47 yo female: expectations and frustrations
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It sounds like you've learned a lot and figured some things out. What I like to do, and what has worked for me,is to mix up the workouts. I do a morning and evening workout 4 days a week, and then one workout the other days. If I need a rest day, I usually still take a walk or do yoga. I like your exercises, the only thing I can add is to try to do them all with as much weight as possible, since you don't use barbells. You can even put a dumbbell in between your shoulder blades for push-ups, or put your feet on an exercise ball. Another good idea for upper body strength is pull-ups. I have a door-frame pull-up bar and it works great, and can be used for push-ups if your wrists get sore. I didn't see sumo or plie squats, goblet squats, or pistol squats on you list. You could also add pec flys with glute bridge, back flys, and good mornings.0
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@DancingMoosie --good ideas, thx! Yes I always try to use the heaviest bells I can on each exercise and complete my sets of 6. I think I will be good for awhile on the upper body! And I am adding sets as needed. The lower body is a bit more difficult, because my resistance load is limits somewhat by the (lesser) strength of my upper body. I've heard of folks putting weights in backpacks, but I would think I would have to strap the thing on backwards, or I would just fall over! Any other ideas?
I've done sumo squats as a part of an earlier program. I will have to look the others up. Likely they show up later in this program. I'm not sure because I've never gotten past week six. This summer I did six weeks and then went on vacation. When I saw the vacation gain, I went back to running daily to try to get it off! Then in the fall I started the program again and was very dedicated to it for about two months right up to Christmas. Then I was out of town for a good while with no access to any kind of fitness equipment, and then I got sidetracked by what the cold weather was doing to my running/lifting schedule and went to the other, more aerobic body revolution until it warmed up. (Luckily here in the south it never stays cold for long. But I am definitely anti cold!)
I've seen several differing opinions on schedules. When lifting, do you have to have a day of non-lifting in between? That's what I've always heard, but I've seen a few people on here who lift daily and have good results. Does it "kill" your muscles to do that? I'm just wondering from a scheduling perspective--like if the weather is bad on a running day, can I just lift again and swap days, even if that puts me lifting two days in a row?0 -
I just wanted to be sure you'd seen this post from Sara a while ago:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/902569/barbell-routines-when-you-only-have-dumbbells/p1
It has lots of links to videos of various dumbbell exercises. I found it incredibly helpful.
I'm your age (well, one year older) and this week I finally switched from dumbbells to barbell. I, too, don't have room in my home for a barbell, and I dragged my feet about using the bar for a long time for a whole host of reasons. What I've found, though, is that while I spend time getting to and from the gym, working out with a barbell is so much more efficient (because I had to do a lot of volume with my dumbbells at the end) that I almost break even in terms of time.0 -
@scrittrice --Thanks for some good points. I had forgotten about that post. Also, definitely something to think about regarding time-efficiency of workout. Especially as I continue to progress. I think that is why I did not like the "Body for Life" program that I tried several years ago. It felt like the workouts went on forever, and so boring! For every muscle group you did like 48 reps!
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Daily lifting is with different muscles. If workout is intense enough and causes enough damage, you may not even be able to use the same muscles 3rd day out.
And if you have hopes to recomp, you'll need to go heavier than dumbbells will likely provide.0 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »It sounds like you've learned a lot and figured some things out. What I like to do, and what has worked for me,is to mix up the workouts. I do a morning and evening workout 4 days a week, and then one workout the other days. If I need a rest day, I usually still take a walk or do yoga. I like your exercises, the only thing I can add is to try to do them all with as much weight as possible, since you don't use barbells. You can even put a dumbbell in between your shoulder blades for push-ups, or put your feet on an exercise ball. Another good idea for upper body strength is pull-ups. I have a door-frame pull-up bar and it works great, and can be used for push-ups if your wrists get sore. I didn't see sumo or plie squats, goblet squats, or pistol squats on you list. You could also add pec flys with glute bridge, back flys, and good mornings.
I looked up "pistol squats" and actually those ARE in my program. They are called one-leg get-ups. The last time I got to them in the program I could barely do them!
