Add me to the list who loves to read about all types of workouts. I have a lot of respect for newbies and those who are stepping outside their comfort zone. One of my new year’s goals is to be more complimentary to those who seem new/out of shape but working hard, or to those who’ve been at it for a long time, but seem to made significant progress in some area. I notice such things all of the time. I just rarely ever speak up and let them know.
We got flooded yesterday (as a city). It was still raining and super windy => indoor aerobics. 60 min on the bike followed by P90X Legs and Back. It’s 8 groups of 2 leg exercises (lots of balance and coordination & lunges and wall squats) followed by some type of pull-up/chin-up variation to give the legs a break. I like this one a lot. I got lax with my pull-ups for about a year, but now they almost back to normal – or, normal for Planet Fitness hanging on the Smith Machine. I was better at old gym. I’m like the Princess and the Pea when it comes to pull-ups. The bar/grip just has to be just so.
I find it discouraging how quickly calories add up.
As my kids used to say, “UNFAIR!”
Editing to add…
One of the podcast hosts I listen to was addressing lifters (usually older, female) who are only adding 1.5-2 lbs to their lifts. He said, “Hey, even slow is fast”.
One relatively easy, small change is simply with portion control. Here are three things I do:
I don't keep high-calorie munchables (for example, nuts) in any place where they are visible or readily accessible -- and instead when I'm feeling hungry I will go to the cabinet & open the container with almonds and maybe count out 5 or or 6 almonds.
I measure out things like dry cereal rather than just dumping out a bunch from the box --so my daily ration is 1/3 of a cup.
I've changed ratios a lot to favor green veggies & protein sources over carbs & starches, without trying to go full out low-carb. So I'll make myself something that has a small amount of rice or pasta rather than centering the meal around the carb part. So I wouldn't typically eat a dinner of mac & cheese these days... but I might have a chicken breast for dinner with some sort of small serving of pasta with spinach on the side.
It does help that I live alone. – so no other temptation in the house and no one else to please with my cooking. I also bought a whole bunch of 12oz food storage containers several years ago, so easy to freeze extra food in single-serving sizes.
I don’t think there’s any hard and fast rule about portion size – the main point is “less” than whatever I would be eating if I simply grazed & gobbled.
Finished week 3 of c25k, luckily everything going well in terms of my old injury (no flare-ups). Had a deep tissue massage today–got into the habit of having a monthly massage when I was training for MCM in 2012 and never gave it up. Still see the same great massage therapist too!
I’ve put this thread and a fashion thread together and decided @MomofWildChild continues to exercise so she can buy all of the nice workout clothes (and shoes, and regular clothes, and shoes…)
Of course I’m just teasing, but do think dressing for the part helps some of us with our exercising.
^^^Good workout clothes (good doesn’t have to mean expensive!) that are purposeful for the exercise you are doing are worth their weight in physical and mental health gold!
I work in a hospital and do a minimum of eight flights daily.
Hope that catches on here because I swear every time I’m climbing those stairs I have visions of my skeletal remains sprawled out on a random landing. (To be honest, I know why people aren’t using the stairs - it’s Florida, they’re not air conditioned and basically a hot concrete box.)
I mean, the privacy is nice because nobody has to see me red faced, sweating and breathing like a rhinoceros, but it would be super to know my body has a shot at being returned to my family should something go amiss.
Busted! I definitely like my clothes and shoes. I’m a brand ambassador for Oiselle, a female run running wear company (for women) so I mainly wear that brand. I do like Lululemon also! Part of why I haven’t retired from my day job is so I can keep buying and wearing things!
It is not just overheated stairs. From what I have seen, people will crowd and wait for full elevators and escalators when the stairs are empty and would be faster.
@Midwest67, I’m glad your injury resolved and while healing you were able to keep to your routines at a reduced level. And I would certainly agree that continued movement, done appropriately, is a far better way, in general, to address injuries instead of sitting around waiting to heal.
However, I would urge everyone to be very circumspect about relying on the internet to either diagnose your injury or recommend how to rehab it. As well intentioned as anyone giving advice on the Internet may be, as knowledgable or credentialed as they may be, 1) an internet diagnosis is no substitute for a hands on physical exam or imaging by a medical professional and 2) there is no way that anyone on the internet can know what kind of rehab plan is really appropriate for the specifics of your injury and what may be contraindicated. Our bodies are complicated machines and very often there’s more going on than superficially meets the eye.
