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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 signed up for another round of swimming classes after I passed the beginner class. I'm just wondering how do people get comfortable swimming without an instructor?
What discomfort are you having? Just a fear of something going wrong?
I wouldnt say discomfort or fear, but rather lack of confidence? I started swimming lessons as a absolute beginner in December, so I'm still in the beginner stages. A better phrasing would, how do I actually practice swimming outside of class environment as a beginner?
If you're out of the beginner classes, you've come a really long way in a short time! Some of that confidence will just naturally come with time.
I haven't experienced (first or second hand) learning to swim as an adult, but I've helped teach my younger cousins and my nieces and nephews to swim, and I think some of the same activities apply. Hanging out in the shallow end of the pool or the shallows at the beach and alternating between swimming and walking is good. Going out a little past where you can stand with a paddle board or some other flotation device is also good, but maybe keep that to the pool at first rather than natural bodies of water just so the depths are predictable and reliable. The more fun you can make it for yourself, the better, so if you've got some friends that you're comfortable with learning around, you can make a nice day of it.
You can play games like Marco Polo and Jailbreak that will help you practice. Marco Polo you probably know. Jailbreak is sorta like pool tag. You take turns being "the prisoner" or "the jailer". The prisoner starts "in jail", which is usually sitting on the steps or a ladder or something. The jailer closes their eyes and walks or swims back and forth in front of the jail. The prisoner's goal is to leave the jail and get to an agreed upon "safe" spot without being touched by the jailer. The jailer's goal is to listen for splashing or feel for movement in the water so they know when to chase the prisoner. This game is great because you're alternating between swimming and walking or sitting, so you don't get fatigued quickly, and you're focusing on either being quiet or trying to pick up sounds, and not on any discomfort. You're also going to be in shallow enough water that if you get tired or anything, you can just stand up.
Best of luck!
This is a great question! I taught child and adult swimming for 5 years and honestly the time spent at swimming when I wasn't around was the most crucial. Usually I would have my students practice what we had learned in the previous session and repeat the drills that we had gone over. Some of this depends on how much you've learned and your own level of confidence and feeling of safety when in the pool or when your head is submerged. If you can give me a better idea of where you're at I'd be happy to give my 2 cents on what might be appropriate. That said, if you can as the instructor whos class you were in, they would be able to provide better guidance.
Calling out I have no idea where you are at in your journey but I've listed below all of my steps from first time into the pool to working on basic strokes. Note, do all of this in an area you can easily stand!!! That is rule 1! If there is lap swim available there will often be a lane that is ~5 feet deep, try to get that lane. It will often be the slow lane as well and might have some folks you can ask questions to. There are often lovely older folks who are daily regulars in those lanes getting unweighted exercise and will likely jump at the chance to help you out!
Just to put this into context, sometimes I'd spend the first class (particularly if it was an adult one on one) getting people used to submerging their head. It's a very common thing to be uncomfortable about. After that it's basics on breathing while swimming, as simple as making bubbles and ensuring that you're only breathing through your mouth. From there it is getting comfortable with floating (both on front and back) and learning how head position changes your buoyancy (head up sends your feet down and makes it really hard to swim!)
Then it's onto treading water, usually with an assist like a kick board and then on your own. This requires learning the egg beater kick. Start with your legs and arms supporting and once your kick has developed enough you can do it while holding your arms above your head! This is a great one to practice and even now I'll often spend 5-10 minutes treading water with my hands up and occasionally see how far out of the water i can project myself (I can usually get my waistline above the waterline).
From there it's into the two most basic strokes: freestyle and breast stroke. For free style you can start by getting a kickboard and holding it at the bottom edge with both hands with arms out straight in front of you, your head down floating on your stomach, and kicking with a light flutter kick. From there you can start to integrate your arms by alternating between which arm is holding the kickboard and which is doing the stroke. Keep in mind the kickboard should always remain at the end of a least one arm that is out straight and should look like you're pushing it along at a constant pace.
For break stroke start by working on your frog kick with a kick board until you feel confident about it. The kick is almost 100% of the propulsion on the break stroke, the arms are more to pace your breathing and keep your momentum and you wind your legs up for your next kick. Once your kick is solid start putting it together with the arm motions. This will probably make no sense without the visual motion but imagine you're gathering up the water by bringing your arms around the outside, then bring them toward your mouth as if you were going to drink what your gathered, and then shoot it out like your spitting your hands straight out. You kick when your hands go out and draw them in as you prepare for your next kick. Sorry if that is very confusing.
