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

[Starkess]

Haha yeah, my parents live 3 hours from the nearest major airport! That's nothing for me.

[BigFatCoward]

Got another one of those 'nothing happened but i woke up in major discomfort' injuries that seem more and more common in mid 40s.  This time its really awful ankle pain that seems to migrate around over the last month, sometimes in the heel, sometimes left ankle bone, sometimes right ankle bone.  Ice and ibuprofen makes it manageable, but not being able to cycle for a month is really affecting my mental health and my weight (i've put on half a stone). 

I really need to renew my gym membership at work (its free, i just have to fill out some paperwork) so i can do something, i'm working longer shifts now so can easily justify an hour break for a weights workout. 

[Arakasi]

I’m actually in the best shape of my life in ways in my mid 40s. Certainly strength wise although I have been stronger in cardio. Trying to be a bit more balanced and being my weight down to 220 instead of 232 (I am 6’2”). I did notice at 226-227 now I did lose a bit of strength from the mid 230s. Well more the endurance than strength but still. (Could do the weight but not for as many reps)

[baxus]

My individual training is going well for the moment. I've been working primarily on recovering my shoulder but focused on my core and legs as well, since next Friday I'll be going to Italy for a week-long skiing/snowboarding trip and I'll be needing that.

Can't wait to hit the slopes next weekend. It's been 4-5 years since I've taken a proper snowboarding vacation, and 3,5 years since I've even laced my snowboarding boots up. Plus, going away for a week with my 3 best friends is just what I need after a rather messy year I've had.

Edited November 24, 2022 by baxus

[Liffguard]

Finding myself in a really annoying position of feeling incredibly restless and really yearning for more exercise, but also bored senseless and totally uninterested in all the forms of exercise I might actually do.

Like, I want to move my body more, but also the thought of spending a second of brain power thinking about sets or reps or distances or km paces or training routines makes me want to punt my head through a wall.

 

[Iskaral Pust]

This is our fourth and final week in a temporary rental house during a large home project.  Without my home gym, I’ve relied on road running and walking (during my week in London & Dublin), which has gone ok aside from some persistent strain in my right hamstring, despite stretching.  I think the camber slope on the road surface may be a contributing factor.

I’m looking forward to getting back to a good routine of exercise.  My weightlifting has been patchy this entire year. 

[Jikm]

In the past I've done some yoga from the internet, a lite home workout, and some walking all together. I think I've tried some yoga videos on the smart TV. I want to do some home workout exercises and use the elliptical in my Dad's room as well as that yoga video app. I believe it could work for me. Although I only workout about 1-2 times per week, I think I want to change what I do to something really simple. I need to find the will power to change my life because I believe I can. I totally love the way I feel when I do lite exercises.

[Starkess]

Having trouble fitting in working out with my new work schedule, and battling a couple random injuries. My achilles decided to start hurting a few weeks ago and every time I think it's better because it hasn't hurt in a couple days...it's baaack! Haven't run in about a month because of it. It's been gone for like 3 days so I'm cautiously hopeful? Been doing stretches and careful about always having arch support and insoles, but my feet can get very cranky sometimes. Also had an extremely painful neck spasm about 2 weeks ago that left me crying on the floor and basically completely unable to move for an entire day. It's mostly gone away, but that area is still a bit stiff and sore despite lots of stretching. At least it's feeling well enough that I got back in the gym this weekend to lift some weights. Sigh, getting older is fun...

[Iskaral Pust]

Finally back in my home gym this past weekend after midweek travel.  Bench press and cable rows on Saturday, then squats and deadlifts on Sunday.  Both felt amazing to be back.  Lots of DOMS now, though.

I really need to allow this hamstring strain to recover so I am rowing rather than running for my warmup for a while.

I’m traveling again this midweek so I’ll continue exercise at the weekend. 

[Whitestripe]

Popping back in this thread to motivate my lazy arse.  Shoulder rehab is going slowly, but cortisone and rx strength ibuprofen are helping. My clavicle is essentially healed, but all the soft tissue damage is taking its own sweet time.  I'm doing lots of shoulder stabilization exercises and have set up my road bike on the trainer for winter riding.  My daughter wants to do a century ride or charity in June, and since she's under 18, I have to do it with her.  It won't take me 6 months to work up to that, but I've only been on a real (outdoors) bike three times since pitching myself over the bars in July. 

Edited December 6, 2022 by Whitestripe

[BigFatCoward]

12 hours ago, Whitestripe said:

I've only been on a real (outdoors) bike three times since pitching myself over the bars in July. 

Was it someone's fault. There's always money when drivers cause accidents. 

 

[Tywin et al.]

I was able to jog for a short time pain free! Docs said it could be as late as March before that happened. Now it might have only been for 10-15 seconds, but that's progress considering a month ago I was limping out of the hospital with little old ladies flying past me.

