Exercising Forgotten Muscles

Oh my goodness. I'm exhausted. Today Francois and I went for a ride around Hoekwil for my second ever proper cycle. We went a total distance of... (Drumroll please...) 9.3km! That sure feels like a lot, I tell you what.

Francois calls this pattern of burn my 'wings'.

I got a little too much sun and my quads are rather tired, but what I didn't expect is that my shoulders are very sore. Oh yes, that's right, I have ZERO upper body strength. Most of the time, that doesn't affect my day-to-day life at all. I'm strong enough to carry trays full of drinks and heavy plates of food to tables while I'm waitressing at work, and I only have a little trouble carrying the full laundry basket up and down the stairs, even when the laundry is wet and extra-heavy. However, on days like these, I remember that I can't even do one proper push-up. My arms are that stupidly weak.

So, balancing on a bicycle (which requires a certain amount of pulling and pushing with one's arms) for 9.3km makes for a ridiculous work-out, and very sore shoulders.

Today, I exercised muscles that I didn't even think were important. Correction: That I didn't even think about. At all. I'm sure that strengthening these muscles will improve the way that I do other non-cycling-related things as well, and I probably won't even notice the improvement in those areas of my life (carrying drinks, doing laundry, all that fun stuff). It feels like a good reminder that exercising other kinds of 'muscles' is also very important, even if it is so easy to forget about. Writing more often can improve my ability to communicate with those I love, can broaden my mind's ability to think about things from different perspectives, can help me to improve in my poetry and my singing, and who knows what else.

Practice, practice, practice... It's so important, and something that I keep forgetting to do.

We're planning to do another cycle, about 8km long, on Monday or Tuesday. It may be shorter than today's cycle, but it'll be quite a bit trickier thanks to the hills and what-not (It'll be an actual, honest-to-gosh, cycling trail. In the forest and everything! Yay, shade!), and hopefully I'll conquer the trail with pride (or only just manage to make it back to the car, that'll do fine, too). Perhaps, after a few more cycling expeditions, I'll find that I'm able to do an actual whole push-up... Maybe.