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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?
Been a rough patch in terms of exercise since I got sick early December. Was slow to get back to the exercise routine. Then the holidays came and I was pretty lazy, took time off work, slept in every day. Just a very lazy winter break. I’m trying to get back into it and as usual it’s hard after a break. But getting there! This week I did exercise every morning. I’m trying to make sure I do, even if it’s for a short workout. Better a short one than none at all. I picked up some kettlebells in October and it’s been fun. I’m new to this kind of weight and it’s helping me find motivation.
I do have two dogs that I walk almost daily, for 2-5 km depending on the day and the weather. At least that’s consistent and keeps me moving.
I’ve had the same exact thing happen to me. The good thing is that while I have been avoiding the gym, I’ve finally been able to at least get more active. Having an annual pass to theme parks actually really helps because I get killer walks in. Today is a theme park day for me and I am currently at about 20K steps and about 5/3rds of my daily calorie expenditure goal. That’s a pretty good thing because I have had so many days of bed rotting that my Apple Watch has been urging me to reduce my goal by 200 calories! Fuck that, I’m gonna do better!
Mine is actually compounded by an injury to a rotator cuff that happened right before this, so it’s been going on a bit longer and I’m still not doing all the weight training that I used to do. But I’m building up my joints so I can start putting on muscle again.
I like your drive to oppose the Apple Watch suggestion. Good job!
Step-wise the dog walks at least always keep me moving. However, I need to make sure I work on back and shoulder muscles to keep some old pains at bay. Specifically around the left shoulder blade. It disappears as long as I am consistent with weight training. It re-emerges if I slack off for 2 weeks or more, especially if I start playing too many video games. Something about clenching the controller for 2-3 hours straight seems to be bad? Guess I shouldn’t be surprised especially since my job also has me sitting in front of a computer.
I wrote this out and realized it's a very negative complain-y comment. I'm going to leave it because it reflects how I feel but feel free to skip it.
Man, the start of the year has been shit for my fitness. We had a fatal shark attack at the beach I swim from. So while I've been continuing to swim, be it even more safely, it's been a mix of managing my own emotions and everyone's around me. It's all anyone wants to talk about right now if they know I swim and all the tourists that see us getting ready on the shore make comment after comment. It's been really annoying. Like, no I do not want to hear your flippant comment of "stupid is as stupid does" about us to your kids. The person who is here on a three day vacation that thinks it is their job to talk us out of going can also absolutely get bent! Yes, I know about the incident. Yes, I know how big great whites are. Yes, I am still planning to swim. Even the well intentioned people are just hyper focused on it. Unless it's one of the other people who I see in the water with regularity I just don't want to hear about it. They don't know the person who passed away. They are just making ignorant blanket statements as armchair experts at something they have never done in an ecosystem they don't understand. We all already know they are out there, this isn't even the first incident at this beach!
And on top of that I get to manage my partner's emotions and act as support for some of the swimmers who were close to the person who died. My wife and I already have a pretty healthy disagreement about risk tolerance and this has sent those conversations spiraling. Meanwhile a few of our friends have slipped into a little depression and swimming is a way to help them navigate that. Balancing those things have been tough. And, I also get to deal with my own stress when I'm in the water. I was already wiggy about sharks and made sure to swim in safe ways, but would often ideate about them when I was in deep or turbid water. They are top of mind all of the time now, ensured not only by own mind but the lovely folks who keep bringing them up. Incessantly.
I just feel like I'm acting as a composed nervous system for so many people in the community and would just love everyone to get it together long enough for me to get to handle and process my own things. No more 1am fights about juvenile shark behavior and preferred hunting locations. No more hot takes about density of shark population locations from uniformed friends. And no more caddy or offensive comments from tourists. I am in that water almost every day and have been for years. I am close friends with the local shark biologists and have had the discussions about where is safe and where is not. I understand what went wrong for the most recent incident and the one that predated it in 2023. I understand that there is risk associated with it, as there is with almost anything, and I have accepted it. But man, I cannot wait for this event to be out of the collective consciousness.
On the plus side, my part of the local swim/dip community has been amazing. Nothing but support, discussion of how we'll be returning to the water, and lots of checking in. It's made me appreciate my people and my area all the more.
I’ve been doing the Five Tibetan Rites every Monday and Friday morning when I’m working from home for 6 months now and it’s doing absolute wonders for my lower back pain. I’ve tried different approaches before but this is by far the most effective exercise for me. I highly recommend it and it’s only 15 minutes.
On another note. I have one dumbbell I wanna start using besides doing some push ups but there’s a thousand different advices on how to do it right. I just want simple approachable exercises that’s easy to do right. Anyone?
