Keep On Exercising 2

20 mins bed time yoga yesterday.

It’s ok to have a rest day sometimes. Doesn’t have to mean “do nothing” but something a bit gentler. But that’s tricky when you do classes isn’t it? At one point pre kids I did 5 a side football, kick boxing and really hard core ashtanga yoga on consecutive nights - and then could hardly move for the rest of the week cos everything hurt so much!

Musical Theatre Fitness - 45 minutes. Had great difficulty today.

Simply Stretch - 30 minutes.

Legs are so damned tired and aching. I'm not doing as much weight training as I should - the only consistency is the upper body work at Senior Flex twice a week, partly because I've added more cardio work via running and dance classes. Also, accordion practice is taking up time. (That is genuinely weight work for the left arm, but I'm trying to even it up via chest flies - both via the apparatus and via weight work at Senior Flex.)

My weight is sticking, but I think that my arms look not too bad for an old bird, at least when they're pumped up. If the rest of me was in as good nick, I'd be well pleased. Not going happen, but I'll keep plodding on.

140

Couch to 5k 28 minute run. Only covered 2k 300 metres.

Pilates - 45 minutes. Mainly core and balance today.
Zumba - 45 minutes.

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It certainly does - consistency is key.

9 mile coastal walk - did wonders for my back, it's a shame I have to sit down and write an assignment now. I'll try to remember to get up every 30 mins.
I'm a great believer in keeping moving, if possible, for back pain, and today is a good example!
Pilates is back on the planner - I was stupid to give it up after going religiously for 7 years.
148.

14 mins hiit and 12 mins bed time yoga yesterday. I have been aiming for 20 mins a day but if I do say an extra 6 mins every day then that totals an additional 42 mins over the course of a week. It all adds up is what I’m trying to say……

This week -
60 x25 m swim
144.
40 x25m swim
145.
2 mile walk
146.
60 x25m swim
147.
My fitness seems to have fallen off a cliff this summer and I seem to pick up an injury every time I do something.
Plodded round the 2 mile yesterday and have pulled my lower back swimming (though didn't feel it at the time).
I think I am seeing the effects of giving up pilates 😬
Long walk planned for tomorrow with Mrs Fit - hopefully the company and chat will spur me on.

Musical Theatre Fitness, 45 minutes.

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My glutes are killing me. I'm finding that after running days. More stretches needed, methinks.

Yesterday was 12m leg exercises and 15m bedtime yoga, plus 10k steps during the day.

Friday - Running Club: timed 400 m. 3minutes, 21 seconds...and something. 5 minute, 5 minute and 3 minutes runs with walking in between.

Senior Flex: Upper body work with 3.7 kg weights, abdominal work, squats, cardio. 45 minutes.

Very tired legs. 137

Expected to get a run today, but only two of us turned up at the new 'Ladies' Walking and Running Club' - no organiser, just someone in the office, and the other woman didn't want to run so just got a one-mile walk.

Still going - only gentle yoga for now but I feel like I might be made of cortisol right now, need to take it easy.

Wednesday: Gym, 5 minutes on rowing machine, chest fly, 19kg - 6, 10, 10.

Senior Flex, 45 minutes. Usual mix. 3.7kg for upper body work in the main, but 7.5kg for the triceps exercise.

Active for Life, 45 minutes - 15 minutes on the bike. Had to do single arms for arm raises and biceps curls - could only find one 6kg weight in gym. Couldn't find the equipment I needed in the studio and couldn't get onto the machines in the 'big gym'.

3 sets of 10 wall press-ups. 136

It turns out that a decision has been made to empty all the A for Life equipment from the cupboard in our studio and make the instructors in Studios 2 and 3 share equipment, meaning that class times have to be re-jigged.

Why? They're going to use our cupboard to store Hyrox equipment...It's already started.

Some of our machines have also been replaced. The SPARC that I use has gone. There's an elliptical machine, but my knees started crunching when I tried to use it - apparently it moves in a different way from the SPARC. I'm not risking my knees on it.

Monday: 5 min walking, 25 running (slowly), 5 minutes walking; 45 minutes Pilates; 45 minutes Zumba. 134

Today: 45 minutes Musical Theatre Fitness; 30 minutes Simply Stretch. Found it hard going today. 135

Heading off for accordion lesson...not sure if the arms will manage - had a heavy arm track at MTF today.

Hope today goes as well as possible, @Comtesse .

33 minutes self practice yoga this morning. Family funeral today, lots of mental and physical health things swirling around, it’s been a tough week and today is going to be challenging - but right now I feel quite calm. This is why we do it, right?

45 minutes Musical Theatre Fitness and a couple of hours gardening - strimming, hauling up plants in the wrong place, cutting back prickly plants.

134

16 min cardio dance then 11 min bed time yoga.

yeah those dumbells going up in 1kg increments are super handy as you say, because 2.5kg jumps are huge when it's 5 to 7.5 (50%) or 7.5 to 10 (33%). Normally you'd jump up something like 10% or less.

I think it's worth emailing the management and/or putting in a feedback slip about that. I think gym instructors sometimes forget how useful those stacks of 1-10kg dumbells are for a lot of people.

No formal exercise today.

I'm somewhat peeved. Apparently, "the gym staff" removed the "sliver weights" - the lighter weights - from Studio 2 at the gym that many of us use. (I'm currently using 6kg weights for arm exercises at Active for Life.)

Said weights are not in the gym. I stuck my head in the gym staff office and enquired as to there whereabouts: "I don't know. They were taken downstairs somewhere in a trolley."

I've been advised to use kettlebells instead, but they're a bit bloody awkward for side raises and biceps curls, I find.

I do use kettlebells for a famer's carry...and they've already nicked all the heavier ones out of the studio, though I can get two 18kg kettlebells in the gym when I need them.

They do have 5kg weights in the studio and in the gym, but the next jump up in the gym is 7.5 which I can manage for a low row, but not for anything else. Then the next jump is 10kg, which is a bit heavy for an old fart like me at the moment.

I know that I've not done as much with weights recently - possibly too much concentration on cardio (running, Musical Theatre Fitness and Zumba). I really don't want to go backwards, however.

Did lift my accordion for a practice last night...

When I was doing my upper body work at Senior Flex yesterday, left shoulder is definitely coping better than my right. I'm genuinely convinced it's because of the accordion playing in my younger days.

Thursday night was lovely Anna Sensei's first class in the new slot. Very well attended, and she was marvelous, as always! Then yesterday we met up and went heavy on deadlift and bench, with misc random stuff in between. I was cajoled into doing some sled pushes, which is fun, until your legs fall off. It does feel quite athletic at the time though! We also did some monkeying around on the bars.

I got back near to my biggest weight on bench press, which I was quite pleased with. With deadlift there's a way to go but definitely not an exercise to take lightly, so I'm not bothered if it takes me a few weeks to get back up to the highest weight I was lifting from 6-7 months ago.

Well done to all.
I have my usual routine pretty much. Some lovely swims. A very solid mile in 35 minutes. And some very fun gym sessions. It is absolutely the only thing that is keeping the black dog at bay for now. I am tired of it. But I am grateful to keep moving.

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Running Club - repeat (for me) 1.5 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes running with stretches and walking in between. Trying to get my speed up.

Senior Flex, 45 minutes. A lot of upper body work today. Found it quite strenuous, possibly because of accordion practice yesterday.

134

Been a rough week - have managed 20 mins of bed time yoga every night but that’s all. As Pete Tong would say - “we continue”….