Ok, so you have those down. Now practice practice practice practice. First just do repetitions. See how many laps you can go without a break and track your improvements. If it is tough at first (particularly freestyle as it's hard to get the breathing right and not wind yourself) switch off between strokes. When I get winded I will shift to breaststroke and you can also swim break stroke with your head out of the water the whole time. You can mix in using a kick board or a leg buoy to practice just your arms. All of this will build strength, confidence, and hopefully technique. It's much easier to be precise when you're not exhausted all the time!!
From there the second, third, and fourth classes will help you dial in your technique and learn tricks like body rotation, head position, breathing patterns, arm position, and everything else! Feel free to shoot me any other questions, I love talking about this.
This is going to be a longer post. I appreciate the support in this weekly thread. I'll admit that I use it as a bit of a training journal and a prompt to reflect on the past week.
The meet I've been training for was yesterday. It marks ten months back under a barbell after two years of not training. Mentally it marks the end of my "getting back into it" phase.
The first 5-6 months were just getting the habit built again and figuring out what sort of schedule works in my life at the moment. Started with 3 days a week for a couple months. Then started doing 4 days of my 3 day program in a week. Decided around 4 months in that a coach will be important for longevity so hired a coach. Fortunately I have good connections in the sport and was able to pick who I wanted easily. We started on a more standard 4 day program but I had difficulty recovering and performing with the workload in that layout. So we split that 4 day program into 6 days. That 6 day schedule has been perfect for the last 4 months.
Throughout that time life continued to happen. My lovely partner was dealt a very difficult hand in 2023 on the career side. That brought with it a resurgence of some mental health challenges. There were days that would've been harder if I hadn't explicitly wrote down my priorities. I'm most proud that I was able to be the supportive, present partner that she deserves. The reason I share this is that it can be difficult to "do nothing" if one had external ambitions. I am goal oriented so it helped me be a better person having an internal list to check against every day:
That list was invaluable while trying to be the best person I can be for my partner, my coworkers, and train hard in a sport I love.
So anyway meet weekend. My partner handled me during the meet and was invaluable to keeping me eating and taking care of logistics. She really was a star handler. Let me stay locked in while keeping me apprised of my position in the rotation and getting videos of each attempt for next attempt selection. We got to the event around 12:30 for weigh-ins with lifting starting at 3:00pm.
A powerlifting meet is split into age and weight class division with weigh-ins two hours before competition. I've been trying to lose some weight and made my (self imposed) target of 105kg which is just fine for the 110kg class I registered for. There were two flights of 12 lifters during my session and I was in the second flight.
I'm so grateful for the support I received from my partner, siblings and coach. The athletes, judges, loaders, and spotters all kept the event humming along. It took four hours but that is quick for 24 lifters. Personally, I'm proud of how i executed even though my strength wasn't where I hoped it would be. My ideal total would have been 20kg heavier but I was 5kg short on squat, 5kg short on bench, and 10kg short on deadlift. It didn't impact my placing, still placed third, but I know I can get stronger.
We run it back in two months. The goal will be the same as this time: be the best person I can be for my partner, provide my team at work with better opportunities, 230 squat, 165 bench, 240 deadlift.
Good stuff, congrats on pushing yourself to get to the meet, let alone in shape enough to finish 3rd.
I ran my first ultra on Saturday...
I "ran" (walked about 50%) my first ultra (55k) on Saturday. I had fun and I also didn't...there aren't really words to describe how I felt in much of the second half. Like I went into full-on animal mode where my experience didn't transcend words, but rather...subscended words? Like trying to describe exactly what your pet is feeling. Certain words did come to mind but they felt totally wrong as soon as I thought them.
The first half was pretty cool. That actually had more elevation than the second half when I felt so totally dead. I was keeping up pretty well with a bunch of people. I stopped for too long to take pictures and my knee began to hurt when I started running again. Then, right as it was getting better, I got to the second aid station and had to stop to refill my water, etc, so my knee started hurting again after that (it's a known bug). It didn't take too long for my knee to feel good again and I started run/walking with a girl who had stopped to ask me how far we'd run (the aid station was a bit farther than she'd anticipated). We had a nice conversation for a while until we got to a small hill that I didn't feel great about running up. I never got too far behind her and no one else passed me until the next aid station (5-6 miles). I was feeling pretty tired at that point, but I was running an ultramarathon. The point is to push yourself, not to give up because you're feeling a little tired.