Case in point. Last July 9, a Tuesday, I was doing a kettlebell training session. On the second rep of a goblet squat, I felt a spasm in the right side lumbar region. Didn’t feel like much at the time and I was able to finish the workout without any symptoms or distress. By the next day, however, I had significant lumbar pain which felt like your typical low back strain. So I started doing the typical remedial exercises you always hear about on the internet to relieve low back pain. By Friday, however, I began to experience the symptoms of nerve impingement in the lumbar region and by Friday night the pain was so severe I literally couldn’t get off the floor. By Saturday, the symptoms of nerve impingement had shifted their locus to my left upper hip area. The operating assumption I made, as well as medical professionals I spoke to on the phone, was that I had impinged a nerve in the lumbar region and the symptoms in my hip area were referred pain from that. So I continued with the typical low back rehab approach. Long story short, none of that worked. What was ultimately determined, after a load of imaging of every type, was that what had occurred had nothing to do with a lumbar strain or any nerve impingement in my lumbar region. I had actually torn my left external oblique ab muscle which irritated nerves in my left upper hip area and everything I was experiencing in my lumbar region was referred pain from there. All of the typical internet advice on how to deal with lumbar pain was way off the mark.
So that’s my cautionary tale. Do with it what you will. ?
I had one of those “this is why I run” runs this morning. I’m up on “the mountain” in Monteagle, TN for a church retreat and I reluctantly went out in the dark before 6 to run. It was SNOWING (not in the forecast) and gorgeous. I don’t get to run in falling snow very often. I have about 1 1/2 miles of road running then a path which was covered with about an inch or two of soft snow and not slippery. It was so gorgeous. My knee held up really well. I could feel it some, for sure, but it let me run normally. 6.3 miles (more than I planned, but it was just so nice). I was pretty wet from the snow when I got back and it was all over my hair. I took good pictures. Wondering if I really need the MRI, but I’ll probably go ahead with it.
Both this poster and another describe back pain during a workout (and both were due to an actual back injury). For the women reading, back pain is one of those symptoms of heart attack that women experience but that most men don’t, which means it’s one of those symptoms that is often overlooked or unknown, even unfortunately among medical professionals.
If you’re a woman and start experiencing back pain during a workout, don’t just assume it’s a back injury, be aware that it can also be a symptom of heart attack. Here are some others:
I also think the stronger you are, the more difficult it is to diagnosis accurately without imaging. Too many other muscles can compensate and mask the true injury.
I tore my rotator cuff when I was at my strongest. Because I could pass the “pop can test” and bunch of other movements, I was misdiagnosed and went through 6 months of PT for the wrong injury. It wasn’t until I saw a specialist who ordered imaging that we found a huge, complete rotator cuff tear and that my bicep tendon was completely frayed. (By that point I couldn’t even pick up a bag of groceries and couldn’t lie down without being in agony). Had I gotten imaging films immediately, the repair would have been much less involved because the surgeon was convinced that I made the tear much worse over the six months. Pain levels would tend to indicate that he was correct.
@momofsenior1 That is an excellent point and reaffirms my need to have the MRI. I easily compensate for a lot of things! I’m fortunate to have excellent access to really good medical providers and good health insurance.
@calmom - Excellent points on portion control. I have done similar, with a new awareness from a few years of food tracking. I had not intended to continue after getting to my target weight, but as my interest shifted to nutrition it was really helpful. (And handy for calories now too since I gained about 3 pounds over the holidays. No rush to shed them quickly, since the size 8 pants still fit… improving my diet is the bigger priority). But I do feel a need to avoid the gradual creep-up of the past).
Per injuries, I’ve been fortunate to avoid that. I figure it’s because I was age 54 when I started three years ago… so didn’t have much “wear and tear”. Avoiding overuse/injury is one of the reasons I mostly do only 5k runs, a sweetspot for me.
About 5 years ago I did have many months of sore shoulder, from over-vigorous shrub pruning with heavy shears. Gosh, I could not put on a coat unless I put the bad arm in first (and even then still sometimes needed help). Eventually I decided to rejoin the workplace gym for lunch classes anyway, just avoiding push-ups and things that hurt the shoulder. I was pleasantly surprised that the shoulder eventually improved to normal. I decided that the general body movement and increased circulation did the trick. Not sure it is true, but I am sure glad to be able to put on my own coat!
Sporadic poster here—wanted to
share a success!! I went to an 8-day yoga retreat in Costa Rica with my daughter. It was a great experience and despite being 10-15 years older than the other participants, I held my own. We did two yoga sessions per day (75 min to 120 min)! I also learned to accept that I can’t do all the poses but I can make modifications!! I also gained confidence in what I could do well.
