Keeping on exercising

[MotherForkinShirtBalls]

That last 100th post snuck up as I was coming on to check in this evening!
@BezMills
@Happleandhorange
@Roonetta
@alittlefrustrated
@tryingtobesogood
@ProfessorRadcliffeEmerson
@afaloren
Let me go check who I've forgotten...

I've only just discovered Pilates. I love it. I can feel particularly the Reformer type is so good for my mobility and recovery. Mat seems better for core strength and endurance.
Dog walk today and stretches.

Hope the 10k goes well Johnny.

Gorgeous sea swim and a run for me today.

2hr of gardening (lots of squating and pulling) and 1hr hot yoga flow class

20 mins on the mini stepper, dog pilates for 15 minutes, 10k steps and a half hour run today.
(dog pilates is just like regular pilates except one of your dogs decides if you are on the floor it must be for cuddles!😄).

Today I have done my physio. I’m knackered and I need to do some work so chances of anything more are slim.

Hi all, well I did my 10k!

Downside - I kinda couldn't believe it, especially after what I was saying to PP about pelvic floor control, but I had an issue about halfway round - first time that has happened in ages!!

Upside- I ran the fastest 10k I have this year (which is really not fast, being honest) but 5 mins after than in first week Sept.

And I know why I had a problem - my glutes are overtight so I've booked a sports massage. It is bloody irritating, but I know what caused it and I can fix it again!

Eurgh "five mins FASTER than in first week of Sept"

👏JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff!
1 hr line dancing class
179

Great work, @Johnny.

No 41. Conquer boxing circuit followed by 20 min exercise bike. I've realised I need to lean into my exercise superpower, which is that I've always had reasonable stamina. So now I am a bit fitter I can keep going for a while. This is week five/six) of me trying to focus on cardio and upper body strength (first six weeks were about flexibility and core, and learning way around gym trying to avoid injury). It's a good dividing up of time, I've found - if I just say and then I will do lots of exercise forever I get discouraged and lose motivation.

No. 41.

Also, a question - for those still menstruating / in peri, how do you find your period impacts on your ability to exercise? I find I sleep much much more (the narcolepsy effect). I can exercise OK if I get to gym but the sleepiness is a barrier. I get dizzier too.

@Happleandhorange definitely I think breaking training into blocks is a really great way to keep motivation up. I need to take my own advice on that sometimes, to be fair!

I haven't written anything lately - been quite busy and maybe a bit burned out. I'm at 10 or 11 weeks of crossfit now. At first, after a month of kind of aimless training because I left the old gym, I was fired up and training quite a lot. The last weeks have been honestly a bit of a toil.

I've been managing to keep up with my non-negotiables - which is my 3 crossfits a week (I'm far to Scottish to miss one of the 3-a-week that I pay for). However I've not done barely anything else. There is so much going on in the CF program and I feel like I'm not getting much progress in any one thing since there's just so many different skills etc. Lovely Anna Sensei was asking me the other day if I had noticed any difference and honestly - not much! I was training quite a lot in Q1/Q2 this year, so I haven't really experienced that step change you get if you really shake things up.

I have caught myself feeling a bit down because I'm not doing any other training on the 100 CF skills outside of the CF sessions, and am trying to Have A Word about that, because it's not really justified. I guess it's just a case of keeping at it and being patient.

I guess the point of this ramble is that motivation and energy goes through peaks and troughs. If you can Just Bugger On through the slumps, and stick to your non-negotiables or do as much as you can - then when you get on the upside you can take advantage and train more when it's there.

I had a bit of a reality check on Friday to be fair. I've been watching tons of videos about bar muscle up progressions etc - once you watch one the algorithm feeds you more and more. And it's just insanely strong crossfit or calisthenics people going. "Well you just do this, then this then this then this and badda bing badda boom muscle ups."

Welp on Friday we did a class on the basic kipping swing and started by doing 6 minutes of static core work on the hollow and arch position. And matey said something really important 'these are the foundational positions and movement patterns, if you don't have these, then work on these first'.And yanno, I don't have those. Which was quite humbling but I needed a reality check.

So I guess, putting all this Ted Talk of a post together, I'm down for a 6-week block of just doing my non-negotiables + hollow / arch and dead hangs.

And probably not watching as many videos of sinewy maniacs

If I had a blog, I think it would be called Neurotic Autist Fitness Battler

That's really interesting, @BezMills . Thank you for being so honest with us.
I think, and this is said without any direct experience, training motivation must get harder when you are more experienced/have a basic level of fitness already. I mean, for me ATM it's quite easy, I can see that 10 weeks ago putting on my socks was difficult. Now it is easy. I couldn't finish a class, but now I can. And today I realised I can do sit ups. These are big steps that come quite easily, the improvement when you move from doing Nothing to Something is quick.
It's a different story when you are already fairly fit - especially when you start a massive new venture like crossfit.

P.S. speaking of aspirational fitness, watching Chris Hemsworth on Limitless training for Thor was an education. The amount he had to eat to keep those muscles!

What an interesting post @BezMills. It’s so interesting to hear what other people’s motivation - and sometimes lack of - feels like. Thank you.

My stitches come out of my leg today so hopefully I can be back to strenuous exercise again. I have found the last two weeks really tough being out of my usual routine.

I have PT before that though so it’ll be another session of upper body strength only which I find quite dull and hard to get a sweat on.

I’m so happy to be able to join in here again.

