Fitness, Nutrition and Health- All Welcome (Hardcore and “Light”)

Parent Cafe Parent Cafe
2221

@Midwest67 You rock! @abasket Is nuts! (Kidding, well not really, but I say it lovingly)

My video workout today - isometrics went very well. I did the whole thing! The pessimist in me wonders if it just isn’t easier because tomorrow is the last workout - the one with 100 reps of stuff.

Younger S got his wisdom teeth out. He is not a happy camper which stresses me out. He is not an easy one to play nursemaid to - and I am an engineer, aka the anti-nursing personality. May the next few days pass by quickly. Just in time to cart H to his colonoscopy! Lovely.

2222

I finished my program! Technically, I have one more video to do tomorrow, but it’s a range and repair video, not a workout. Woo hoo! Today was TOUGH! I ran first - it was all super easy and “garbage” this week, but a run is a run. Then the final “Crucible” workout. What’s worse than 50 push-up/burpee sliders at the beginning of a workout? 100 at the end of the workout - after the diamond push-ups earlier in the workout. Ugh. The only good part about it this way was that he didn’t even try to encourage us to move faster. It was just about getting the work done - and I did. and no breaks in the burpees (there were breaks in most of the others), but they were NOT fast. I am so very glad it’s done. I was scared of that one. And then my giant junk breakfast and I tried to nap, but it didn’t happen. I will get naps later. And next week is NO lifting - just running and stretching/yoga. Yay!

Younger S perked way up after I posted yesterday. Thank god. He was freaked out about the stitches between his teeth last night and didn’t believe me that the doctor’s sheet said it was normal. (I think I left the sheet at the doctor’s office. ) But this morning I found them online and sent them to him.

2223

Congrats @ClassicMom98 ! Because I love food - and breakfast food - I want to know what the giant junk breakfast included!

3 mile run this morning. Not my best performance but done.

2224

Met 4 of my running buddies at 6:30 AM. I haven’t seen them since March! Ran 7 miles together (it was hot and humid), w/social distance and masks as needed. We will meet again next week. Saw one of the other women in our big running group on the trail and stopped to talk with her for a few.

2225

Congratulations @ClassicMom98 ! That all sounded so hard to me! @FallGirl SO glad to got to run with your friends.

10.3 miles for me this morning- hot and humid but overcast, which helped. Not easy at all. Did pretty well with low HR until the last few miles. It’s hard to do in hot weather. Glad to be done. Went and picked up Tiny Little Donuts afterwards. Halfway through the box now. Saw big groups of youth runners on the path- I guess some HS CC teams. Social distancing does not seem to be a thing here any longer, although it was at the Donut trailer line. Saw 1 deer and 1 bunny on my run.

2226

@FallGirl - So glad you got to meet again with your running pals. That must have felt really good.

MOWC - Yes, overcast conditions can make all the difference. Especially here in CO with high altitude and very intense sunshine… the same temp can feel so much more tolerable when a cloud slides over the sun.

2227

@abasket Youll probably be disappointed because I don’t eat normal breakfast foods. I had half a box of Zesty Ranch Cheezit Grooves, a movie candy box sized thing of milk duds, a king sized Reese’s pieces double peanut butter cups, and a giant double chocolate/chocolate chip turtle cookie.

2228

I’m throwing a flag. That’s a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. :grin:

Yesterday, Friday, 5K run. Lots of squatting ahead for later today.

2229

@sushiritto

Penalty for the Milk Duds alone — filling and crown destroyers!

However GIMMEE that cookie!

2230

@ClassicMom98 when you go junk breakfast you don’t fool around!!

2231

My husband and I rode our bike about 18 miles today, and we entered our first food establishment since COVID. We hit the Froyo along the bike path. There were no other customers in the store, and it seemed fine. Did use hand sanitizer when done.
Tomorrow will be another bike ride. This is a turning point on my husband’s life. 2 bike riding days in a row on two weekends in a row is simply not his normal.

2232

This afternoon was a 4-set 7/13 rep scheme of front and rear squats. A “no big deal”, but I increased the weight a whole 5 lbs from the last time. :open_mouth: :smile:

I proceed to work on clean and jerks for about 15 mins. The HIIT was long at 27:11 and included 60 snatches, 60 clean and jerks, 60 box jumps and 60 burpees. No energy left for core work. Tomorrow’s program has a boatload if it anyway.

2233

I finally decided to start using a heart rate monitor because lately I’ve been feeling like I might be pushing too hard when I’m trying to be working at a moderate pace. It used to be that working out ALWAYS felt really hard but as I’ve gotten fitter, I can see that there really are different levels of effort. It’s not all sitting still vs. huffing and puffing, either a 0 or a 10. Obvious, I am sure, to many, but it hasn’t always been obvious to me! It’s easier to know what to do in a workout that is meant to be all out, high intensity short intervals, but hard for me to pace myself for something that is meant to be slow and steady.

