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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?
So I recently joined a boxing gym. Im doing their basic boxing intro for a month and so far im really enjoying it. I am also sore in various parts of my body that have been neglected exercise-wise. Im not sure how long I will be able to stay on after the beginner month but as long as I get some basics of boxing down I will be happy.
The fitness classes they offer are fairly intense as they are designed for boxing fitness, which is crazy fit haha. All in all I think I made the right call to do this as I will be able to defend myself and be fit which is a win win.
That's really cool. Win-win for sure.
Oh my god, today was wonderful.
The other day my husband commented that my pants were getting really loose. I looked in my closet and it turned out that the ones I was wearing was actually the most narrow waisted one I owned. So today I made it a point to go to the store and buy some new ones.
I'd been eating pretty poorly for a while now, so I've been avoiding getting on the scale. But in the morning on a whim I decided to finally bite the bullet and see where I was. it turned out that, somehow, I managed to still lose some weight anyways. I was down by about 10 pounds from the last time I weighed myself... on August 6th. So while it's a relatively small amount of weight to lose by my standards, it's still a pretty good thing to hear.
So I get to the store and start trying on jeans, and somehow, I manage to finally fit into a size 38! Granted, they're stretch jeans - a "cheat" of sorts - and I have no idea if it will fit anymore after I wash them for the first time, but It's still a huge milestone for me. I don't have them anymore to check, but I seem to remember buying 54s. To be on the verge of tears in the fitting room because I was happy for once was an amazing feeling.
Congrats! Big ups! Any other confirmation that makes sense here! It is super exciting to be able to fit into smaller clothing. Funny enough, I too finally bought new jeans today to replace my 38's for 32's (i wore a belt that i had drilled new holes into to keep them up). Im super happy for you and i assure you that it feels as amazing every time you discover a lower size as it did the first time. There genuinely is no limit to how happy you can be with your progress, assuming you maintain a healthy attitude. Keep on keeping on!
I've been using Apple Fitness+ lately and it's been pretty good. But the last few days I felt like re-visiting this app called Seven, which I used years ago to get back into a regular exercise habit. While its core feature is the 7-minute workout, you can do multiple circuits. So I set it to 3 circuits, chose "Strength". I did this for 4 days, and it's pretty good. Since it's focused on body-weight exercises, I ended up doing lots of pushups and core exercises. I felt some sore muscles Iin spots I usually don't get sore, so I was pleasantly surprised. The pace is go go go, so that 21-ish minutes works up a sweat pretty fast. On the technical side I was pleased to see it's fully functional on the Apple watch, independent of an iPhone or iPad. So, that's a plus! No need for any device fiddling. Just tap go on the watch and do what it says. It also has really good scalability. Getting too easy? Add another circuit, increase the duration of each exercise, decrease the breaks between exercises. Will I switch to this full-time? Unlikely, but I might mix it up when I get annoyed with Fitness+.
I've started going back to the gym. My ankle is still healing so I'm still skipping a lot of leg exercises, but it really makes me feel better to go for many reasons.
I've still been eating kind of bad so I haven't been on the scale for a while but I have started to notice that there are some new parts of my body where I can feel hard muscle underneath the many layers of fat on my body. I might just have hips under there somewhere! I'm not trying to do a bulk and cut cycle because weight loss is still my goal, so I guess you could say that I've been aiming for "recomp" for the few months that I've been working out.
I've also made it a point for the few times I've exercised after the injury to do it in the morning, and while it does leave me feeling kind of tired afterwards and unwilling to do things, it's a much better experience in the gym. The machines aren't under constant demand so I can usually get to any particular one I want. I've also switched from the Matrix chest press machines to the Hammer Fitness MTS chest press machines. The weight has to go down significantly on it, but it feels like it's activating some muscles that I've been having a hard time growing with the shoulder press or something like that, so I think it's a good move.
A question for any runners here: how tf do you get over pains that arise from the run? Ive recently started trying to run more and can do about 20km in 2 hours as long as one of the many joints in my legs doesnt start hurting so badly that i have to slow or stop entirely and take a week off after, which then means i fall out of it and do less kms/slower which isnt exactly inspiring. This is maybe the worst form of exercise lol
I have bought good, proper shoes and my form is not sloppy. I am in my mid-30's and have always shied away from ldr cause i was always too heavy
I run slow. So slow that I can easily talk or even close my mouth for a bit and be okay. I don't ever run for speed or try to be fast-- I run for the health benefits and because I enjoy it. Once I started to slow down it made it so much more enjoyable and also I am injury free basically all the time. You could also be running too far too fast. Build up a base mileage slowly and consistently. 20 km is quite a haul if you're not running regularly.
Slower is probably really good advice tbh but i dont know how to run slower, if that makes sense? I feel like im as slow as can be right now, if i slow down anymore im practically walking which feels wrong? Though im willing to accept that thats entirely a mindset thing.
Im used to running 10k now as like a baseline but for some reason when i get just past that the pains begin. And i did work up to it over a fairly long period of time, thats why it feels so weird to just be getting constant joint pains now. Im now, injuries permitting, running twice a week at about that distance and twice more between 5-10k. I guess you're saying i have to slow it down even more if my body just aint getting with the program.