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That makes sense--actually that is why I switched during January to a pre-planned DVD circuit program (body revolution), because since I couldn't get out to run in the bad weather, I was having to use a mishmash of various circuit training DVDs 6 days a week. So I went to body revolution because at least it was set up to work different muscles each day.Daily lifting is with different muscles. If workout is intense enough and causes enough damage, you may not even be able to use the same muscles 3rd day out.
And if you have hopes to recomp, you'll need to go heavier than dumbbells will likely provide.
And likely I will need more than dumb bells at some point. I think I still have a ways to go before I completely "grow out" of the dumbells. Especially upper body. My new 25's are too much for most of the upper body stuff right now. All I use them for is lower body. I'll go as far as I can from home, and then I will just have to see what the options are. Just over two more years til younger son can drive himself and I won't be tied to someone else's schedule.
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That is exactly what I got tired of with dumbbells--I was up to 4 sets of 12 for most of the exercises I was doing. My problem is that I would always rather work out outdoors. I don't mind going to the gym this time of year--I'd be going anyway to swim or use the elliptical--but I'm not sure I'll make it three times a week in the summer on top of biking. Trying not to look that far ahead!@scrittrice --Thanks for some good points. I had forgotten about that post. Also, definitely something to think about regarding time-efficiency of workout. Especially as I continue to progress. I think that is why I did not like the "Body for Life" program that I tried several years ago. It felt like the workouts went on forever, and so boring! For every muscle group you did like 48 reps!
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So, after reading a good bit this morning, (as wll as looking at my successful pals' food and exercise diaries) I really am coming to the conclusion that I will have to add more actual TIME to exercise. I've tried to keep exercise sessions to around 30-45 minutes per day, for most days, with perhaps a longer run occaisionally on those rare days when I just have more leisure time. But from what I am seeing among women my age and size, it is looking like most are adding some cardio to their lifting days, and doing more than 30 minutes of cardio on their cardio days.
It is a balance between keeping the work folks happy (some weeks more intense--this week is an easy one which is why I've been on here a lot!) and keeping the home front happy. And still having enough time for me. And sleep. Which, again at my age is a challenge. Something evidently happens hormonally that makes it impossible for women of a certain age to get any long stretches of restful sleep.
So, what to do--eat less and be hungry, or take time away from family demands and be able to eat more. Or sleep less.0 -
Can you incorporate your family into doing activities together, especially as it gets warmer? Family bike rides or frisbee games could be really fun! If you have little ones there are those little ride-a-longs0
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For protein without a lot of calories, I love Dannon Light & Fit Greek yogurt - only 80 calories and 12 g of protein. I have about 2-3 a day.0
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@bonniejo I have teens! They don't want to do anything with us! My younger will go on a run with me occaisionally if he misses a workout during cross country season. And during the week, there is no time for anything but survival with their swim practice and school schedule. It takes all we can do to make sure everyone is delivered to their activities/schools in a timely manner and picked up, homework is done (one really struggles in school with a slight learning disability and needs nightly one on one), clothes are washed and dealt with, food is prepared and cleaned up, grocery shopping is done, things are gathered for the next day for each of us, paperwork is corralled, etc. It is not really quality leisure time I am talking about here that I am missing, it is really more just household management in a family with two working parents. It probably doesn't help that in our area the public schools for the most part are pitiful, so you no longer send your kids to the neighborhood school where they can walk to classes, and probably to all their extra curricular activities too. That's how it was when I was a kid. But here, we enroll our kids in private schools, often somewhere across the metro area, or we at least enroll them in the one public district (again probably across town) that is known to provide a decent education. And then we work our butts off to be able to afford the tuition for these schools. But if you are a mom, you probably know all this already!0
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I was just looking at the journal I have kept for the past 16 months. I run a weekly averag of calories. During that 16 months I have averaged 1400-1500 calories a day (total, not net) outside of holiday weeks, where I might go up to 1700 or so. In that same time, I have gained 7 lbs. (from 124-131) I have consistently exercised 5-6 days a week, almost without fail. (Most weeks at least three 30 minute runs a week, with some sort of circuit or strength on 2-3 days a week)
I really have to conclude that at least part of the issue must be accuracy in logging. I must have been guessing on portions, or not catching all the bits and bites!
