I’ve been limping around for the past week, pulling a muscle in my left thigh. No fault other than my own, though. 

One evening last week, Jess and I hit the gym together, exercising at the Northgate 24 hour fitness (which is apparently one of the more popular 24 hour fitnesses in Seattle, due to the larger floor plan and access to the wide range of newer equipment).  The two of us were standing in front of the mirrors, facing the dumbbell racks, shrugging our shoulders up and down to work our traps. After 12 shrugs, the first set was complete but out of no where, I decided to transition, without rest, directly into a new exercise that I invented on the spot: air lunges with 35 pound weights in either hand.

So with the circular 35 pound weights dangling on the finger tips of my hands, I stepped my left foot out in front of me and lowered both my knees to 90 degree angles, pausing for a moment and inhaling deeply, and then pressed the balls of my feet into the ground to propel me against the gym floor. After a thunderous landing, I switched to the other side, my right foot now in front, repeating the same motion.

But it only took 1 repetition of this ridiculous exercise to realize that this was a bad idea. Air lunges — without weights — already strains both the muscles in my thighs and calves, the additional weights pushing me over the edge, exceeding my pain threshold. Immediately after, I regretted my decision. Worst of all, this impromptu exercise must’ve really damaged either my ligaments or muscles or tissues (or all three) cause since then, I’be been in a fair amount of pain and unable to neither exercise nor walking normally.

Lesson learned.

Take it slow — I’m not 15 any more (in fact, I’m twice that age!).