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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?
New deadlift PR today, 170 kg (375 lbs) at a bodyweight of 80.8 kg (178 lbs). Pretty pleased with this. I can hear the four plates calling my name.
I just got done with a physical therapy appointment. The good news is that I don’t have anything wrong with me but some of my shoulder muscles and stabilizers around there are very weak. These are probably a big reason why I injured my shoulder in the past. You know, alongside the terrible form I had to deal with.
So of course now I have daily exercises to help fix them, and of course they have to be the most awkward ones possible. 😑
I made it to the pullup bar!!! Twice out of maybe 10 jumps! At least one jump was really shaky as I predicted last week, where I got a decent grip with one hand but not with the other. I do not joke when I say "and everybody clapped" because it's a small gym and everyone present had seen me doing my running jumps for the bar a few times over the last month. It was nice.
I'm also happy to report that I can very easily see the improvements in my strength! Sumo squats used to kill me even without the kettlebell weight, but yesterday I could get through the reps without failing towards the end. Yesterday's workout:
I once again made the mistake of going straight from strength training to muay thai (excuse: lots of emotional things to deal with, I needed to tire myself out enough to shower, dinner, and KO asap). I thought the 10-15 minutes or so break inbetween was enough. I will say, it was good... up until I had to hold up the pads for a partner. Though in retrospect... strength training was very lower body focused today and my arms were just straight up giving out holding up the pads, so... yeah. My upper body and cardio need work...
I was inspired to show up to muay thai on Friday after my Wednesday experience (too tired by the end to hold up pads). And then Saturday. I write this as I sip on my unhealthy Starbucks drink after said Saturday session (I can't resist a free birthday drink, come on).
I do feel extremely blessed to have started this, even if I'm going to be physically struggling for a long time until my body is more conditioned. So the Friday and Saturday sessions are actually more sparring focused and I talked to the owner on Friday about whether I could just come in and hit the bags in the back. He said it was perfectly fine for me to participate (or just hit the bags if I really wanted to), and that the sparring is something I'd need to start eventually. Note that I'm really really new (he knows this)! And I still feel awkward about being a spindly 4'10" woman when most of the folks that show up are much taller and thickly built men who have been training here for longer. But after both sessions I realize that everyone who's been here a while genuinely do subscribe to the philosophy that these sparring sessions are not actual fights to be won. Yeah, some of the dudes who mutually agree to going a bit harder can do that, but there's a lot more control and finesse involved than putting real force into the blows. And of course all my partners were chill with meeting me at my level (and draining stamina...). Fortunately I do not harbor any ill will to the men who were very much holding back on speed and power because I am under no delusion that I can take those hits right now!
Anyways, I am typing this out before I head back out to work a bit on my cardio. I dislike running but I really want to show up half a year from now without being gassed after 30 minutes.
I've also been doing Muay Thai recently. And I have been running for a few years.
Funny story: yesterday I was sparring with a woman who was probably similar in height to you. (I am an average height male 5 ft 8 or so?)
And this woman I sparred with was shocking me with her skills. Like I didn't even notice her kicking and I got hit, and whenever I did a hit, she was incredibly fast in blocking and hitting me back.
What really helped me enjoy running was listening to audiobooks. Specifically Born to Run was what I started with. And I got so hooked. I was genuinely wondering if I'll ever break a 30 min 5k when I started running. A year later I ran a 5k in 22:03
Audiobooks are a conundrum for me. Recently I've had difficulty enjoying music and have preferred listening to video essays or talks in a similar educational-ish, entertainment space. I don't absorb most of it, and most of the time if I'm listening to such a video while out and about, it's purely for noise. I've only attempted to listen to an audiobook once (Jennette McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died) and just couldn't get into it. I'm afraid to give audiobooks the same treatment as my background noise videos, where I'll inevitably zone out and miss something...
...that being said, a book about running sounds interesting (in that I would not typically read something like it myself) so I think I'll give it a try... Even after a few months of trying None To Run's recommended regimen, while I knew I absolutely was improving, every little running period just felt like such a struggle where I have nothing occupying my head other than that struggle. It feels easy to try and get my gloves back up when I'm gassed during muay thai but with running it's just, ughhhh I don't wanna get back into that again...
I'm really looking forward to feeling more in control of how I handle the sparring in muay thai! Particularly when it was super light and slow sparring with much taller dudes - I was just slowly trial-and-erroring how to close distance and get a shot in when my reach is, well, rather pitiful and it's just a nice little sidestep to avoid my flailing. As someone who just never participated in sports outside of compulsory school activities... this is actually the first time I got to do something like this for a physical activity and it's really fun!