I am really trying to be more accurate with that. Although, it is not like I have been careless. I've always measured most things, and I started weighing about a year ago. Before the scales I often would even count things like chips and nuts, since I didn't have a scale.
I'm trying to live in reality here and admit that some changes must be made, including being very careful with logging. I think this also points out what a small window of error there is for small middle aged gals.
Very frustrating.0 -
Ahh, just go nuts with weighing for 1-2 weeks, avoiding any situations where you can't have accuracy - just to see what the results are for actual eating level.
The just figure a level of inaccuracy in there for normal usage after that time. It can be a bit crazy.
So true on small margin. Some could eat out few times a week, and that level of inaccuracy doesn't wipe out deficit.
You, probably could do it with 1 good meal out to wipe out your deficit.
How's the daily activity, do you always walk the long way, take stairs, ect?0 -
Page 1 of this thread has some comments for you about body recomp.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10009722/have-a-question-how-about-a-live-q-a-starting-in-3-2-1-go#latest
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@bonniejo I have teens! They don't want to do anything with us! My younger will go on a run with me occaisionally if he misses a workout during cross country season. And during the week, there is no time for anything but survival with their swim practice and school schedule. It takes all we can do to make sure everyone is delivered to their activities/schools in a timely manner and picked up, homework is done (one really struggles in school with a slight learning disability and needs nightly one on one), clothes are washed and dealt with, food is prepared and cleaned up, grocery shopping is done, things are gathered for the next day for each of us, paperwork is corralled, etc. It is not really quality leisure time I am talking about here that I am missing, it is really more just household management in a family with two working parents. It probably doesn't help that in our area the public schools for the most part are pitiful, so you no longer send your kids to the neighborhood school where they can walk to classes, and probably to all their extra curricular activities too. That's how it was when I was a kid. But here, we enroll our kids in private schools, often somewhere across the metro area, or we at least enroll them in the one public district (again probably across town) that is known to provide a decent education. And then we work our butts off to be able to afford the tuition for these schools. But if you are a mom, you probably know all this already!
Haha, I'm not a parent yet (thank goodness!), but I can imagine the struggle! I know it eased up for my parents when I got my license, but thats a whole other can of worms lol0 -
Ahh, just go nuts with weighing for 1-2 weeks, avoiding any situations where you can't have accuracy - just to see what the results are for actual eating level.
The just figure a level of inaccuracy in there for normal usage after that time. It can be a bit crazy.
So true on small margin. Some could eat out few times a week, and that level of inaccuracy doesn't wipe out deficit.
You, probably could do it with 1 good meal out to wipe out your deficit.
How's the daily activity, do you always walk the long way, take stairs, ect?
Daily non exercise activity is not great most of the time, although I do have days sprinkled in that are very active. But maybe one every 2 months. I actually do usually see a bit of weight loss I the week after those days, when I think about it.
I'm a teacher, so there are days I STAND a lot, but not necessarily a lot of activity. Like a sales clerk, I guess. (But then there are those days when I haul equipment around campus to set up for performances. . . )
The entire parking lot is the size of one or two city lots, so even though I park at the edge (as a private school we are to leave the "good" spaces for our paying customers!), it is still not far! I actually do get more steps at work, just going to the break room, cafeteria, rest room, whatever, than I do at home. There, I am super sedentary. I can walk our whole house in like 25 steps! So mostly my activity is just cooking and light housekeeping (ha), which equals perhaps an hour a day. A little more sometimes.
And weekends. . . . Right now mostly they are sitting for hours at swim meets--we have one every weekend for the months of January and February! Last Saturday I spent from 7 am to 5 pm at one, because of my boys being in different age groups. This week, it is probably four hours today and four tomorrow. . . .
