Exercise

Last Thursday I sliced open the index & ring fingers of my left hand. I was at Union station when a sticky piece of hard plastic tape got stuck to the bottom of my shoe. I tried to pull it off, but of course because it was sticky and stuck to my shoe, and because the edges were jagged, I ended up slicing my fingers on it. It bled profusely and the kind cleaning lady in the bathroom at Union Station gave me some toilet paper and told me in Spanish to press on it for a few minutes so that it stops bleeding. Melody also told me that cuts on your hands and face tend to bleed a lot more than other places. Lawrence confirmed it was because there are so many capillaries close to the skin, so a cut doesn't need to be deep before it bleeds a lot in those places. Melody also said that because of the increased blood, wounds tend to heal faster there too.

Thursday night, I went to workout but I told Melody I had to hold off on anything that required too much hand gripping for fear of re-opening my wound. I did some exercises on the BOSU ball (the half sphere with the plastic backing) instead. These should all be in reps of 15.

• Squats with each foot on a separate BOSU ball.
• Dumbbell rows while standing on a BOSU ball.
• Lunges with each foot on a separate BOSU ball.
• Push-ups with feet on a BOSU ball.

There was probably more but my memory fails me now.

By yesterday, my finger was speedily on its way to a good recovery. It has sealed up nicely and is just a little tight as the new skin is being formed. Monday night's workout consisted of 2 mini circuits of 2 exercises each. 15 reps for each exercise, repeated 3 times for each pair of exercises.

• Push-ups with shins on an exercise ball, alternating pulling in the exercise ball so that your knees reach your chest. This was tough on my core because it was very difficult to maintain my balance with my legs on the ball throughout the push-ups. I wimped out and only did 10 reps of this one each time. If I gave myself more time I might have been able to do more, but by the 10th push-up, I was falling over each time lol.
• Low rows with the cable machine set to something over 100lbs.

• With one foot resting on a bench behind me and holding a 12.5lb dumbbell in the opposite hand, bend your knee to touch the ground with the dumbbell, then stand and press the dumbbell straight up above your shoulder.
• Lying on the ground, lift one leg up and rest your other foot on an exercise ball. Lift your midsection so your body is straight and then bend the leg resting on the ball to bring the ball in towards you. Straighten the leg bringing the ball away from you while your torso is still lifted above the ground and repeat.