Day 6: The Value of Recovery

Kate and I were both in serious leg pain. Squats (with weights that were probably too ambitious) followed by 'pure cardio' (that included significant bodyweight strength work) was enough to reduce our quads, adductors and abductors to quivering jelly. I couldn't do as many pushups as I wanted because my legs just wouldn't cooperate. (I still can't do as many pushups as I would like, but that's another story that will be resolved with hard work.)

Just getting down to the floor to play with my daughter or getting back up was an adventure. That is not zombie survival - that's zombie bait.

Having had a recovery day, it was time for our next foray into weight-lifting. The star exercise was an exercise that was new to both of us - the deadlift. The deadlift is a wonderful thing, and I highly recommend it to everyone. I could feel my whole body getting involved, and it's just a useful exercise for when you need to team-lift a 600 pound picnic bench to barricade a door against the hordes without throwing your back out.

The most amazing thing to me is that I feel better for having lifted last night. I was still sore before we began, but I feel great this morning. There's some soreness, but it's not debilitating. I think part of that is that the deadlift works the hamstrings and hip flexors, which balances the quad involvement from the squats.

As we progress, we'll be able to include more exercise. We're still beginners, and need to make sure that we keep ourselves ready to go while we build our strength and endurance. If the apocalypse had happened yesterday, we would have been in bad shape. Today, though? I think we might have a chance with a little luck.