First time I learn about Five Tibetan Rites. This is pretty cool and an easy addition to any routine. I gave it a shot this morning and I think I’ll aim to do it every morning as a way to stretch and warm up as soon as I wake up. Thanks for sharing! I had my own mix of stretches, but this seems better and any stiffness after a night’s sleep vanished quickly.
I’m glad! As you said it’s very approachable for beginners but also easy to incorporate as a part of your daily routine among other exercises. It’s by far the best thing I’ve done for my back pain.
I managed to get my 20 minute treadmill run on
Then I promptly downed a 1100 calorie sub and got like 300 calories of drunk
Whatever
I’ve had these days for sure! Don’t beat yourself up. You ate because you needed the food - either physically or mentally. You just had a learning experience, is all.
Broke my foot last year, gained some weight. But I'm back on the grind to lose it again this year and reach my goal. Been walking a lot, and going to a local gym. Counting calories isn't for me though, tried it, it was nothing but a bother in my estimation.
Oof glad youre on the up and up now. Calorie counting is definitely tough and estimating is really difficult so a scale is a must, atleast until you get your eye calibrated to what is "the right amount". I will say that cutting snacks and sticking to whole foods will bring you quite far along the weight loss journey without having to calorie count. Good luck!
Yo, i am back on the grind. Sort of, ive had to house sit this week so ive been far from my gym. First proper week of dieting again after a month long vacation/holidays. Ive set my goal to not drink until atleast April and so far its working out. Knowing that i have a climbing goal to reach makes it a little easier.
My climbing feels a bit janky right now, im guessing because of the calorie deficit. But my gym has also been setting really difficult problems, so progress is feeling stalled. I signed up for a climbing routine, hoping that challenges me but of course its as difficult as i let it in the end.
Ab report: i can feel my abs very easily underneath a bunch of belly. This is problematic and a main driver for why ive put the pause on drinking. Im hoping approx 10lbs drop should do it now that ive spent so long actually strengthening the area. Also, i can tell my core is much stronger during some climbs. I can make some pretty crazy static movements through sheer determination now. Yay
I decided to start doing freestyle wrestling last week. Only once a week, because my schedule is pretty full, but it’s quite a bit more hectic than any other sport I’ve done so far. Some of the guys there are actively competing at the college level, while I’m approaching 50 — I’m unsure whether I’m going to be able to adapt and keep up or if this is just a terrible plan and a fast track to injury.
I started going to the normal gym a few months ago (as opposed to yoga or the more circus oriented spaces I usually hang out in) and have been iterating on a routine with the help of ye' old LLM. So far I've been pretty happy with the results! I ended up vibe coding a little web app to track and give a quick reference of exercises and it's certainly helped me stay consistent. I used ffmpeg/yt-dlp to rip/convert each workout I wanted to do into a short gif and embedded different views of the movement as I've learned each move. Repo if anyone's curious.
This January was my lowest in terms of exercising in a long time, the permanent ice did not motivate me to practice calisthenics outside, and I don't do much or enjoy it as much when I train inside.
I did bike to work as usual but again very slowly due to ice, I have to mentalize myself better and realize that one I'm outside the ice or snow is never an issue.
My focus this year should go to increase my front-leaver time and practice some planche progressions.
I had to stop weightlifting for a couple of months and it suuuuuucks to get back in. I took a break because at one point I was doing hanging knee raises and felt a searing pain in my lower left ab. I stopped for a few days and thought it would be fine because I didn't otherwise feel any pain. Unfortunately the same thing happened when I tried again - had to nope out after just one raise. I was worried I'd given myself a hernia or something.
I decided to take a longer break over the holiday season and give my body time to rest. After new year's I dragged my sorry self back. Had to drastically reduce the weights and it almost feels like going back to square 1. I am slowly working my way back up, but being 40, and having both stiff and hyper mobile joints, well it's hell.
For knee raises, instead of hanging I lowered the level way down to captain's chair knee raises. I was very nervous, but good news there was no pain! I was also surprised how much easier it felt than when I started. I remember months ago doing the same exercise I was trembling like crazy. I guess even if you take a long break the progress made is still in there somewhere. Worked my way back up to captain's chair leg raise, and today attempted to do hanging knee raises. It's going well so far, so I'm happy about that! Slow and steady wins the race and all that, just gotta be patient.
I've also started incorporating yoga during recovery days for mobility. I haaaaaate yoga, and pretty much anything involving stretching. I'm about as flexible as a corpse in rigor mortis. I'm also like 90% legs, so forget about touching my toes. So much of yoga involves stretching your hamstrings (goddamn downward facing dog, I hate you so much). I'm hoping it gets easier with time, but christ do I hate it.