Discussion Board

I missed a few days in July. My short term goal is to get in 45 minutes of movement (walking, running, or cycling) every day in August and strength training every day except Sundays, which are my recovery days.

• August 1: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 2: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 3: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 4: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 5: strength training (U) + 37 mile bike ride
• August 6: strength training (L) + 4.5 mile walk with Karen
• August 7: strength training recover day + 4 mile neighborhood run
• August 8: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 9: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 10: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 11: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 12: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 13: strength training (L) + 3 mile walk with Karen
• August 14: strength training recovery + 4.25 mile bike ride (26 min) + 3 mile neighborhood walk with Karen (1 hour)
• August 15: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 16: strength training (L) + bike commute & Karen came to meet me
• August 17: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 18: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 19: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 20: strength training (L) + 12 mile bike ride
• August 21: strength training recover + 3 mile neighborhood walk
• August 22: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 23: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 24: lost a day to seasonal allergies
• August 25: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 26: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 27: strength training (L) + 3 mile walk with Karen
• August 29: strength training (U) + bike commute
• August 30: strength training (L) + bike commute
• August 31: strength training (U) + bike commute
  

Looks like I'm going to miss Sunday, August 28, too. It gets so hard to motivate myself after 5:00pm or so.

OTOH... Look at all the days I *have* done! Woohoo! If I can ride my bike to work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the coming week, I will have ridden the bike for every commute in August.

August 31: I did it! Every day in August that I went to work, I rode my bike. I did miss a couple of days of exercise, one due to seasonal allergies, the other to low motivation late in the day, but on the whole I had a very good month. I wonder what September will be like.

I cant seem to keep motivated at all with my exercise. I keep "thinking" I will do this or that. Some days I do some exercise, but not like what I know I should do.

I got out my weight training book to do that, nope.

Any suggestions on how to get back in the swing of things?

I see most are doing so well with their goals, guess I feel like a failure.

kimba

Kimba you are not the only one. It's really hard to get motivated sometimes. July was terrible for me. First off the heat, it sucks all the life out of me, and I dont' feel like doing anything! I feel I made an accomplishment if I sweep and do dishes.

I am hoping for a better August. I am motivated to get working on my yoga and core. I'm not sure if I can swing, but I am very seriously thinking on taking a intensive yoga training course (200 hours). I believe this is step one for being able to teach basic yoga. I am trying to set myself up for the future and when I move to WV. Plus I can maybe make a few extra bucks here locally. Just having someone to workout with helps many get motivated. I know it does me. It's not cheap but if I break it down by hour it's about what a yoga session is.

So starting on the first I did hobble for one hour. No closed up shoes though. Walking without support in flip flops.

Chile, we do have water aerobics on Wednesday evenings. I think I'll do that.

Hi, Kimba!

Thanks for posting.

I find that the earlier in the day I exercise, the better it usually works for me. If I wait to the end of the day, I'm tired and can find all kinds of excuses why I should wait until tomorrow or don't have time or energy right now. If I can fit something in early in the day while I still have energy, then it's done and I get to feel righteous for the rest of the day.

Also, with the way the weather has been lately, it's usually cooler and more tolerable in the morning than the afternoon.

There have been days when the only reason I exercised was because I didn't want to have to post a missed day in my Woohoo! thread here. However, that wasn't enough to motivate me at least three days in July, I notice.

I am really struggling to have a consistent exercise routine at home. The equipment is here but I've not got a good schedule worked out. With the machines at the gym, it worked out perfectly to do all upper body on one day and all lower body on another. Repeat once for the week so I had two workouts for each body section per week, plus core 5 days a week.

At home, I can do more exercises with the free weights than I did on the machines so it's complicating the routine.

By the time I'm done with biceps, triceps, wrists (they're weak so I need to work on them), and shoulders, I'm not up for also doing chest and back, especially since I've still got to do that core workout.

By the time I do chest and back on the next day, I'm not into also doing the whole lower body workout. And then there's still the core workout.

The lower body workout wears me out, in a good way, but I definitely don't think I could combine it with any of the others. (And don't forget the core..)

The problem is that doing the strength training 6 days a week does NOT work for me. As it is, there is one weekday when I'm worn out from other activity (volunteering at a farm) so I don't work out that day. The weekends are always too busy to fit in a strength-training workout.

