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

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

4 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

Anyone have ideas for exercises to do with long covid/chronic fatigue?? I’m terrified of getting worse but I’m so frustrated because I had started getting really fit again prior to getting ill & I actually have the motivation for once (just not the strength lol) 

We're in the same boat. I do a lot of yoga and meditation, but I pass out constantly. Long walks with friends and family helps.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Theda Baratheon]

23 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

We're in the same boat. I do a lot of yoga and meditation, but I pass out constantly. Long walks with friends and family helps.

Sorry you’re dealing with it too, mate. Luckily I kept the long walks up because I have a very active young dog so even when I was pretty bad I was making myself do daily long walks in a flat area. I never did yoga but think I could incorporate that from my living room. I desperately want to get back to my gym routine that I had maintained for months but I’m genuinely terrified of this post viral fatigue turning to chronic fatigue and don’t want to push my luck. I’m not very good at listening to my body. I often go a bit too hard and burn out/injure myself when I’m first getting back into fitness after illness (recently realised I’ve been having these illness and wellness cycles for the last few years so probs need to investigate that one day) 

 

thanks all - appreciate your advice  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

21 minutes ago, Theda Baratheon said:

Sorry you’re dealing with it too, mate. Luckily I kept the long walks up because I have a very active young dog so even when I was pretty bad I was making myself do daily long walks in a flat area. I never did yoga but think I could incorporate that from my living room. I desperately want to get back to my gym routine that I had maintained for months but I’m genuinely terrified of this post viral fatigue turning to chronic fatigue and don’t want to push my luck. I’m not very good at listening to my body. I often go a bit too hard and burn out/injure myself when I’m first getting back into fitness after illness (recently realised I’ve been having these illness and wellness cycles for the last few years so probs need to investigate that one day) 

 

thanks all - appreciate your advice  

It's perfect if you're worried about going back to the gym. Try some videos from this channel, they're pretty easy and a good intro:

https://www.youtube.com/@yogawithadriene

[baxus]

Yoga with Adriene is a great shout for yoga you can do at home. Last time I checked she had a "30 days for beginners" playlist (or whatever it's called on Youtube) that you could follow to get into it.

I should include some yoga in my training. There's absolutely no reason why I wouldn't do 15-30 minute of yoga on rest days, other than me being a lazy fart.

[3CityApache]

Same here, I've been planning on adding some yoga to my trainings for months and somehow I still can't get myself to actually do it. Perhaps it's this moment after all.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, baxus said:

Yoga with Adriene is a great shout for yoga you can do at home. Last time I checked she had a "30 days for beginners" playlist (or whatever it's called on Youtube) that you could follow to get into it.

I should include some yoga in my training. There's absolutely no reason why I wouldn't do 15-30 minute of yoga on rest days, other than me being a lazy fart.

I did the 30 days for beginners a while back. It was solid. YouTube has a ton of great yoga, pilates and meditation videos in general but her channel is the best I've found so far. It's great to mix in with cardio and weight training.

Another thing to look up there is longer stretching videos. It's amazing how good you feel afterwards.

Fuck I'm getting old.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I cannot believe how weak I've gotten since first breaking my foot then getting sick. I saw a handful of people playing corn hole in the street so I knocked on my neighbor's door and asked if he wanted to join me. We ended up playing for around an hour. Walking home it hit me just how much my hamstrings were on fire. I've got a lot more work to do than I thought, but at least it was a fun night. 

[BigFatCoward]

I don't know what cornhole is, but it sounds highly suspicious if it ruins your thighs. 

Bike is back from the shop finally so i can get some mules in my legs. And my workload goes right down in summer holidays so i can clear my diary for an hour in the gym everyday. 

But the main thing is I've committed to only drinking Friday and Saturday and a little bit on Sunday(only 2 weeks in but so far so good). Aim is to lose 10lb by start of September. A reasonable goal.

Edited July 10, 2023 by BigFatCoward

[Ran]

4 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

I don't know what cornhole is, but it sounds highly suspicious

Renaming "Parlor Quoits" after sexual slang always seemed kind of vulgar to me.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

I don't know what cornhole is, but it sounds highly suspicious if it ruins your thighs. 

It shouldn't. Just a combination of working out earlier and playing for a long time. 

5 hours ago, Ran said:

Renaming "Parlor Quoits" after sexual slang always seemed kind of vulgar to me.

Yeah, it's odd, but everyone here calls it that now. 

[baxus]

I was at the seaside for 10 days and rested like a pro. My only activity was some stand up paddle boarding and "swimming" with my five year old who quite loved the sea (it was her first time). It felt great, and I felt great. Bad side of it is that the scales showed a 4kg increase after the vacation. Because of that I decided to start training a bit more and sorting out my diet a bit.

Did crossfit yesterday and was battered as if I've never done it before. It wasn't even that difficult of a workout, just that I was enjoying being lazy for almost 3 weeks. Today I went to the swimming pool for the first time in ages. The main plan was to recover a bit from yesterday and see if I can reach 1km, alternating freestyle and breaststroke lengths. I ended up doing 1,3km in a bit under 40 minutes. I'm aware that's laughable for someone swimming regularly but for me it's a great start.

