Exercise & Fitness: it’s a marathon, not a sprint

[Iskaral Pust]

Good exercise for me over the weekend.  I’ve been increasing weight load steadily these past four weeks after I returned to weightlifting, and now getting close to prior highs before my long break.  Pull-ups still incur some strain on my right shoulder so I’m still combining sets of pronated wide grip with some sets of neutral grip.

Still struggling to get any midweek sessions when I’m working full time, and not disciplined with my sleep pattern.

I had cut out desserts (late night sugar snacks) for a few weeks but have returned to those as I’m more fatigued from lack of sleep.

[BigFatCoward]

Back on my bike (after chest infection for 2 months), and back in the gym at work (this is more because due to lack of sleep i really struggle in the afternoon, by going to the gym then having a shower i'm more productive in the afternoon). 

I'm so so so f'ing weak and out of shape. 

 

[3CityApache]

As running is still not a best friend to my knees and stationary bike bores me to death, I added rowing to swimming, which I'm not able to do more frequently than once a week. It's also quite boring, I won't lie, but so far I find it bearable with a music on. Hopefully will start to see changes to my miserable cardio form.

[baxus]

4 hours ago, 3CityApache said:

As running is still not a best friend to my knees and stationary bike bores me to death, I added rowing to swimming, which I'm not able to do more frequently than once a week. It's also quite boring, I won't lie, but so far I find it bearable with a music on. Hopefully will start to see changes to my miserable cardio form.

Rowing on a machine is just as boring as stationary bike, with a bonus of not being able to look anywhere other than the screen if you want to maintain proper head position. You can make it a bit less boring by going with a rowing workout plan other than "I'm going to row for X minutes every time I do it" but it's still a soul-crushing slog.

Water sessions are a whole different story, though.

[BigFatCoward]

Yeah, I could happily cycle for an hour/90 mins reading my kindle, 20 mins is my absolute maximum on the rowing machine. 

[3CityApache]

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

Yeah, I could happily cycle for an hour/90 mins reading my kindle, 20 mins is my absolute maximum on the rowing machine. 

I do 30-40 mins and it's a torture to do as much on a bike, though I admit I never tried reading on it. Maybe it's because I just bought a rowing machine, so it's a novelty, so far I've only been occasionally rowing at the gyms.

On the other hand, rowing is supposedly more complex at least, meaning more muscles are activated, ergo - it should do the trick of improving my cardio shape faster. @baxus Can you at least confirm this much? I'd be devastated otherwise.

Edited January 12, 2023 by 3CityApache

[baxus]

16 hours ago, 3CityApache said:

On the other hand, rowing is supposedly more complex at least, meaning more muscles are activated, ergo - it should do the trick of improving my cardio shape faster. @baxus Can you at least confirm this much? I'd be devastated otherwise.

I would prefer the rowing machine to the stationary bike, but would prefer real, outdoor versions of both to each of the indoor alternatives.

Not sure erg would improve your cardio faster than the bike but you would get a full body workout on the erg while you wouldn't on the bike, so there's that at least.

Btw, if you're doing 30-40 minutes on the erg I'd say your cardio is pretty good already. Try to vary your workouts for better results (intervals, tempo and distance, just like for running). I'm sure you could find some workout plans online.

[kiko]

So I finally bought a nice ergometer. With Bluetooth!

Currently I'm using Kinomap on my iPhone. While it is nice, I'm not prepared to pay a subscription fee that is similar to a gym membership. I'm not going to use most of the fancy functions anyway. Just the training programmes and it would be nice if it keeps some statistics and tells me how awesome my improvements are. What would be good alternatives?

[baxus]

I've been training with a personal coach for a couple of months now in order to strengthen my shoulders a bit before going back to group training. It's been going pretty well, though my sessions are in the evening and I'm a morning person when it comes to training. I just love starting the day with a workout and having it done before coming to work. It clears my mind and makes me feel much better, not to mention giving me free time to do whatever after work.

In a couple of weeks my family is going to the mountains, it's time for my daughter (4 years old) to try skiing and/or snowboarding. We'll be going to a local ski spot, the one I've ridden a lot so I won't have that "I must see the whole place and go down every slope" buzz I usually have and will be able to spend time in the snow with my daughter without feeling like I'm missing something. Unfortunately, my wife won't be skiing this time, so I'll have to ride by myself (unless I run into someone on the slopes, which is not impossible).

[Iskaral Pust]

For the past two weeks I’ve shifted my pull-ups back to 6x8 with pronated wide grip instead of doing half with a neutral grip.  I still have some soreness in my right shoulder as I do them but it seems to be tolerable.  I’ll see how it responds to this renewal of stress.