I could feel some extra rubbing in my shoes at that point, so I dumped out the sand that had accumulated and changed my socks. My knee definitely felt bad after that, and the next stretch was through sand, so that also wasn't fun to walk through with a knee that was hurting. Thankfully, my knee started to feel okay again after about a mile or so when I reached the next section.
And that's when I started to really feel awful. I don't know if I bonked/hit the wall (I was at 19 miles and had climbed up and down essentially a mountain by then, so that would make sense), but that's when I started feeling the way I described at the start of my comment. It was like I was in some kind of sisyphean hell where I needed to go uphill and felt like I was never making progress. I got passed by a good number of people at that point...I even had a mile that took me 36 minutes. I tried listening to an audiobook to take my mind off the climb, and it just put me in an even worse mood. Listening to music wasn't much better. So I just had to trudge in silence, watching everybody else move farther away from me. (To be clear, the winner--a professional runner for Adidas--had finished the whole race about 40 minutes before I even got to the middle aid station, so I was technically getting closer to some people).
I encountered something I'd heard of before but had never really understood during this portion. I could not stand the taste of sweet things at all. Which is not great when all of the calories/carbs you're carrying with you are in the form of sugar. I tried eating some "Bonk Breaker" candies with caffeine, but I could only nibble at them because of how disgusting sweetness tasted at that point. Eventually, I said "fuck it, I'm running a damn ultramarathon; eating a gummy bear is fucking easy" so I had some Haribo bears. I think it was after that when I started feeling well enough to even run some flat stretches and listen to music. But that wasn't enough because I still had that 36-minute mile ahead of me at that point.
I should also point out that I'm now realizing the 36-minute mile would have included me resting at the top of the hill, so I was probably moving at somewhere between a 24- and 30-minute mile at that point. Which is not fast, but it's certainly faster than I felt like I was moving.
Anyway, I got up to that aid station (#4) and found out that they were almost out of water AND I wasn't in last place so I couldn't just take it all (at least not without being a dick). So I grabbed a savory snack from the aid station (Chex Mix--always a disappointment when Gardettos exist), filled up on electrolyte mix instead of water, and I kept moving. I legitimately would have considered turning around at that point, but I never wanted to see that area again the rest of my life, plus I was at or near the high point of the second half and it would have only been like one mile more if I continued and actually completed the race, so it would have been stupid to turn around. But mostly I didn't want to ever see that fucking section of rock ever again.
So I continued with my salty Chex Mix and my electrolyte drink to wash it down (so washing down salty food with more salt). After a short traverse along the top of a like 1000-foot cliff, I got to an out-and-back segment, and it was really encouraging to see other people on their way back, which meant they weren't that far ahead of me. Sure, they were as much as two miles ahead of me, but that doesn't feel like a big distance when you're 6+ hours into a race and feel like you just spent years moving a mile or two. To see that they hadn't moved that far beyond me was nice.
Then I got to the downhill section! I was really excited for that! Unfortunately, my legs felt so heavy that it felt like I'd fall and die if I started running with any real speed, so I was basically forced (physically or mentally) to walk. But at least gravity was pulling me toward my destination! But then I felt cheated by the Earth itself any time I'd have to go back uphill for a while.
There was a girl who had passed me while I was feeling straight dead, and I kept almost catching up to her on descents and on flat ground, but she would just not slow down every time she got to an ascent so I'd find myself way behind her again. This happened over and over. But then I finally caught up to her near the bottom of the descent erasing all that elevation I'd climbed up to that sad aid station.
I was about to just run right past her, but instead I stopped to tell her how impressive (or depressing) it was seeing her just keep chugging away uphill while I languished away with my tiny little steps. We ran/walked together to the final aid station (it was 1st, 3rd, and 5th), and then walked to the finish line, running the last quarter mile or so and finishing with the exact same time. I don't know how I would have done those last 5 or 6 miles without her pulling me along. We had a great conversation while hiking along and it meant that my first ultra could end with a good memory instead of just misery!
But wait--there's more!
I drove to my hotel, hoping that I would be able to get in the hot tub or maybe eat a few calories. I got out of my car, with my mettle steeled for the impending shower that I would have to take--standing on legs that had just moved me 34 miles--if I wanted to get in the hot tub.
