Week 8

I had set a goal of being up to date on pushups and situps by the end of February. It was a bumpy ride, but slowly I closed the gap, and by February 25 I could taste victory, with only 500 each of situps and pushups to catch up over the next three days.

For some inexplicable reason, my right shoulder began to hurt a little. On February 26 I was unable to lift my arm. Over the course of the next day I began to experience pain down my right back side. I think it all began with the faint, but unmistakable crunching/grinding sound/feeling I began to notice 4 days ago in my neck (C4,5,6 area). That would be the osteoarthritis, and at the time, I made a mental note to keep up with the omega oils supplements, which had fallen by the wayside over the last few days. When those neck vertebrae are grinding together, the nerves are pinched, and pain and numbness in arms and hands result. And the narrowing of the joint space in my shoulder, combined with a thickening of tendons in the shoulder joint cause severe pain, because the muscles and ligaments do not move as freely through the narrow passages in the joints. One constricted muscle pulls on another; from neck, to shoulder, down the arms and across the back. I am in pain. This has happened before. A visit to the chiropractor, increase the omegas, and a little rest, and I should be able to ease into the push ups and sit ups in another day or two.

Maybe I'm in denial, but I don't believe the pushups actually caused the problem. The crunching/grinding of my neck does not happen during regular pushups; it only occurs when I do the tricep pushups, of which I only do 50 per 200 pushups. I will have a talk with my chiropractor about that. Nevertheless, I have given myself a deadline extension. Realistically, I want to be up to date on pushups and situps by March 12.

I am reading an awesome book about kindness (the fourth of my six required readings for UBBT8). It is called "The Power of Kindness", by Piero Ferrucci. As I have not yet finished the book, I will not summarize it yet. But below is an exerpt.

Contact (interpersonal interactions), is a basic aspect of kindness. Where you find contact, you find the heart. . . .
Try this experiment. Start with an ordinary situation such as riding in a taxi, buying paper at a stationery shop, or sitting in the train. Tthen try exchanging a few words with the taxi driver, making eye contact with the salesperson, striking up a conversation with someone on the train. For some of us, that happens spontaneously; others have to do it deliberately. Be fully present in this brief contact, and expect the other to be so as well. Suddenly a change occurs: Something becomes unblocked and energy circulates. It might not be an encounter of two souls. But it surely will be an exhcange of vital energy between two people. . .
Contact is the door through which kindness can flow. . . . Right in the midst of everyday life we are given the chance to touch the lives of others and thus change the world.

Claire Finnamore, Student Member
Silent River Kung Fu
Ultimate Black Belt Test
UBBT8