Overdoing it

I've decided I need to try to gain back the muscle weight I had before I left law school — or better yet, before I went to law school. I've never been a large or especially muscular person, nor have I ever been very athletic (I like skiing but don't get to do that nearly often enough). Recently I've been feeling too much like a stick figure, since I no longer walk almost everywhere I go every day. When I noticed that my encounter with pneumonia in January had taken another five pounds off of me, I decided I'd better do something about it sooner rather than later.

Of course, it still took me a while to get started, but Monday afternoon I embarked on a pretty good workout that was a little heavy on the strength and toning exercises. I emphasized lower-body exercises just because I have no weights. It didn't feel like too much at the time. In fact, it felt pretty good. I made an effort to cool down and stretch afterward, too.

Apparently, I overdid the exercises or I didn't cool down and stretch very well. Over the course of yesterday and even today, I've been very, very sore. Today was even worse than yesterday, though now it seems to be getting better slowly. Even so, I stand up and my quads, hamstrings, and lower abdominal muscles laugh at me. Harshly.

Next time I need to take it a little more easily.