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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?
For about 3 months now, my work-outs have been solely yoga and whatever weight/endurance work I get from gardening/environmental restoration. I used to push myself so much in running and my body/joints would hurt. Although my body isn't in it's tip-top shape, I'm liking the idea of working out in a healthy way. I really enjoy yoga because I can get stronger *and flexible. I've tried other work-outs and many times it causes my body to stiffen up. Yoga seems to be doing my body a great service. However, I would like to include other forms of work out in my week as I feel it can get me to the next level in yoga/executing some tough positions.
I'm only loosely tracking my fitness accomplishments but I think I'm going to have to start writing things down more consistently. My main two goals right now are to reduce the incline of my incline push-ups and to be able to hold a regular plank for a full minute and I've stalled out on them the last few weeks. Last workout I upped my weight on dumbbell rows and frog pumps... but I didn't make a goal out of those, so I still feel frustrated about the push-ups!
Starting this month I'm doing some nutrition stuff now that my gym routine is pretty settled (been going 3x week since mid-January, have only missed two days due to sickness and injury). I can feel a difference in my muscles, hopefully losing some fat will help me also see it.
I'm a little worried about my right knee. It's fine day-to-day, but lately when I work out it hurts for the first fifteen minutes or so. I was hoping to prevent knee issues with more regular activity, sigh.
I'm anticipating that I'll switch from épée to sabre for my next competitive season (fencing), which will presumably be happening this coming fall/winter. (I believe a few national competitions are happening right now, but I've abstained for obvious reasons.) As of today I've recently begun some of technical training associated with that—probably 60% of the conceptual material transfers over, but there are a lot of major differences in terms of the blade itself, the rules of the weapon, and the techniques that realistically tend to dominate in bouts that are going to require a lot of effort to figure out.
But more than anything else, it's going to draw out a different part of my personality! My preferred tactic in épée is extremely methodical and reactive; individual motions are quick, to be sure, but the nature of the weapon lends itself to lengthy and complex pre-planned actions. I like to take advantage of my height to avoid risky attacks, relying primarily on a lot of feints—frequently scoring with wrist flicks and stop-hits to the shallow target, and only occasionally with actual lunges and flèches (I know I ought to diversify more, but it's what comes naturally). In sabre I think I will be forced out of many of those habits by virtue of the weapon's more rapid tempo. In certain ways, sabre is perhaps even more technical than épée, but few touches are going to take more than 15 seconds. I'm going to have to work on my explosivity a lot.
Outside of the sport itself, I've gotten access to a gym again and have started doing serious strength training for the first time since last March. I did various body weight exercises over the summer, and some light weight training in the fall, but now have the opportunity to truly regain most of my lost muscle mass (and more). My deadlift is my pride and joy; my bench press could use some work. I've been doing a lot of RDLs, squats—mostly front squats and split squats—and some horizontal or vertical presses, as well as various core conditioning exercises. I've already improved my vertical jump substantially and to a lesser extent my acceleration. Pull-ups are probably next on the list.
Casually working on my endurance. A friend recently asked me to train for a triathlon with her, which we would presumably be competing in over the summer. I never swim, rarely bike, and don't often run more than about six miles at once—usually closer to two and a half—so I would have some work to do there. My cardio is actually quite good when I push myself; I think that I would just have to practice this particular configuration. She also seems to want us to do an Olympic triathlon, not a sprint triathlon. I'm in good enough shape that I could probably get away with that (with some effort), but it would be a commitment.
I don't know much about competitive fencing, but since you mentioned the sabre, I figured you might get a kick out of one of the YouTube channels I regularly watch; Matt Easton's Schola Gladiatoria channel. He is a sabre collector, antique arms dealer, historical arms/armour researcher, HEMA instructor, and his channel is quite informative and entertaining, IMO.
Ah, interesting. I know nothing at all about HEMA or the weapons they use—I'll have to check it out. Thank you for the recommendation!
I'm working out twice a week at the apartment gym. Silver lining to COVID is that it by appointment only so I always have to gym by myself. Workouts have been pretty simple:
45-50 minutes go by pretty quickly and I burn a little over 400 calories. I am trying to incorporate yoga on my off days for at least 30 minutes twice a week. My yoga exercise routine is coming off DVDs so I'm getting sick of them pretty quick. Maybe I will re-incorporate fitness VR exercises into my life again as things like Beat Saber can keep my heart rate up for a good 30-60 minutes easily.
Other than that, I am tracking calories. I quit for about 5-6 months so I put back 10 lbs in that time period. Hoping that I get a good exercise routine back that can help me get down to my target weight and then go into maintenance. I long to eat waffles for dessert again.