As I was walking across the parking lot, I dropped something I was carrying--maybe a bandage or rubbing alcohol wipe--and stopped to pick it up.
Unfortunately, I had to stand there in the middle of the parking lot next to the item I dropped for a couple minutes because my left leg completely cramped up. And I mean it when I say completely. I was standing there with my left leg totally locked in place. Completely immobilized--no mobility and no motility whatsoever. My right leg started shaking because of how long I was stuck balancing on it.
Hoping that I wouldn't fall over in the middle of the parking lot (that would have been annoying to have to explain that yes, I was totally okay, just completely insane and facing the consequences of my actions), I finally felt my left leg beginning to relax. Which was great, because right as I started to move, my right leg cramped up just like my left leg had.
Realizing that maybe I should stop doing what was causing my legs to cramp, I walked in a half-squat over to a little guard rail and sat down. That was a good way to relax my legs for a mo' while waited for them to stop feeling like they were about to seize up literally any moment (they were still about to seize up any moment, just not literally any moment), and then I got up and was actually able to bend down and pick up whatever I had dropped! I headed into my hotel room, pulled off my shoes, incidentally flung sand all over as I tugged off my socks, and lay down on the bed. My buddy from the end of the ultra had recommended I lie on my bed and put my feet up on the wall to help me recover. So I put my legs up.
Uh oh!
Cramp time!
Luckily, when you're lying on the bed and are anticipating cramps, it's pretty easy to roll into a position that prevents them from getting too bad.
So I probably spent the next hour lying on the bed, shifting from position to position to prevent cramps.
Eventually I got up to shower, needing to hunch like an old man as I walked to the shower until I was eventually slowly able to extend my limbs while under the hot water. But that was the end of my cramping troubles!
All that was left after that was literal starvation while my body also told me that food was bad and not something I should actually put in my mouth (thank God for bite-sized food and pre-chilled 2L bottles of soda at pizza places), as well as wondering how I spent about half of the race looking forward to the next porta potty, only to not need (be capable) to poop until the next morning...if not the one after that...
...I'll be arriving at home soon and I'm looking forward to eating some fiber!
Thank you for sharing the full story. I love reading people experience through challenging circumstances. You demonstrated some real grit. That's a great accomplishment!
Wow, I didn't think anyone would actually read that! Thank you! Even during the race I was thinking about if it felt like a great accomplishment because I hear about people saying races were the hardest things they've ever done. I know intellectually that it's technically an accomplishment, but I barely felt like I even had a choice to do anything but keep moving, so it doesn't exactly feel like an accomplishment. But it's definitely not like my marathon that I ran, which ended up just feeling like yet another long run and was actually very anticlimactic.
Two weeks into my weight loss plan of losing a pound a week is going well! My goal weight for today was 191 lbs, and my average weigh in for the last 7 days is 190.3.
I’ve been finding that the most effective way for me to lose weight is to eat a maintenance amount most days, and then to have one or two fast days a week. This is much less fatiguing for me than being hungry more often. We’ll see how it continues to go!
Posting on Tildes has been a massive help with encouraging me and keeping me on track, so thank you all for that. With that said, I'm really struggling.
I've hidden this because it's really whiny and negative and I don't want to inflict that on anyone who doesn't explicitly opt-in.
I'm at the 6 week mark, and I'm getting to a point that I always struggle to get past, which is when I stop being able to make myself believe that anything good is going to come out of this. I don't feel any more energized, and I certainly don't feel any mental health benefits. I am definitely not getting any stronger, I can't carry more groceries and it's not any less of a struggle to carry the usual amount. I weighed myself, which was a mistake, and that was bad news. My clothes don't fit any better. I feel like I'm just wasting time pushing myself for nothing in return.I know this is why everyone recommends that you find something you enjoy doing, but I just plain don't like doing things that are difficult. I don't enjoy a challenge. I enjoyed my dance class, but now I associate it with being out of breath and being sore the next day, and it's harder and harder to make myself keep going. Other things I've tried in the past, dodgeball, gymnastics, swimming, I've taken things that I enjoyed and made myself hate them by making them a chore. I know you can't get better if you don't push yourself, but the pushing is the part I don't like. I'm trying to do it anyway, so I can get better, and when I don't see anything getting better I feel like I've worked a full week for no paycheck. Except now we're at 6 weeks and no paycheck!
