 

My program of exercise re-start is pathetically feeble right now, after my Covid lockdown and also from my back injury and the debilitating hip pain that has plagued me for the last half-year.  My longest marching routes in the neighborhood have been abandoned a long time ago, and I have been focusing on my short 3km loop by the river. 

This morning, after two tokes of sativa, I did this loop while leaving my cane at home – for the first time in recent memory.  There were many moments on my march where the pain in my hip and leg flared up, so I immediately adjusted my pace and posture, experimenting with the use of alternative muscle combinations and strides.  Thus, finding comfortable movement again, I would find myself marching along at a fairly respectable rate.  I am not yet at the level of walking I was at a year ago, but I am slowly gaining back strength. 

The herb is wonderfully therapeutic for me.  Just the medicine I needed. 

-Zenwind.  

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