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Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
I went to my first yoga class in probably 6-9 months. Felt great!
I've got / I had cancer. I had been doing something called "prehabilitation" - some light exercise to build strength and improve health - before my surgery. I had surgery in August and that went well, but it was a colostomy and it left me with a permanent stoma. I've now got a bit of anxiety around developing a peristomal hernia (very common in people with ostomies).
I really liked the prehabilitation. It was nice and simple, and achievable. So I got booked in with specialist cancer physiotherapists.
The aim was to tackle fatigue and get me out of the house.
Sadly, chemo is KICKING MY ARSE. I am only have 4 rounds, and it's preventive not treating (killing off any remaining cells, not treating any tumour). I'm on round two.
So, this is a long way of saying I am doing a bit of work with 750g weights, and some marching on the spot, and some very gentle leg rolls.
And it's fine! Doing a little bit is better than doing nothing. I am getting benefit from it. Not just physical, but mental too.
(I am happy to answer any questions about my cancer and my treatment. It's not something I'm keeping hidden. Obviously I can't give medical advice!! I don't think anyone here would ask for that though.)
Bit of a weird week, where I just had a bunch of random, unforeseen shit to deal with. Nothing too bad or serious, but it definitely ate into my free time.
I have a lot of short term and long term goals I'm trying to reach, but time is not always on my side. I've realised this week that sometimes I just have to accept that I don't have enough time to get everything done that I want to. It's not worth stressing about and I just need to be reasonable and re-adjust my goals.
Sometimes I set the bar too high, and I think that can be a good thing when it motivates me to do better, but not so much when I stress out because I'm not achieving the goals I've set out.
I did manage to do a run earlier this week with no knee pain, and it seems the stretches are helping a lot. I've been getting bad stomach cramps on my last two runs, which were in the morning before eating anything. Previously I've only had cramps when I run just after eating. I might need to eat something first and then wait to run.... but I otherwise enjoy getting up and going for a run straight away before doing anything else.
I had a couple of months where I fell off any sort of routine. I bought a a-frame collapsible pullup bar but can't do anything on it, even hangs kill my hands. Talking to my dad, I decided to get back on with a simple burpee routine, 30 four counts for now, add pushups back in a couple weeks, and start working back up. I'm going Mon/Wed/Fri because I need to make sure I'm not hurting myself, like I did my wrists yesterday throwing ~300lb around and figured since my feet are good doing them barefoot, I can go without straps. I'm rehabbing today, which is just a normal rest day, with one of these being worked in for a few minutes a few times a day for grip training and wrist protection. I actually have a metal gyro-ball being delivered today, mostly because they're fun.
Pull-ups! A few weeks ago I completed the "100 pull-ups a day for one week" challenge, and one thing I learned: you must wear gloves! I did the first two days without gloves and paid the price.
I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "can't do anything on" your A-frame, but let me encourage you to keep trying. If you need an on ramp, a lot of people use elastic bands to gradually build up the strength to do full weight pull-ups. Once you get to doing them regularly, pull-ups are one of the best bang-for-your-buck exercises.
I'm too fat for my bands, lol, and I don't want to buy another set. They take a bunch of weight off, but it's just not enough. I can do active hangs, but not for as long as I thought. Between those and burpees, and when I start getting back on my pushup progression, I'll make rapid progress I think.
Pull ups are really intimidating to me but there's a guy on YouTube and he starts off really gently. Standing straight, arms out front holding the side of a door frame. No up and down motion, just to and fro.
I've been doing a few of those, focussing on form.
My aim is to be able to do a proper pullup within a year.
EDIT: here is the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO3dKSQayfg
Fitness is a bit weird, because before I started doing anything I had an incorrect understanding of attitudes within the fitness community. I was intimidated by it all. But the vast majority of people who are fit and do fitness stuff just really love it and they want to share it and they really want beginners to have a go with things that are simple and achievable. A really welcoming, friendly, encouraging bunch of people