I'm not even pushing myself that hard, which is probably why I'm not getting any better, but I am pushing myself. You'd think the bare minimum of making a point of moving every day would be better than the couch surfing that I was doing, but apparently not.
I know you guys can't like. solve this for me, I just needed to vent. I don't know if I'm going to keep trying. I have dance class today and I skipped my morning yoga so I'm scared I'm going to actually hurt myself from not warming up, but I just can't bring myself to do it. The dance class has social pressure to keep me doing it, but if it was more than once a week, I don't know if that would work either.
Does anyone else ever feel like this? Do you have any ideas for overcoming it?
Editing here so I can remind myself later:
I went to the dance class and I had fun. I'm certainly going to be sore tomorrow and the soreness will be easier to remember than the fun, but I have a reminder here to help me.
I just want to leave a comment to maybe help with motivation.
These phases are the absolute hardest part of any kind of foal. Novelty can wear off quicker than progress becomes apparent. You're doing great challenging yourself.
I personally find that when I feel like I'm plateaued, it feels like I'm putting time in without returns, and I'd rather just not, it helps if I remove the decision. For me that looks like telling my partner "I'm going to go to the gym as soon as I get home and try to get home as fast as possible." Generally it goes how you described, I get there chat with some friends and I find a bit more motivation. Sometimes it is still a drag and I just "punch the clock."
I don't know how this could be applied in your situation, but one big part of having a coach is I owe him a check in. So even if I'm not feeling it, knowing I have to record some lifts and my own pride keeps me from sandbagging too much. It sounds like the social aspect is a motivator for you too, perhaps there's a way to leverage that through the hardest phases?
Unfortunately/fortunately my current regimen is almost entirely solitary. That's critical for getting started, because I'm really ashamed of my body and how poorly I'm able to use it. I think it's that embarrassment that's keeping me from checking out the rock climbing club. (I know, no one in any gym or athletics club is actually judging me negatively - if they're thinking about me at all, they're proud of me for getting started. It's not about them, it's about me.)
Doing my workouts in private keeps days where I feel negative about my looks from being a barrier, but it also means I lack that social motivation, except for at dance class, or if I agree to go dancing or hiking on the weekend. Those things are great exercise, and I am agreeing to everything I'm invited to, but that ends up only being two, maximum three (unlikely because dancing all night and hiking the next day is a lot) times a week, and I'm not sure if that's enough to actually do anything.
I know ultimately the answer is that I just have to do it. I know that I'm struggling to believe that I will get what I want if I put in this effort, but I do know for certain that I won't get it if I don't. So I have to re-frame it as a gamble, and then decide if the gamble is worth it. Right now, after skipping a few days, it feels like it probably is. I'm in a much better headspace than I was when I typed up my original comment. It is absolutely a massive help to know that people who are in shape and really capable of doing powerful things with their bodies still feel like this sometimes. It's good to know that it's not just a problem I have and doesn't mean that I'm definitely doing something wrong and definitely won't get any kind of results if I keep on doing this. It helps it feel less like I'm stuck with this body regardless of what I do, and more like I have at least a chance of changing it if I stay committed. I'm scared of feeling that level of self-hatred and helplessness, though.
I've decided I'm going to do my routine today. I'm going to try to focus on how small of an ante it is. The time I'm spending will pass anyway. The muscle soreness will be there, but it's not that bad, I've experienced much worse. It's not that much to gamble on a chance of having a body I can be proud of. I just have to focus on that the idea that it is possible, even if I'm not seeing it. I usually hate gambling, but I'm going to try to make it work for me.
Thanks again! I really do appreciate it. Posting here is the best social accountability that I have right now, and it's definitely having an impact.
I pulled my back while bouldering right before the new year and it took about 4 weeks this time before i was comfortable putting any strain on it but ive been going back slowly but surely.
The days are getting longer and warmer already so i can get back on the bike again to ride out to the gym as well. I have been drinking again since pulling my back, it really helped tbh to deal with the 24hr pain cycle. But ive been avoiding it pretty successfully the last week and a half and hitting my calorie goals in the process.
Taking a more active interest in my calorie intake and controlling urges to just skip making dinner after work and grab a burrito has been REALLY difficult but ultimately rewarding. I had three chocolate covered almonds the other day and they were a decadent experience after a week of fried cabbage as well as black bean stew.
