First weekend of practice after a really long time of Aikido inactivity. Monday I felt quite sore especially in lower back and legs, typical when one does not take ukemi often enough! I admit I had lost a bit the tatami feeling: even if I got some at home, one thing is sitting on them, another is being thrown.. and my neighbour living below me would not appreciate too much ukemi over their heads!
My biggest worry was my right ankle: for once I decided to avoid using pain killers (natural or less) even with 3 session practice on Saturday and one more intense on Sunday. Of course I used elastic bandage on the ankle for every session. Tighten up effectively. The result is that I do have some pain in the ankle (not surprised), but the left one is a little painful as well!!! And I did not twist it or anything!! But I did not use any bandage there. Maybe the seiza sitting and few suwariwaza exercises were enough to afflict my joints.
I don’t think there is the typical explanation like: I don’t want to put my full weight on the right foot so I overstress the left. During practice, the last thing I think is my ankles (I know, not very smart maybe, but I used to be an Aikido freak as well..). So I think I do use them both in the same way, unless I feel pain, thing that did not happen!
Anyway Monday both ankles were sore and both were a little swollen: the swelling is what worries me the most, bringing up bad memories! I used to not be too upset by some ankle swelling, since it has been a constant companion of summer (and winter, and autumn, and spring) evenings after one day playing basketball!! After last summer RA diagnosis and painful experience I take the swelling more seriously. So that I tried to not walk too much during the day, not work standing and in the evening I used a lot of Yunnan Baiyao spray on the swelling.
Tuesday, for my surprise, I woke up with 2 “normal looking” ankles. The normal for me is anyway a weird sight for people that never had problems there. But no swelling, no soreness, actually no pain anywhere (legs and lower back also fully recovered). Maybe my physical condition was not that bad? Probably it only means the practice was softer than I thought.. next week will be the proper reference! To not over stress my luck I decided to go to bath & sauna in the evening: first I noticed that anyway during the day at the office the swelling in the ankles increased (still no pain and no special distressed feeling, but the feet were just bigger). For once the sauna was really good and hot.. and for once I did not even manage to sit my 45 minutes without a break! But my body felt so good afterwards. Also I do a sort of exercise I read as suggested for joints: walk in a hot water pool for a couple of minutes, then do the same in a cold water pool. Repeat the sequence a few times, finishing with the hot water one.
Wednesday and after I stop thinking too much about my ankles, keep though an eye open for the swelling!
But a new weekend gets closer!
Nature decided to be clement with me after the first August effort. Instead of punish harder the lack of physical practice during July, it let my body recover fast and almost without pain. Was it just a joke? Is nature playing with me like a cat with a poor mouse? The answer will be probably next Monday.. or the one after or.. the first Monday of September..
FUNNY THING OF THE DAY – Since the spray Yunnan Baiyao was almost finished I resolved to buy more. But the little pharmacy I went had nothing, except Yunnan Baiyao pills! First time seeing them, so I took them. As usual the application explanation (one of the very few that has it in English) is extremely funny: magic pills, good really for about anything you can think of! Understandable, but equally interesting expressed precaution: “pregnancy is contradicted“.
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