Armed and ... not so dangerous

The machine sits, usually idly, in a tucked-away corner of the athletic training room in the McCann Center. It's been there for at least 20 years, maybe more. It's called the UBE (upper-body ergometer). There a reason it sits idly. It's about as boring a piece of exercise apparatus as you'll ever find. Athletes will reluctantly and unenthusiastically go through the motions for a few minutes, only because an Athletic Trainer tells them to do it as a warmup before shoulder rehab. Yeah. It's boring all right ... unless! You have a broken bone and three screws in your leg, your exercise options on crutches are limited to not much else, you relish boring and repetitious activity, and you are me. In which case, this old relic of a machine is a veritable godsend. Really, UBE, where have you been all my life? It's vigorous upper-body exercise, something I never do (guns out? NOT), unless you count yard work. And, unlike "regular" lifting, it is cardiovascular. Start cranking that thing hard, and you can get your heart pumping at a similar rate to jogging, which obviously I won't be doing for quite some time. So yeah, that's me on there today (thanks to Jake Hensler for taking the photo, it's impossible to take a selfie while arm cranking), with music in my ears -- at the time either Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti or Gov't Mule Dark Side of the Mule, can't remember. So far, I have worked my way up to a PR of 50 minutes (today). The goal is to get to an hour, stay there with my personal rock concerts in my ears, and hope not to develop shoulder or elbow tendonitis in the process. Tommy John surgery? No thanks, one surgery is enough for now.