Im about 5lbs away from falling out of the obese category, down 25lbs from when I started the beginning of october. That month of January could have gone better but fuck it, im here now. Its been about 7 years since i was last at this weight. Still feel and look like shit but hey, that's bound to change at some point right? Any minute now... :D
Competed in my first BJJ comp on Saturday after about 4.5 months of training. The format was groups of 5 based on closest weight, with everyone playing a round robin. By luck of the draw I ended up being the smallest in my group, but I managed to snag 1 decision win out of my 4 matches, which was more than I had hoped for.
Everyone in my group felt an order of magnitude stronger than me, so even when I knew I was doing technically better things, I sometimes just got outmuscled. Time to hit the gym!
I've finally gotten back into regularly exercising and am now targeting to do a half marathon in June!
I'm pretty excited because this is the first time in a very long time that I've stuck with an exercise routine consistently. With the exception of two days where I was violently ill last week, I've made sure to either do a run or bodyweight fitness exercises every day since the beginning of the year. I just recently completed my longest run yet, a 7 mile run (with about a mile of walking in there) clocking in at just under 1h25m. It's not fast, but it's the longest I've just kept going and felt good about.
Also a shout out to my partner who plans to run the half marathon with me as well. She's not as fit or active as me so it's an even longer journey for her and I'm incredibly proud of her and grateful for her support.
This is also the longest I've gone without drinking which I'm sure is playing a large part in my fitness journey. It's been really rather nice! Even though I wasn't really drinking all that heavily before, it was still fairly consistent (a drink or two at dinner/evening most nights) and there were binge weekends sometimes that I know were very unhealthy and likely offset any gains that week. So I'm glad to have been able to kick that habit.
And as for weight, well I didn't weigh myself before I started because last year I tried to do this as well and after a month of trying really hard, I had somehow gained weight. That got me really down and I kind of faltered. This year though, if I were to estimate, I'm already down about 13 pounds which doesn't sound like much but it's a huge deal for me and I'm pretty happy with the results so far :)
I've set a goal to try and hit the 1000 pound club by August. I'm not sure how realistic it is, tbh, especially since I've been cutting a lot of weight too. I'm also trying to lose another maybe 5-10 pounds before then, but I think my weight loss has plateaued after my 30 pound loss since August of last year.
Right now, I'm at a 225B, 365DL*, and a 315S. Asterisk on the DL because I haven't done a 1RM on the DL yet in a bit, since my number keeps going up at the moment.
I've been pushing hard to improve my health since 2019, when a variety of life events hit at once, leaving me in a pretty spent state.
I've lost quite a bit of weight, and have been making (slow) progress in the gym. I've learned that I really enjoy rowing, which is great! My problem/limiting factor for the past year in particular has been my recovery- a hard session takes multiple days, and even moderate ones were not snapping back. Just got bloodwork done, and it turns out I'm both very low T, and hypothyroid. (50/M, FWIW)
In one sense, it feels good to have my gut sense of things being harder than they should be validated. I've always been active, never sedentary, even though overweight, so it kind of annoyed me to have my doctors disregard my 'I think something is wrong here' for the past year.
On the other hand, it is kind of demoralizing to do everything you can, and still wind up with one's biochemistry thwarting your progress. I'm not throwing in the towel. Just frustrated.
I'll be talking to my doctor about the next steps to take some time next week. Wish me luck. I am hopeful that with appropriate adjustment, I can get back in to the swing of things. I started off tracking my rowing times on the Concept 2 in 2019, and was at the 4th percentile, and have clawed my way up to the 41st percentile for my age. I'd really like to hit the 50th this year!
My first comment on Tildes :)
I have been sent on a company trip to a small town until the end of March. Not ideal, but I'm trying to make the most of it! As part of that, I've been trying to take advantage of the hotel's pool and exercise everyday.
It's always weird to go back to swimming as I used to do competitions throughout all my teenage years, but haven't really trained for the past ~8 years. Because of this, there's always a slight underlying feeling of disappointment every time I swim nowadays, because I'm nowhere near the physical form I was in at the time.
Nevertheless, I'm really enjoying the chance of taking the time to do proper exercise everyday; normally, due to commuting and life in general, the most I can do is boulder 1 to 2 times a week, but after a week of daily exercise my body already feels so much better! Really makes me wonder (even more so than usual) how the "normal routine" of staying seated for 8 hours a day and barely having time to do anything else after is considered acceptable when it is clearly incredibly unhealthy for many people.