No Pain, No Gain

Finally had a chance to stretch some muscles and burn some fat after a long hiatus. A friend sent me a message saying he booked a nearby gymnasium for 2 hours. I immediately grabbed the chance. After all, I have been wanting to get into any kind of strenuous exercise to trim my weight down. I haven’t really done anything remotely related to exercising in a long time. We did play basketball twice around 4 months ago. But before this, ages. Speaking of 4 months ago, I was actually so pumped up and determined to shed some pounds... and we had plans on playing every week. On the second consecutive game though, I ended up severely spraining my ankle.



I took this pic 2 days after. As you can see, this wasn't your regular sprain. People who saw this would say it looked like it came from a bloated guido, freshly fished out of a river, obviously silenced by the mob. It really was fucking freaky. Worse of all, it felt every bit as bad as it looked. I've had sprains before, but this was obviously the worst. I had it x-rayed and all that, thankfully no bone fractures of sort... just tendons and ligaments.

When I was nursing it, I would always feel a shooting pain for several minutes, or I simply couldn't feel anything at all. They could have chopped my foot off and I wouldn't have known. It took me 3 weeks before I could finally limp on it without grimacing. 3 fucking weeks!

Anyway, it's been several months now. I no longer have problems walking, running or even jumping, at least I think so. I do know that it hasn’t completely healed yet. But then again, it probably never will. So I finally went to the game and I had clear objectives. I'm not gonna play competitively. I will run with the group, maybe attempt to shoot some hoops, get some sweat going, and hopefully a good workout. After about 10 minutes into the game, I think I already used up about 70% of my energy. Am I really in such a bad shape? Back in the day, we used to practice for 4 hours alternately reviewing plays and actual games. And we did this 2 or 3 times a week. Of course back then, I was still so much into competitive basketball... and dammit I was a good player. A 5'8" playing forward is not an easy job, so when you can still score 20+ points in championship games... that's a motherfucking accomplishment.

And so the game continues to drag on. I keep thinking to myself, "Why don’t these little buggers just score some points and get this game over with"... besides, I didn’t really give a fuck if we won or lost... I just wanted to sweat it out. And I already got past that 10 minutes after we started. I wasn't even playing with seasoned players. Sure a couple of them could play a little bit, but not really the type I used to play with. If I were the way I was back then, I'd get bored playing with these people after about 2 minutes tops. And now I can’t even catch up with them. Fucking loser!

About halfway through, I was mostly walking and standing in place. I dreaded receiving the ball since it meant I would have to move my ass. I felt pathetic every time I remembered what I used to be able to do inside the blue paint... Oh well, I just reminded myself that I wasn’t here to win. I've already done my share anyways... I managed to block some shots despite the fact that I could only lift my body 2 cms off the ground and even scored some points from 15 footers and a couple of drives to the hoop. Not after missing a lot of attempts, but hey... its been a long time ok? Wait till I get my groove back... arrogant pricks.

I finally resigned after 1 game. Gave a silly alibi that I had to go somewhere. As if it wasn't obvious to everybody that I was panting like a motherfucker all through out the game. My body was already screaming from exhaustion, what could I do? Man, I have never been in such a bad shape before. And now my back is aching and I feel my calf muscles are an inch away from cramps. Fuck! What a work out... I’m gonna be sore all over tomorrow... in fact I’m already starting to.

Today, I am making a solemn promise to play every week. Maybe even go back to lifting weights at the gym. I intend to go back to the shape I was before... very athletic and with muscle definitions. I miss my six-pack abs. I miss bench pressing 200 lbs. I know I've said this before, God knows I've tried it before, but something tells me its different today. I actually fought the urge to eat several bars of chocolate that I saw in the fridge. What an achievement.. what an achievement indeed. Good thing the chocolate bar didn't have any almond nuts in them, cause that would've been a no contest.