SPINNING

I love yoga. You know that by now. Yoga has my heart. BUT GAWDAMMITMOTHERFUCKER there are just certain yoga things I still can't do because I haven't gotten my range of motion back and I still lack strength. So, in addition to yoga and pilates - I had the idea to throw some spinning into the mix. Believe it or not, it demands a really small range of motion from your ankle, and it's a great way to regain strength in the quads, hamstrings, and glutes. I used to be a big spinner in my gym days, but stopped when a hip injury forced me to. These days I don't even belong to a gym - so J took me to the class he likes at his gym.

A few tips for spinning after ankle surgery:

- Don't even think about keeping up with the class - they will inevitably do things you can't. Go at your own pace with your own resistance...and remember: form trumps all.
- In my opinion, I waited just long enough to try the class - I'd say 4-5 months post-op is a good time for it. I made it through the class (again, mostly doing my own thing), but my ankle was fatigued as shit by the end of it. There was much icing that day.
- Make sure you really focus on articulating your ankle joint and challenging your range of motion - it's easy to lock your foot/ankle into a 90 degree angle and just stay there. I sat next to a mirror which was great because I could just look to the side and see what my ankle was doing.
- There are 2 routes to go: sneakers or spinning shoes. Both have pros and cons.

• Spinning shoes cons: they really hold you in there and you can't move our foot around in the shoe very much - you're also literally locked into the pedal and have to kind of jerk your ankle a to get your foot out. That might be jarring for some.
• Spinning shoes pro: they give you a solid base and support for getting out of the saddle (standing while spinning). 
• Sneakers con: when you want to get out of the saddle in sneakers, you won't be able to. They're too bendy and don't provide enough foot/ankle support. 
• Sneakers pro: they let toes and foot wiggle around more which is a good feeling over all. I think. It definitely wasn't a bad feeling.

 I went with sneakers this time (though I debated back and forth...you can see my spinning shoes out in front of me) - I think next time I'll try the spinning shoes.

So that was that. I am a little sore today (the day after) but nothing terrible. I think I'll just do some yoga and ice and I'll be cool. And thank you guys so much for your recent blog comments - they really make my day. It's nice to know people are reading this stuff. 

a little more yoga after ankle surgery

There's a little more yoga progress happening all the time...and when I say "little", I REALLY MEAN JUST A FUCKING TEENY TINY BIT. Anyway, I believe I owe my progress to a lot of things - icing, walking, strengthening, pilates, massage - but yoga has been my main (and daily) go-to. It keeps me sane, makes me less sore, gives me a sense of movement when I still feel I have very few options. So I thought I'd share with you several of my main moves that have helped me see some added flexibility along the way (though again, I'm sure everything is contributing to it).

I chose this image as the video still because I think it's sassy - and when you're recovering from ankle surgery (even 5 months out), sometimes that's JUST HOW YOU FEEL.

wearing boots and spreading my toes

Well there have been a few developments of note. One happened last week but I haven't had time to blog about it...

I WORE BOOTS!! I've been wearing sneakers for the last 4.5 months and I'll tell ya, that shit gets old FAST. Especially since I'm a boots girl till death do us part, having to pair outfits with sneakers was getting really challenging (not to mention taxing on my soul and identity). Anyway, I had some pretty strict criteria and none of the boots on my shelf fit the mold, so I had to go and buy a pair. Here was my criteria:

• No heel: You'd be surprised how hard it is to find a flat pair of boots. These ones even have a teeny tiny heel, but it's not detectable to the wearer. 
• Tightness: They had to be just loose enough that if they touched my ankle bone, they didn't rub on it. These ones just hardly graze the bone, and they're furry inside so they're soft. 
• Boot Height: Couldn't be too tall to prevent motion, but couldn't be too low so that they (again) rubbed against my ankle bone in a funny way. 
• Not Heinous: There are so many disgusting boots out there I just can't deal

These Vince boots fit all the criteria AND they're comfortable as fuck. So thank you Nordstrom and Vince...let's get married.  

The other thing I did?

That's right, I got toe spreaders - SmartToes to be exact. I've still been having a lot of tightness and pain in my toes, which you'd never know by guessing, but it's annoying as shit. Uncomfortable to say the least. These things spread out your toes, relax your feet - the tops and the bottoms - and I've found them to be hugely relieving, though I'm not sure if they actually DO anything physiologically.

So that's the past week. I'm still doing yoga pretty much every day and pilates once a week. Certain things are getting easier - I did my first successful "Warrior 2" a few days ago...a position that used to be so effortless is now suddenly the new frontier. Whack.