I’ve been using Runna to generate my training plans, just finished my first 8 week program, and it really helped me to build up my running again in a structured way.
Hmmm a structured plan seems entirely reasonable, i didnt even think about that. Ill check out the app, thanks!
I screwed up yesterday - went into the gym with the beginnings of an arthritis flare, got sloppy with my form to favor my hands and shoulders, and crunched something in my lower back while doing extensions.
Lots of naproxen and hot/cold packs later, my sacroiliac joints still hurt - just not badly enough that I'm inclined to rush to the doctor. I've done this before, and the usual fix is lots of swimming, walking with attention to posture, and gently resuming weightlifting. But I definitely feel like I should have known better. If anyone who's had similar experience wants to weigh in 😉, feel free to offer advice or admonishment.
I'm actually in a similar boat (although not strictly from weightlifting), so I definitely can't admonish you. :/
I did a Leg day on Thursdays, and it was a good session... but then I had to move a bunch of stupid-heavy potted plants around later that day so we could clean our patio. Since the plants have gotten so damn big I couldn't lift them "properly", and instead I had to hunch over them to reach into their foliage to get a hold of the pot before lifting them, which put most of the pressure on my lower back. So all the lifts ended up being done with horrible form, which caused me to tweak something. And to top it off, I then made the even more idiotic decision to still do my Upper body day yesterday even though my back was still really sore+stiff, and my routine includes bent-over rows, shoulder presses, and lat pulldowns... all of which put more strain on my back, which made it worse.
Sigh. Like you, this isn't the first time I've done this to myself either, and I really should have known better as well. I should have just not cared about damaging the damn plants so I could lift them with better form. And I really shouldn't have gone ahead with my Upper day immediately after hurting my back again either. Ah well, live and likely not-learn (because I will undoubtedly do this to myself yet again some time in the future). :P
p.s. Last night I iced it then had a nice hot bath afterwards, which did help, but I'm still having a bit of trouble bending over or leaning to either side today. I plan on doing that again tonight, and hopefully between doing that a few more times, continuing my flexibility focused yoga (although going slower/easier than usual until my back recovers), and being more ginger with my back in general for the next few days, I can unfuck things enough to go back to lifting heavy again next week some time. It sounds like you're doing basically the same things to recover as well, just swimming instead of yoga, so I can't really offer much advice beyond "keep doing what you're doing". ;)
I'm also getting accustomed to the biomechanics of my re-dimensioned body - having to adjust settings on seats and benches because there's less of me. Losing a quarter of your body weight does change things up, and I haven't gotten everything dialed back in yet.
I've been planning to add yoga back in, but haven't found a studio with an instructor I trust yet. The last one was deeply into Ayurvedic "medicine" and hadn't a clue about modifying postures for disabilities.
Nice! Congrats! I'm down to from 190+ lbs in Jan to ~157lbs as of this week, so I'm in a similar boat there too. So I know what you mean about taking some time to get used to your new dimensions... and similarly, going from a 38" waist to 32" has also cost me a damn fortune in new clothes too. Not that that's a super bad problem to have, especially since my wardrobe definitely needed some updating anyways. ;)
I just do yoga at home following videos on YouTube (mostly Yoga with Adriene), because I can't stand the woowoo either. And the local studio nearest me does all sorts of reiki and homeopathic bullshit alongside their yoga, which is even worse, IMO. :/
In any case, I'm sorry you're suffering similarly, and hope that the mystical spine thing gets its groove back.
Likewise. Sorry to hear you're in pain too. Like most things, hopefully time is all we both really need though. But do feel free to let me know if you find any silver bullets or magic beans that can fix it faster though. ;)
I don’t know who it was, but I just want to thank the person who mentioned MacroFactor in this thread a few weeks ago. I’ve been using the app and it really helps me understand what an appropriate diet is for my body & activity level. And as a bonus: I got to know all kinds of cool lingo like recomp and calorie expenditure and trend weight. ^^
After having one of the best years of fitness in my life today, if not the best, I've had an unfortunate crash at a pivotal moment.
I have two focuses:
The latter is a bit of a joke. I want to be a person that frequents the gym and builds visible muscle mass. I also hate the gym and have never manage consistency with it. I now need it more than ever as my legs are seriously begging for it due to all my running, which leads me to...
Running has become my addiction this year. I've always been an on and off runner, but I really dug deep with it this year. I've signed up to a local half-marathon that's in around four weeks. But sadly, after almost a year of consistency, my running has dropped off a cliff over the last five weeks. I've not built my mileage up as planned, and so I'm not four weeks out with 12k being the longest I've run in the past month.
Don't get me wrong: I certainly have enough of a base built up to complete the half. But I did it a couple of years ago and was really hoping to beat my time this year and get a sub two-hour result.
I was also incredibly fortunate in getting into the London Marathon for next year! I'm not overly concerned about it at this point, as I have plenty of time to get into shape for that. Very exciting.