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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've been trying to get a bit more fit lately, and I'm proud of my progress. I haven't run in close to 20 years (other than to chase the occasional nephew), and even when I did I was not fast and hated doing it. For years I've been doing walks as my only form of real exercise, including a few 5ks.
I recently started the habit of walking about a mile and a half almost every morning before getting ready for the day, which has been nice. Then I got a Fitbit, and started paying attention to my heart rate as I walk. That got me to try a bit of jogging to get that heart rate up, trying to get more cardio minutes. Maybe a minute or so at most.
Now for the past few weeks I've been actively trying to improve my ability to jog for longer periods. I'm jogging very slow, barely faster than my walking pace, but it definitely gets my heart pounding so I figure I'm doing it right. But I've improved from alternating 1 minute jogging then 2 minutes of walking to 2 minutes of jogging then 1 minute of walking. I've also been attempting longer, single jogging sessions during a walk, and the first time I could only do 3 minutes or so. But the last time I tried I got to about 7 and a half.
I'm not sure how I should feel about the fact that extremely slow jogging can get my heart rate up so easily, but I'm very happy that I've been improving and even (gasp!) wanting to jog. That's never been a thing for me I don't think. I'm excited.
That's awesome! It's so nice when you find motivation in unexpected places
So true. I didn't mention this in my main comment, but there's a secret layer below all of the above that provided part of the motivation to go on all of those walks in the first place: Pikmin Bloom. It's like Pokemon Go, but focused on planting flowers and destroying mushrooms. But most importantly, number go up is in full effect. There have been so many mornings where I would rather stay in bed, but if I don't get my walkies then number won't go up! I always say "If it looks stupid but works then it's not stupid."
Oh man, I just your read that comment in the Pikmin thread and it makes me want to try it out! Dude, whatever gets you out there! Stoked you have a great double bennie for getting out of bed!
I think it sounds like you are doing really good! And you are doing it the right way. When I haven’t run for a while and start again I go way too hard and then get injured. Better to do it gradually like you are.
Thanks for the encouraging words!
I had a two level disc replacement to decompress nerves due to stenosis. 3 months of recovery before I can do proper gym stuff! Anyone been through this before? It has been less than 24 hours, but I feel pretty good aside from the obvious soreness.
I’ve gone from basically never going to the gym (because I prefer biking or running outside) to going three times a week for over a month now. Not sure what switch flipped inside my head but I’m enjoying actually doing weights and I already feel like I’m noticing a difference!
It’s a Planet Fitness so the clientele is pretty poorly behaved (obnoxious teens, people who don’t clean the machines, people recording their workouts etc), but it’s cheap and they’ve got a ton of equipment.
I pay about 70 bucks a month and I can tell you most people don’t wipe the equipment.
Yeesh. I confronted someone about it recently because they were moving through machines super quickly and not wiping any of them.
Me: “Hey would you mind wiping your machines when you’re done with them?”
Them: “Which one?”
Me: “Um any of them, I’ve watched you cycle through multiple without cleaning any of them”
Them: “Oh no worries, I don’t sweat”
Me: “… okay well that’s nice but it’s common courtesy”
Then I just walked away because I didn’t know what else to say. I’ve decided to give up on this particular battle, it’s just too common unfortunately.
Also the rampant cell phone sitters between sets is absurd. People do a set and then scroll TikTok for 10 minutes. I’ve (politely) confronted a LOT of people about that. Most are courteous but seemingly have no shame and continue doing it after. One teen got pretty pissy with me about it.
Common sense ain’t so common and I guess common courtesy even less so! I complained to PF staff but they don’t give a shit, I’m guessing vibes-wise they’re paid too poorly to care about minor things like that.