Day #93 - A Tough Decision

I'm giving up walking!  No, not permanently, but for at least a week.  In fact I'm also going to stay off my elliptical trainer as well.  I made this decision today after another miserable night's sleep.  About 15 days ago I talked about having some pain in my left knee.  It only comes at night when I'm sleeping, the rest of the day I'm fine, but it wakes me up and I can't afford to disrupt my sleep.

I think I strained it while I was remodeling the bathroom.  During that week I carried a lot of heavy things up and down stairs and that's when it started hurting.  For the last 15 days I was hoping it would start to improve but it hasn't.  I didn't want it to be an excuse to not exercise, but after 15 days and no improvement, it's time to try something different.

I have noticed that it hurts more on the days that I walk more.  Yesterday I walked about 2.5 miles plus did a mile on the elliptical and I was in agony all night long, waking about every hour to put some Icy Hot on for temporary relief.  I'm going to try to rest it for a week and just see if it improves.  If not I may have to go to a doctor. 

However, I have not forgotten my commitment from yesterday.  I'm not going to walk but I can still get at least 10 minutes of exercise every day.  I'm not going to be able to do cardio as I only have an elliptical and treadmill and both require knee movement.  Instead I will just focus on strength training with nothing that requires loading my knee (like squats or lunges).  Today I did my 10 minutes; I picked 4 weight exercises and did each one for a minute.  I did all 4 in a circuit and then took a 1 minute rest.  2 circuits and my 10 minutes were done.  The nice thing about this mthod is that I can do 3 or 4 circuits when I have more time and don't have to change anything.

This situation is not ideal, but I would rather miss my walk for a week than I would continue on waking up each night with knee pain.  Hopefully this will work.  Unfortunately my rest begins tomorrow; I didn't make this decision until my walk at lunchtime.  On to Day #94.

Stay Strong!