[3CityApache]

Running when on vacation in Sicily was a challenge due to heat and hilly terrain, but I managed three times by getting up really early, at 5.45. Gorgeous views during sunrise were a bonus.

@baxus 1,3 k in less than 40 minutes is pretty much what I do swimming semi-regularly and much better than when I was starting. Now, after few months of swimming at least once a week, I usually do 2 k in just under an hour.

[baxus]

2 minutes ago, 3CityApache said:

@baxus 1,3 k in less than 40 minutes is pretty much what I do swimming semi-regularly and much better than when I was starting. Now, after few months of swimming at least once a week, I usually do 2 k in just under an hour.

I spent one winter swimming, literally training three times a week with a group and a coach, working my legs and my arms separately, swimming different strokes etc. Once we had a session of just swimming freestyle for an hour and I did around 2,5km, though in that swimming pool we'd swim across the pool (22m width instead of 50m length) which made it quite easier. In this pool I went to today we swim 50m lengths and I remember swimming 1600-1800m range in 45 minutes or so in it, but that was years ago.

For today, 40 minutes was about the limit of my endurance. I'll have to work to increase that.

[Arakasi]

I’ve gained about 15 pounds in the last year due to stress and diet and such. Need to lose it. My cardio capacity I think is better having started peleton this last six weeks but really need to lose that 15 pounds plus ten more.

[BigFatCoward]

off to podiatrist this afternoon to get specialised inserts for my shoes to deal with my nerve damage and arthritis in my big toe.  Don't think i'll ever be able to run again, but should hopefully give me enough improvement to allow some other exercise that i currently can't do.   Thankfully the solid soles in cycling shoes make cycling pain free. 

[Starkess]

Decided to run a race for the first time since my marathon! Just a little local 10k in October, but it feels good to be training again. Though also crazy, definitely running into the barrier of simply not having enough hours in the day. But I already run longer than 10k (very slowly) for my weekend runs, so even if I can't totally stick to the plan, I should be able to finish and have a fun time at the race. Speaking of which, better go get these miles in before bed...

[baxus]

I was thinking of preparing for and running fall half-marathon in Belgrade, which takes place in November or something like that. While I'm quite confident I could manage that (unpleasant as that would be), on the second thought I decided against it since running outside in the cold part of the year on Belgrade is not a good idea because of all the air pollution which gets to alarming levels and stays there for alarming periods of time.

[Toth]

Damn it, me. I spent the summer break exercising as much as I never did before. Even was able to increase the weight on my dumb bells for the first time in 15 years. I guess haven't been this fit in a long time. Still... sports still trigger my PTSD really, really badly. Today was a "health day" for the teachers at my school just before the new semester starts, where we were supposed to... well, do sports together, getting acquainted with our quite well equipped gym. It started out with me looking like a fool since even though I brought sports clothes, I didn't think to bring a towel or clean sport shoes (which I don't own anyway), so I couldn't even use most of the stuff to begin with. Then I got a headache from the atmosphere in there during the tour and from there on my mood just worsened and worsened and I ended up just sitting in a corner waiting for this whole thing to just end without touching anything while my brain was under constant attack by flashbacks to my own school time and what sport meant there to me. Getting non-stop berated by my father for being a disappointment, bullied relentlessly in the changing room, laughed at and physically attacked during the lessons themselves... I just couldn't stop my brain going "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this" again and again and probably must have looked to my colleagues like a miserable loser as I until now carefully made sure they never saw me being absorbed in negativity like this.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Just stepped on the scale and I've dropped 8 pounds in the last month or so. Still need to lose another 20  to get back to where I'm happy, but given all my health issues over the last year and a half that's pretty good since I'm mainly just doing yoga and the row machine with weights twice a week. 

Edited February 4 by Mr. Chatywin et al.

[Iskaral Pust]

Well done, Tywin.  I’ve also dropped some weight, about 10lbs over three months by cutting out the sugary treats late at night.  I’d like to drop another ten to be back at my pre-COVID leanness.

I’ve also returned to more consistent weightlifting after switching to swimming for the summer and then disrupted by COVID and lots of fall gardening projects as I tried to switch back.

I’m only doing two sessions weekly at weekends (instead of ideally 3-4 throughout the week) because work keeps me so busy Mon-Fri, but at least those sessions are going well and I’m progressing back toward the pre-break levels.  Pull-ups feel much easier now at a lighter weight but I’m making slower progress on my big lifts like bench press, mainly because I’m doing each type of big lift only every other week atm.  No need to rush it, it’s not a competition.

I also make a point to take long walks outdoors whenever possible to get sunlight and fresh air.  When I lived in Chicago, I walked to and from the office each day.  Now in the suburbs, I need to consciously go for a leisure walk if I’m not doing a gardening project.