[Spockydog]

On 12/7/2022 at 7:10 AM, BigFatCoward said:

Was it someone's fault. There's always money when drivers cause accidents. 

 

Aye. I got £4k for a very mild whiplash injury when some idiot drove into the back of me whilst stopped at a zebra crossing. 

[BigFatCoward]

4 hours ago, Spockydog said:

Aye. I got £4k for a very mild whiplash injury when some idiot drove into the back of me whilst stopped at a zebra crossing. 

Been ran over twice in my bike. Paid for my wife's engagement ring the first time and paid for my garden to he renovated second time. 

[Iskaral Pust]

Good gym workouts for me these past two weeks.  Feeling good.

[baxus]

Yesterday I took my daughter ice skating. She's four and has never been ice skating before so at first she was a bit nervous and afraid of falling down and all that, but later on she enjoyed it and wanted to stay for longer when it came to an end. She couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. We'll have to make it a regular father-daughter thing and see if she would like to take it a bit more seriously and start some skating school or something.

Edited December 26, 2022 by baxus

[Iskaral Pust]

5 hours ago, baxus said:

Yesterday I took my daughter ice skating. She's four and has never been ice skating before so at first she was a bit nervous and afraid of falling down and all that, but later on she enjoyed it and wanted to stay for longer when it came to an end. She couldn't stop talking about it afterwards. We'll have to make it a regular father-daughter thing and see if she would like to take it a bit more seriously and start some skating school or something.

That sounds like great father-daughter time, and something to develop.  I only had two opportunities to ice-skate as I grew up in Ireland, which is definitely not enough for any proficiency.  Now I live among guys who grew up playing ice hockey and I’m the weirdo who can’t even skate.

[baxus]

Yes, it was a great experience for both of us and something we'll try to do on a regular basis. It's rather convenient that we have an ice rink 10-15 minutes walk from our home.

Btw, the first time I set foot on the ice I was 21, and already in college. As a result, I can skate well enough to seem like I know what I'm doing to someone who can't skate but not more than that.  That didn't stop me from playing hockey for a couple of seasons, though. Just to be clear, it was recreational hockey with a group of likeminded people and as such was probably THE lowest level of hockey you can imagine. Still, it was pretty fun to play and I enjoyed it. The point is that it's never late to do it if you want to. Of course, you won't be as good at it as if you would've been if you played from the early age but you could still be good enough to enjoy it.

[Iskaral Pust]

Weights are going great for me on this long break from work.  If work didn’t use up so much of my time and energy, I’d be in amazing shape.

My only problem is that I feel some pain in my right shoulder as I do pull-ups.  It may be a posterior delt or else the tendon connecting the lat.  So after three sets of normal wide-grip pronated pull-ups (and a warm-up set of pull-downs), I switch to three sets of neutral grip pull-ups.  I don’t feel this pain at all with neutral grip.  I don’t like doing the easier version so hopefully this pain resolves quickly.

Considering I’ve returned to weights after 3+ months off, and a much reduced volume for 5-6 months prior to that too, I’m very lucky this is the only problem I’m encountering as I return.  Fingers crossed.

[ithanos]

I had the better part of six weeks off of any intense workouts - pretty much all of November with a week added either side. It was somewhat planned - as I was out of town for a friend's wedding which led to spending a few weeks visiting with friends & family. Before this break I was in the best shape of the year but i felt I was over-training, so having the time off became quite beneficial - physically, mentally and maybe more importantly socially. I think I will plan to take 4-6 weeks off of any physical training every November from now on, as an end of season thing.

I found in December that my strength had only dropped a little. I was quickly at the same strength I was before the break and I feel stronger. Fitness though was a completely different tale - it had basically vanished after those six weeks. However, after 3 weeks of grind, that fitness has returned to recognisable levels - but shit that was hard to get back.

I hit 51 a couple weeks back, and I'm looking forward to finding out how 51yr old me can develop, physically, in the coming year. I know my DEXA and have my VO2Max results to guide me. I've also looked into adding sprint training to my regimen and need to plot a force velocity profile sometime soon.

Longer term physical goal (read: heath) is to build the best fortress I can between now and mid 50s so that I can defend it with a minimum of maintenance (strength training to jealously maintain muscle. In turn, with muscle anchored in bone, bone density should be maintained) and resources (a fixed daily protein target (not a %), with good fats and fermented veges).

That is the physical health plan anyway. My break in November taught me a couple sobering realities - I need to maintain social bonds (which were great to revisit) and build meaningful relationships (F*&k). I think I'll be selfish for a little while longer and just focus on building the physical fortress for the next half year. I hate, hate dating but I guess I'll have to delve back into it eventually.