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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'm well into middle age and have been doing yoga for over a year now. It's really helped with chronic back pain that was keeping me up at night, and now I'm getting ready to add strength training.
Newer: back in November I started Zepbound (a GLP-1 drug like Ozempic). It's helped tremendously by eliminating what people call "food noise": a near-constant drumbeat in the back of my head, thinking about my next opportunity to eat, that I didn't even realize was there until it was gone. Without that it's been much easier to make good dietary choices.
Most recently: I had a massage therapy session just yesterday. A friend worked on some chronic neck and shoulder tightness that yoga hasn't completely remedied. One day out, it feels like a significant improvement. Fingers crossed it sticks.
She tried some light Reiki on me too, which was surprisingly not a null experience.
One of the things holding me back on starting strength training is that my doctor recommended against free weights, as they're more prone to injury due to the freedom of motion, but I'd previously thought free weights were superior because they train those auxiliary muscles and coordination along with the major groups. So not sure how to go there. I may start with very small free weights (which I already have) and be conservative in progressing.
Heh, are you me? I am also middle aged, have been doing yoga consistently for 3-4x/week (although only for a few months now) before doing 35min high intensity cardio sessions on my elliptical. And the yoga has helped my back so damn much too!!! And I'm actually surprised by how much I'm enjoying doing the yoga. I never pictured myself as a person who would enjoy yoga, so was hesitant to try it, but it makes my muscles feel great for the rest of the day, and even all the way until bed that night, so I am definitely addicted now.
And I can also totally see why people get addicted to high intensity cardio now too. I've been regularly using an exercise bike for a few years now, but only doing steady state for 10km 2-3x week, which was moderately enjoyable but kinda felt like a chore. However, pushing myself to near total exhaustion in 35 min on the elliptical feels so paradoxically/bizarrely good that I am enjoying it way more than the biking despite it being way way harder.
And I am also just starting to add strength training into my weekly routine now as well. I actually did my first strength training routine (using my adjustable dumbbells) on Monday. It was the first time I've properly lifted weights in years though, and I slightly overdid it, so I could barely walk or stand up for 2 days afterwards. :P Even with a bit of stiffness left in my legs today I still did my normal yoga+cardio routine though, so I am super proud of myself since experiencing that intense stiffness has killed my motivation to continue in the past... but not this time! Although I am definitely rethinking doing any leg stuff at the beginning of the week, and am considering moving it to Fridays from now on, LOL.
p.s. Do you go to a yoga class or just do it at home like me? If at home, what yoga routine do you follow? I have been mixing it up using various Yoga With Adriene routines. My fav so far is the Morning Mobility Yoga | Wake Up and Stretch! routine though, since it's the perfect length/difficulty level for fully loosening me up but not tiring me out before my cardio.
p.p.s. For the strength training, I did this 30 Minute Full Body Dumbbell Workout NO REPEAT (Advanced) by Juice & Toya... which was definitely a mistake. The routine itself is great, as is the super streamlined format of Juice & Toya's videos, but my legs are clearly not yet strong enough to do that many squatting exercises. ;) And so for next time I'm planning on doing one of their slightly shorter/easier full body routines on a Friday instead of Mon, or maybe doing one of their upper body focused ones on Mon and a lower body/core focused one on Fri, from now on.
I do a local class, there's a one-woman studio near me that runs classes at a local park (inside, in a conference room with big picture windows facing east and west. It's a great space, the sunlight is a huge mood booster).
The class isn't too expensive and I don't know if I'd have been able to establish the habit without the structure of leaving to "go do yoga". Just getting out of the house, away from my WFH office and our homeschooling kids, helps to get me in the right mindset.
But that means I need to create a workout space here at home to really get a strength training habit going. I'm leaning towards bodyweight exercises to begin with.
And.... cardio.... my body was not made for cardio. I'm built for endurance, not speed. Being in an anaerobic state is torturous to me. That's one place where I'll stick with my doctor's conservative advice: just walk. I've resumed walking now that the weather's nicer, about an hour a day, and that's about my speed.
Oh, nice. There is a local studio about 10min walk from me that I am considering joining at some point, but TBH I am a still pretty insecure about my body so I want to lose a bit more weight first, and need to work up the courage to eventually go there. And I figured learning/practicing some basics at home was a good idea beforehand anyways.
I tried doing bodyweight workouts and using excercise bands a few years ago, but I was pretty indifferent to them... I just did another full body dumbbell routine this morning though, and something about using actual weights makes all the effort I am starting to put into working out feel a lot more worthwhile, and makes me feel better about myself too (while also feeling worse since I am definitely sore!). ;)
And yeah, to each their own! I now know first-hand why some people fall in love with HIIT cardio, but I can totally understand why people can absolutely hate it too. It definitely feels a bit masochistic. :P
Regardless of our differences though, I wish you luck in your own fitness journey! :)
p.s. Since I have been doing yoga reasonably consistently now, and actually enjoying it, I decided to reward myself and splurged by ordering a Manduka Pro yoga mat for myself last night... which I manage to snag on sale for $145 CAD. I can't wait for it to arrive tomorrow to see what all the hype is about. Even if it doesn't hold up to the hype though, it definitely can't be worse than the old hand-me-down, no-name brand mat I was given by my sister a few years ago, which is about 3mm thick so kinda painful to use, too short/narrow for me, and staring to fall apart. :P