Hooray for stitches coming out! I so hear you with the post-injury frustrations, @BitOutOfPractice .
and I agree, motivation and otherwise is fascinating.

@Happleandhorange was limitless a good watch? Im wondering if others have any good recommendations to watch on fitness, strenght building perhaps more female based?

Im kind of starting again on the fitness journey -after a 17 yo gap! Used to be super fit BC but after 3 kids in less than 3.5years, my body and my pelvic floor still havent recovered yet! But mounjaro is giving me another lease of life and since starting the jabs, my motivation and energy has increased tenfold! The more fit i get, the more i want to be fit, riding that wave at the moment!
so i guess a lot have changed in 17 years and a few docuseries might be educational as well as entertaining

ps i have a women physio appt in exactly one hour! She specialises in pelvic floor problems and physical activity. I picked her over the other two physio of the practice as she felt she would understand better where i am and support my fitness journey. Id love to run a 10k too @jonny

Yes, it's fascinating. It's so very different and extreme from normal life, but the principles they are exploring are interesting ones. Again, I'm mainly drawn by the psychological side.

@BitOutOfPractice that's really great you can get back into things again.

Life just throws these things at you and it's so frustrating not to be able to train for this reason or that reason. It's like universal law of training - it will be disrupted by factors - and probably just when you were getting into it!

Just back from the Crossfits and it was interesting today in a few ways.

I was training with a chap who's considerably stronger than me, but we managed to figure out a loadout for the bar that made it quite painless to go from his working weight to mine and back (we were doing 5 sets each so a lot of changovers).

I had done a +5KG 1 rep max on the strict press about 10 days ago, but it wasn't good and I didn't feel like I "had it" even though I managed to get the bar overhead somehow. So I went quite conservative on the 5x5 and did every rep properly, and felt actually a lot better about doing 25 proper proper reps feeling strong, rather than getting a slightly cheaty 1RM feeling like I had to fight for it (and cheat the movement a bit).

The boss gave me a quite heavy bar for the workout and I was standing behind a big chap that I trained with last week. He's much much stronger than me and was flinging the bar around that I was really huffing and struggling with (I ended up getting my own bar which I could actually lift properly and left the big lad to it, which was much better). So I was a bit 'really mate' when I noticed we both had the same on the bar for the workout.

It was a 3/2/1 reps barbell complex then rowing, times 4. Bearing in mind I'm lifting the same as a guy who is much bigger and stronger than me. Well, I battled through it and everybody in the gym was finished and chilling and I still had my last 500m on the row to do. They did that crossfit thing where I had the whole gym hyping me up and giving it "go on bez" "you can do it" etc. I kind of hate that honestly, but yanno, crossfit gonna crossfit and they mean well they really do.

Well the row was horrible, but I was looking at my numbers on the little readout and I was still pulling really strong all the way to the end, even if I had like zero really zero headroom for a sprinty finish. I did finish it, and just about managed to get off the rower without an accident. I needed a couple minutes just to suck air, bladdy hell what an effort.

So three things there.

1. It's really great to train with stronger people, I personally love that about Crossfit. There are some absolute units there, which I find inspiring.
2. even though I thought the boss was having a giraffe with the weight, he did put me at the perfect level (the bastard)
3. I AM fitter than I was 10 weeks ago. I just did 2000m in that workout at what is now a moderate pace, and 10 weeks ago the same numbers was like going to the races 9/10 effort pace. Well maybe it's a bit fitter and a lot better at rowing but I'll take the 'bit fitter' and be grateful for both!

see this is what I'm dealing with. This is my facebook now. Buff people in scenic locations making 2-5 years of training sweat and swearing into a 20 second FB reel.

Facebook

Thanks for the good wishes. I am back from pt and managed to enjoy it and felt like a proper workout.

Id like to just give some love to my PT here. I have been seeing her for a year and she has literally changed my life. I have arthritis in my knees and she has been helping me strengthen my legs to support my knees. My daily pain has gone from an 8 out of ten to zero. Literally pain free on a daily basis. It’s like a miracle and I’m so grateful for her. She really really knows her stuff and everything is so well thought out to help me knees. She’s great.

Grr. Think I have tendonitis on my right foot, possibly from overdoing it.

I'm trying exercises from an NHS website. Apparently, you're more prone to this if you overdo it at the gym and you've previously had foot surgery.

I keep getting inspirational of 'older' women who now look like Arnie's granny. Problem is that most of them are a decade younger than me.

It's taken me more than two years to shift 30 pounds (and build some muscle) but you still can't see the muscle for the fat - maybe a wee bit on the arms, sometimes.

I have at least another 30 pounds to lose.

Keep after it @WearyAuldWumman you're doing great.

Yeah I see posts from PTs and influencers in my age group looking ridiculously fit and I'm not even trying to compete, compare or catch up with them (and some of what you see online is filtered and lit very flatteringly to say the least).

At my boxercise class I've got a 22yo lad who is super athletic and very coachable. He looks phenomenal on the pads, I'm really proud of him. Then I've got people in their 60s and 70s who are game as all heck and no they do not have that athleticism he has, and they've all got at least a wonk shoulder or hip etc, but I'm even more proud of them, because it's just harder for them and they rise to the challenge. And I've got people in their 40s / 50s who really struggle to find the time to train but they prioritise and they get in and get after it. I'm proud of each and every one of my sluggers.

I read all the posts on this thread and you all inspire me too, honestly. Keep after it - you're thread legends one and all!