I've pared down the exercises I am doing to the ones that I really think are beneficial for my physical condition, weak areas, and what I want to improve, and don't want to give up any. But, I know that just hitting each of these areas once a week is probably not going to do me that much good. Suggestions?

Oh, and I'm biking about 4 days per week in addition to walking 1-2 times per week. Until the heel issue is resolved, that's the max possible on the walking. Resolving it involves another set of daily exercises and stretches from Egoscue's book (in addition to above workouts). Despite getting up at 5 am, by the time I'm done with biking and workouts, all the stretching my body demands afterwards, I'm not eating breakfast until 9 am sometimes. (And I'd rather eat at 6 or 7 am!)

OK two suggestions.

First off, smaller muscles do get tired faster than the larger ones. Let's take the upper body

What I use to do After warming up you should do back and bench press, then shoulder, bi/tri ceps, and wrists. You wrists, arms, shoulders work doing the other exercises. So if they don't last as long, it's fine as long as you exhaust them.

Start large and work down

Remember the core should be active in all of those too. I know the trainers say to exercise core daily but I frankly did it every other day. It needed a rest.

How many exercises per muscle do you do? I hope you aren't trying to do too much.

My other suggestion is don't think of the rotation as a week. There is nothing wrong with skipping an extra day. Work top and bottom every three days if you are waiting two now. You will still be getting it done frequently enough for strength. Especially if you are physical inbetween with gardening etc.

OK I got another walk in yesterday. Just going slower.

Today is suppose to be water aerobics. I hope the weather holds out. We have had a (much needed) rain today.

Thanks for your input, Faith.

Tonight I typed up all the strength-training exercises I want to be doing, broken up by Chest/Back, Arms/Shoulders, Legs, and Core. The exercises I've selected have to meet several criteria: they don't cause pain (especially to problem joints), they strengthen a muscle/muscle group that needs work and isn't duplicated exactly by another exercise, and that I have the equipment to do. The end result is that I still don't feel like I can combine any of the first three into one day.

While pondering whether doing these just one day a week would work, something really important dawned on me. I have not been making time for balance exercises. These are critical for me as I have dizziness and balance issues. There are numerous exercises I have been given to help with these problems, but like all exercises, they are time-consuming. The Egoscue exercises I'm currently doing for the heel issue are also time-consuming, along with the ongoing physical therapy that is advisable for my neck.

So...I decided to do the strength-training exercises split into three days with some optional core work those days. On the days in between the strength-training sets, I'll concentrate on the physical therapy and balance exercises, plus do some core work. I plan to bike 4-5 days per week and walk one weekend day.

I think this compromise best fits my particular fitness needs, even if it's not the normal routines advised by the pros.

That sounds like a good plan, Chile. I hope it works for you. And you can tweak it as you go if you need to.

I agree it sounds like an excellent plan. The first thing about exercise is to know what do YOU want out of it. You have a lot issues and need to address them all and yes, you do not want to spend hours exercising.

I'm glad you got it worked out.

I also wasn't sure if you were back to biking. I'm glad to hear it.

I've been walking daily in flip flops. I found an old for the beach pair, and believe it or not, it is the most comfortable thing to wear right now with the toe. Well, besides my slipped, which wouldn't be good to walk in.

Faith, I could just see you walkin' down the street in your slippers.

Hope it heals up quickly so you can be more comfortable.

Thanks for the feedback from both you and Tom on my schedule. This morning was the first day of the PT (physical therapy) and balance exercises. Sheesh, it took forever. But, part of that was looking through all my old notes from multiple sources on balance exercises. Now, like the strength-training, I've got to winnow it down to the most beneficial ones and get it to a manageable routine.

I am back to biking but had not been really consistent, partly due to DH still not back to 100%. (That affects what time we get up.) However, with this plan, I've scheduled to ride 30 minutes 5 mornings per week. This morning, I could have gone longer but chose to stick to the 30 minutes so that I can establish that as inviolate. When it's firmly established in my body, then I can go longer if I want, but right now it's more important, I think, to be consistent.

Hi Chile,

Based on my experience your plan seems sound. What I have learnt is that a little exercise done often is better than a lot of exercise done seldom.

Thirty minutes per day cycling is awesome.

You've really increased your elliptical time, Blondie! I remember when you were talking about just doing five minutes or so at a time. Congratulations.