Of course now I am completely baffled as to what heart rate to be aiming for. There is so much contradictory information. But I decided to just do what felt moderate (able to speak a sentence), maintaining a steady pace, and then see what that looked like in terms of heart rate. Kind of a new experiment.

2234

Unfortunately, to really know your heart rate zones you need to know your resting HR (that’s easy to figure out- take your HR as soon as you wake up in the morning and before you move out of bed) AND your max HR. The formulas for calculating max HR are not good and can be way, way off. The tests to figure out max (if you don’t race or run at an all out effort) are pretty tough- you have to go run some 800s on the track or something like that). Yeah- it can be done by feel, for sure. I rely on my heart rate monitor a lot- I don’t always obey it like I should.

4.1 miles this morning. The wheels came off in the 3rd mile. Heat, humidity, yesterday’s long run, wine last night on a friend’s deck where it was also warm… Also, crossed over what I thought was some hard mud and was mired in what felt like quicksand. I almost fell over and my shoes then weighed 5 pounds each. Done!

2235

Yesterday was heavy deadlifts & volume squats. Felt good. Glad I took an extra rest day last Saturday.

Looking forward to working in the garden today, then popping a beer around dinner time.

2236

Today’s run was a short 2 miler. Day 14 of the Runners World streak. H and I walked to the community farmer’s market (about 2 miles round trip) and yin yoga is at 4:30. Made a grain salad with kale and a lot of veggies for this week’s lunches.

2237

I found this story SUPER inspiring & wanted to share. This is a post from this morning, on the Starting Strength IG account.

Below, I’ve added in the weights in American Units :wink:

I’d like to know her height. She seems quite petite, weighing only 119 pounds after three years of barbell training. I’ve got at least 20-25 pounds on her, and I’m 5’6"

You can start at any age, and reap HUGE benefits.

====

After Patricia was diagnosed with osteoporosis, her general practitioner gave her 2 recommendations - medication or barbell strength training. Having been on medication for years with no results, she decided to give strength training a try and walked into our gym about 3 years ago - age 62 with zero experience lifting barbells.

On the first session, we found a weight that was suitable for her and slowly increased the weight over time. After a year of training, she went back for another bone scan and the results showed that she’s out of the osteoporosis range and is now just osteopenic.

Encouraged by the results and feeling the benefits of being strong, she kept on training. While she was happy to keep training, she thought that her progress would plateau at some point. Boy, was she mistaken about that. As she got stronger, her strength gains began to slow down but that was expected - the stronger you get, the more effort and time is required to drive progress. Even though she started at age 62 and never lifted barbells in her life, she was able to make progress over the long term - slowly and steadily, she got stronger.

The longer she trained, the more into lifting she became and soon she started competing in strengthlifting and powerlifting meets. Patricia was supposed to compete in the Singapore Powerlifting Open 2020 but the meet got rescheduled. Not wanting to waste her preparations, we decided to hold a mock meet before the gym’s temporary shut down

4 days before the shut down, she squatted 66kgs [145.5#], bench pressed (paused) 38kgs [83.78#]and deadlifted 110kgs [242#]weighing in at 54kgs {119.5#!!!]at 65 years old. Patricia walked into the gym osteoporotic and in just over 3 years, managed to DEADLIFT DOUBLE HER BODYWEIGHT. If that’s not amazing, I don’t know what is

If you know of someone who thinks that they’re too old/injured etc to strength train, tag them so that they can see that it’s never too late to start.

2238

@Midwest67 that is quite impressive!

I was interested in the part about strength and osteoporosis. I stated getting regular bone scans at age 50 (13 years ago). The got a bit worse every time I had one until last year ( May 2019). That one showed no bone loss in the spine and neck and “substantial improvement” - the radiologist’s comment on the hip as compared to the last scan in April 2016. Coincidentally April 2016 was the month that I started the training program and began to run regularly. Part of the reason for my recently adding strength training (though I use small weights) is that I had been thinking about that result and wondering if I needed more for the bones in my upper body. Strength training is not my favorite form of training, but I am considering hiring a trainer to work with me.

Thanks for sharing that post!

2239

Thanks for that @Midwest67 . It really is so important and I know I need to do much more strength work than I do.

2240

Some people might wonder “Why barbells?”

A bonus to barbell training is one can start very light & progressively add weight to the bar.

In the Starting Strength program, the Novice Linear Progression, all the movements are normal body movements. Squat, DLs, Bench, Press By progressively adding load to the skeleton, the body responds by building both bone and muscle mass.

I definitely made progress when I was doing a dumbbell program. But I think I had been doing that for almost a year? and had not made the kind of progress I made in a single year of barbells.

In other inspiring IG stories, photographer Alex Rota is working on a Maverick Generation project with Find It Film. Sign me up for a film/documentary about masters track and field athletes! I would so watch that! Her latest post features USA world champion Rose Green who is…80!!! Rota obviously has a passion for these masters athletes and their accomplishments. Her enthusiasm is infectious.