Otherwise exercise is going well and I’ve been gradually increasing weights each session.  I’m pretty much back to my prior highest point if I can just do another set at the heaviest weight before dropping back.

I do need to improve my sleep discipline and cut out the late evening sugar snack.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Ha! I was able to do jumping jacks today, almost three months removed from breaking my foot! Still a long ways off from being back to 100%, but the last month has progressed pretty well after a period in which there was no improvement at all.

[Oneily]

On 1/12/2023 at 11:41 PM, 3CityApache said:

I do 30-40 mins and it's a torture to do as much on a bike, though I admit I never tried reading on it. Maybe it's because I just bought a rowing machine, so it's a novelty, so far I've only been occasionally rowing at the gyms.

On the other hand, rowing is supposedly more complex at least, meaning more muscles are activated, ergo - it should do the trick of improving my cardio shape faster. @baxus Can you at least confirm this much? I'd be devastated otherwise.

I know lotsa people are conditioning themselves to do something they hate(cardio) with something they like(reading, watching a movie or listening to podcast). Whenever I tried it I've just lost enjoyment on reading on top instead of cardio becoming better  Not like it lasted for long since I've switched from treadmill to jogging(game changer was getting a decent pair of running shoes, ended up going with Saucony Endorphine from nearby running store)
If you can handle 40 minutes on a bike I feel like you're pretty good on cardio! Try rowing anyway, see if you like it(Few judo folks do only rowing in my gym, told me works better for judo movements so it's hitting 2 birds with 1 stone basically).

Edited March 1, 2023 by Oneily

[3CityApache]

@Oneily I actually meant I do rowing for 30-40 minutes and I'd say so far, so good (roughly 3-4 times a week). As for cycling, I'm happy to do 30-50 km on a real bike when the weather allows (which can easily take 2-3 hours), but at the same time 40 minutes on a stationary bike is a torture. That's why I switched to rowing in a first place.

Edited January 25, 2023 by 3CityApache

[ithanos]

I started Brazilian Jujitsu earlier this month. I've never before done any form of martial arts in my life, but was drawn to the skills of grappling as an application of full body movement - so I'll try Jujitsu for a few months to see if I enjoy it and in turn find value, physically and mentally, from it.       

After 5 lessons I can identify my strengths and weaknesses, and where to apply focus and attention for future practice. My signature move is the tap out - I can tap with either hand, and when that's not possible I plan to incorporate a foot tap into my repertoire that doesn't look like a leg spasm. It's very humbling but I'm cool with that.  

I still go to crossfit classes, but these days I only give full effort when practicing the strength movements. If choose to do the conditioning work, that always follows a strength element, I scale back the intensity so I'm not burnt out. To avoid over-training I plan to reduce crossfit to 3 sessions a week, allowing 3 sessions for Jujitsu. So far, I'm enjoying both.

[ithanos]

Its February already, damn. Early lessons after seven classes of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. One, keep your fingernails very trim. I was just discussing this matter with another practitioner and noting, though my fingernails were trim, that my thumbnails were a bit too long. Ten minutes later, after trying an escape, I accidentally gouge my chin with my thumbnail. Took some skin out and there was claret flowing. Got bandaged up to continue but couldn't avoid getting some blood onto my brand new pristine white Gi. I should have an interesting scar right in the centre of my chin in a few days time. Two, I never realised one could develop bruises on top of bruises.  

 

[baxus]

Just got back from a family vacation in the mountains. We went to a local ski resort, the whole point was to get my daughter into skiing and it worked. It was so much fun.

This winter was the first time I took two snowboarding trips after skipping three years because of covid and some other stuff. The first one was a week in Italy with my friends for ski opening, and I was so rusty and out of shape it wasn't as much fun as I hoped. After that one, I was stunned how much I improved in two months between my trips. I could ride much better, do longer runs, do more consecutive runs etc. Weather was spectacular, clear skies, lots of sun, the only thing that kept it short of perfect was it was a bit cold and windy. Loved it, loved it, loved it!

I've already started making plans to make two snowboarding trips per season a regular thing.

[Iskaral Pust]

5 hours ago, baxus said:

Just got back from a family vacation in the mountains. We went to a local ski resort, the whole point was to get my daughter into skiing and it worked. It was so much fun.

This winter was the first time I took two snowboarding trips after skipping three years because of covid and some other stuff. The first one was a week in Italy with my friends for ski opening, and I was so rusty and out of shape it wasn't as much fun as I hoped. After that one, I was stunned how much I improved in two months between my trips. I could ride much better, do longer runs, do more consecutive runs etc. Weather was spectacular, clear skies, lots of sun, the only thing that kept it short of perfect was it was a bit cold and windy. Loved it, loved it, loved it!