Leisure time is mostly used up for my workouts. Sometimes I am a bit resentful of that, since fitness and weight management sort of took over my hobby list. I definitely enjoy running when the weather is nice. And biking. But there is no longer much time for the hobbies I used to do which were sedentary--(photography, reading, scrapbooking). Oh, and there is singing--husband and I sing on our church praise team--that is maybe a five hour a week commitment, but probably doesn't burn many calories! And some keyboarding (piano) and drumming with my job. Probably, that is partly what gave my Bodymedia such a skewed number. Can't believe it took me that long to figure that out! Luckily my Misfit is not tracking those activities as exercise. It does show a slight increase in activity, but that is probably accurate.
Actually, the misfit is showing an average daily burn of 1800, which is pretty consistent with most calculators (@heybales I think yours gave me about 1700, or just a bit less). Range is like 1550- 2200.
Basically, since I see to be very consistently inaccurate, as long as I tailor my goal around that, I should be successful. I just have to convince myself that when I think I'm eating 1500, I'm really eating 1700-1800. That may sound silly, but it really does play with my mind. I really am going to have to use mind over matter in this!
Perhaps I am on the right track on this, as scale is moving down. I am also trying to take one bodyfat measurement with calipers, but I am not trusting my consistency with that. If you move just a fraction of an inch you get several mm difference. As best I can tell the supreilliac measurement for me is somewhere between 9 mm and 12 mm. No need to do legs, as I can't even get a skinfold and not much on arms either.
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Page 1 of this thread has some comments for you about body recomp.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10009722/have-a-question-how-about-a-live-q-a-starting-in-3-2-1-go#latest
Okay, probably typing waaaay more than I should, but I am sitting at this swim meet for the next four hours, and I forgot a book. . .
This thread was awesome! So encouraging (and yet. . . )!
Mostly encouraging because it makes me feel not so alone. What I am experiencing is not uncommon! And I am not a crazy woman doing everything wrong.
Also, once again time to re-evaluate goals. Yes, I do want to continue to improve my body, but I probably fall into the "abs won't show until I'm a skeleton" category because of my basic genetic body shape and fat patterns. So, yes, I will keep trying to reduce that waist measurement, both for vanity and health (waist-hip ratio), but as my husband has tried to point out to me, "you look fine overall, stop worrying about it"! Of course partly I've been concerned with the slow gain because if that continues. . . .
So, stay the course, watch, make small adjustments, repeat.0 -
Seriously awesome info in this thread, thank you guys.0
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Page 1 of this thread has some comments for you about body recomp.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10009722/have-a-question-how-about-a-live-q-a-starting-in-3-2-1-go#latest
Okay, probably typing waaaay more than I should, but I am sitting at this swim meet for the next four hours, and I forgot a book. . .
This thread was awesome! So encouraging (and yet. . . )!
Mostly encouraging because it makes me feel not so alone. What I am experiencing is not uncommon! And I am not a crazy woman doing everything wrong.
Also, once again time to re-evaluate goals. Yes, I do want to continue to improve my body, but I probably fall into the "abs won't show until I'm a skeleton" category because of my basic genetic body shape and fat patterns. So, yes, I will keep trying to reduce that waist measurement, both for vanity and health (waist-hip ratio), but as my husband has tried to point out to me, "you look fine overall, stop worrying about it"! Of course partly I've been concerned with the slow gain because if that continues. . . .
So, stay the course, watch, make small adjustments, repeat.
Tiger, I understand what you are going through probably better than most in regards to the time issue.
Does your pool have a gym attached? Whenever our kids are competing where there is a gym attached, we usually work out during warm ups, then head back for a second in between races if time, and do a very brisk walk on the track / treadmill during cool down. My kids do a full cool down, so lots of time then! Then we will do the same thing all over again during finals. Sometimes meets are when we get in our best workouts, though we've been known to be pretty sweaty during their race from rushing in at the last second.
We also try to fit workouts in around their practices, i.e. my husband will hit the gym after dropping them off at 5:45 AM, then I will fit mine in during their afternoon practice since I'm stuck there for 3.5 hours anyway.0