I've already started making plans to make two snowboarding trips per season a regular thing.

I miss snowboarding.  When we lived in Seattle we drove to local mountains at the weekends for ~10 days on the slips each season.  Whistler (Vancouver, BC) was the furthest but there were several within 2 hours of us.

But since leaving Seattle, we did just a few Saturdays on crappy ice-snow on a Wisconsin hill so that our son could take ski lessons.  It wasn’t worth it.  He didn’t learn enough and wasn’t particularly interested to keep going regularly.

Ski conditions in the Midwest and Northeast are so bad compared to the West.  I’m only interested in snowboarding on good snow but it hasn’t been worth a family trip out west to do so — slopes are crazy crowded during the limited window of school breaks during the season.

[baxus]

I've snowboarded the most in this local ski resort called Kopaonik. It's great to learn skiing/snowboarding and I love it because that's where I learned to snowboard, but it's by no means among the top European resorts. Being in Europe, I've went to France, Austria and Italy on snowboarding trips and mountains are great, ski lifts are not crowded (though maybe I was just lucky on that one), but A LOT depends on the weather. Based on my experience, March is not worth the trip, but if you don't mind the cold January is a great time for it.

My daughter took 5 classes - 2 in a sort of skiing kindergarten environment, 2 on a very mild slope that's used almost exclusively for learning and on her last class (on this trip, of course) her instructor took her to the "regular" slope, the most popular in the resort, and she went down it on her own and did it twice! I'm so proud of her and I love that she enjoyed it and had fun. She's already asking when are we going again.

[BigFatCoward]

22 hours ago, baxus said:

Just got back from a family vacation in the mountains. We went to a local ski resort, the whole point was to get my daughter into skiing and it worked. It was so much fun.

This winter was the first time I took two snowboarding trips after skipping three years because of covid and some other stuff. The first one was a week in Italy with my friends for ski opening, and I was so rusty and out of shape it wasn't as much fun as I hoped. After that one, I was stunned how much I improved in two months between my trips. I could ride much better, do longer runs, do more consecutive runs etc. Weather was spectacular, clear skies, lots of sun, the only thing that kept it short of perfect was it was a bit cold and windy. Loved it, loved it, loved it!

I've already started making plans to make two snowboarding trips per season a regular thing.

I used to go for a week at least every year, sometimes 2 weeks, one amazing year I had 3 weeks out of 7 - one in the 3 valleys, one Serre chevalier (best conditions every, had a metre of snow one night, 2 other nights had about 30 cm, but glorious sunshine every day and no wind) and one week in St Anton.  But then I had kids and responsibilities and that all stopped, Its not a cheap hobby. 

I would love to go again with my family but my wife is definitely not the sort that would want to go skiing so i think that's me done. 

Must be a great feeling to get your kids to do something you like to do that is fun for the whole family, i'm still trying to establish those activities with my daughter. 

 

[baxus]

6 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

But then I had kids and responsibilities and that all stopped, Its not a cheap hobby.

Yeah, it can get rather expensive but I find it's not that much more expensive than going to the seaside or visiting another city (or cities). I guess the offers you get in UK are a bit more expensive, but here in Serbia you can get a trip to France (Val Thoren, Les 2Alpes, Serre Chevalier, Tignes, Mongenevre etc.) with transportation (bus, unfortunately), rooms/apartments and lift tickets for around 400€ per person (Tignes is usually a bit more expensive but it's around 450€).

Also, this season I went to Livigno, Italy. My friends and I booked an apartment online (came to 270-280€ per person for a week) and lift tickets were free because it was the opening week of the season (that offer is in place for first 2 weeks of each season).

12 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I would love to go again with my family but my wife is definitely not the sort that would want to go skiing so i think that's me done. 

Maybe try a hotel that has some spa or something that your wife would like. Of course, that would usually be a bit more expensive than what I mention above but might be worth it.

My wife used to ski but hasn't for some 6-7 years. She's skipped it this season but is keen on getting back into it next season.

13 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Must be a great feeling to get your kids to do something you like to do that is fun for the whole family, i'm still trying to establish those activities with my daughter. 

I am yet to actually go down the slopes with my daughter. She's only 4 and we didn't want to rush her into anything so we kept her time on the slopes to an hour of her skiing lesson and went sledding or rolling around in the snow for fun. Also, with her skiing and me snowboarding, I'd like to have her a bit more comfortable on the skis before we go there. I look at it as an investment in future fun times.