What Was Your Work Out Today?

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  • laurachambers86
    laurachambers86 Posts: 152 Member
    Woke up with a back pain flare up today, went to the gym for over an hour to really work through my strengthening exercises along with some upper body stuff. Walked for an hour to and from the shops and also did some yin yoga this afternoon.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,989 Member
    Upper body power day in the weight room, lots of sets of 4-6. Took longer than usual, on account of extra wait time before the final set of bench presses when I wanted to test my max reps. Last time I tested at this weight I got 8 reps; today I banged out 10. Was quite pleased, though it likely means I need to increase the weight I use to keep it in the "power" range rather than "hypertrophy". Not normally a problem, in fact usually something to celebrate, but I've been resistant to the idea of going too heavy on bench presses after I narrowly avoided double rotator cuff surgery a few years back doing too heavy bench presses. Granted, back then I was chasing the almighty one-rep-max, where now I don't drop below 4 reps, so the chances of injury are quite a bit less. But there is a bit of a psychological barrier in place I need to decide what to do with, whether to smash through or changeup my routine to work around it.
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,281 Member
    lower body strength intervals (alternating strength moved with bursts of cardio), 25 min. then a one mile brisk walk.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,419 Member
    Back to usual: Just under 7k rowing bow in the quad. We did some timed intervals with target strokes per minute ratings again.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,989 Member
    edited July 2023
    Lower body power day in the weight room, took longer than normal as I had to wait multiple times for my needed equipment to become available. Busy day in the weight room, especially for 5am.
  • justanotherjen13
    justanotherjen13 Posts: 419 Member
    I started last week with a goal to walk at least a mile every day, but quickly pushed it up to a mile and a half. Today, I had to concede that I still don't have the stamina to do that just yet. Today I made it 1.33 miles and it was killing me. I was struggling the last half hour and am completely exhausted. Might have to cut that to just 1 miles tomorrow and for the rest of the week until I recover (am having a lot of pain in my hip, calves and shins).
  • drmwc
    drmwc Posts: 1,115 Member
    I went climbing on Saturday. We did some very easy sport climbing in Portland. Dorset. It was fun. We got a decent morning in, and then the heavens opened so we ended and did a hike.

    We went bouldering on Sunday. It was also fun. Our destination,(Portland Bill) was at high tide, which drastically cut down on available routes.

    I went climbing on Monday, with a spot of indoor bouldering. I was terrible; maybe I've been climbing too much. My Fitbit reckons I got its target active minutes (150 minutes) in this session alone.
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    MikePfirrman wrote: »
    Haven't been reporting since I've had a bit of a health setback. I had an old cyst on my back rupture and get really angry! Long story short, had to have it removed last week (went under, not local). Decent sized incision in my back (around six inches across). They glued it back together because it was only right below the skin, so not too deep or involved.

    I'm under doc's orders to not "get too sweaty" but I'm walking and doing really, super easy cardio right now. Can't lift just yet. Hope to get back to that soon. Also, can't swim right now either. Hope to get back in the flow soon.

    Also looking forward to hearing the triathlon report from @djproulx! You all are doing great!

    Good to see you back here, @MikePfirrman. That cyst sounds like it was quite a painful thing. Glad you're on the mend.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,419 Member
    @djproulx, that's both interesting and informative, speaking even as someone from a wildly different sport background. Congratulations on finishing! In any kind of competition, and a few things not truly competitive, I think an important success factor is that experiential self-knowledge to distinguish between hurting and actually being too hurt to continue safely. Thanks for sharing your honest race report!
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  • DiscusTank5
    DiscusTank5 Posts: 656 Member
    @Djproulx, great job finishing and thinking your way through the difficult spots of the Half Iron race. Those photos were nice to see, also. Take some time to really rest up, mentally and physically. You know this already; I'm just spelling it out again. :)
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,989 Member
    edited July 2023
    As someone who used to run 5k's for fun and competition, just reading your report made me exhausted! lol The only part I could really sympathize with from my own experience was the part where you started in the back of the pack and systematically passed a number of people as you went. That was me during almost every 5k I ever ran...start off with a slow jog to let the crush of people get ahead, then start to accelerate as the crush broke apart into individuals again, concentrating on ignoring my own aches and fatigue by focusing on passing "just that one person ahead of me" over and over again. Though admittedly I passed more people during any inclines we encountered rather than during the declines.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,989 Member
    After that exhausting read about a 70 mile tri-discipline race, my own meager 6 miles during one hour of elliptical hills seems quite tame by comparison.
  • laurachambers86
    laurachambers86 Posts: 152 Member
    Legs and arms in the gym today, getting a bit itchy to mix up my routine but need to give it a think as to what I want to change it to!

    30 minute walk as well.
  • BriansTrident
    BriansTrident Posts: 483 Member
    Treadmill 15 min
    Elliptical 15 min
    Chest cable fly high/mid/lows
    Cable rows
    Cable lateral raises
    Leg press
    Ab crunches
    Face pulls
    Overhead triceps extensions
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,419 Member
    justanotherjen13 wrote: »
    I was thinking about that triathlon while I did my walk and how I could never do that. I barely made it 1 mile today although I did my maximum speed for as long as I could so I finished my mile in 24.5 minutes which was apparently a record according to my app. I did 1.07 miles in 26 minutes with a short 30-second pause in the middle to pet a pretty cat. I've decided I need to take it a little easier this week and do only a mile each day (I was pushing for 1.5+ miles each day the last week) because my legs are so sore because I'm so out of shape. It's really hard, though, because my mind wants to go farther and take this turn here for a little detour but my legs are like, please, no more, we still have to hike back up this hill to get home.

    Y'know what, @justanotherjen13 ? I think you'll surprise yourself with where you are in a few months, let alone in a year or more, if you persist and keep gradually but manageably challenging yourself.

    It was a long time ago now (around 2000, when I was just post-surgery/chemo/radiation and still overweight/obese), but I started out pretty darned physically depleted. Within a small number of years - much to my surprise and that of my friends - I was competing as an athlete . . . not a great one, but often in the pack with my age cohort. I'm not saying you should do that or should want to, but I'd bet the "surprising yourself" option is out there waiting for you. Hang in there, and give yourself credit for your discipline. It'll pay off.

    One comment: I hear your desire to push things a little, mixed with a very sensible hesitancy about overdoing. Keep in mind that doing 1 mile every day, then switching to 1.5 miles every day, is not the only option.

    For one, there's a general rule of thumb for training that 10% increase per week is reasonable. One mile to 1.5 is a 50% increase all at once!

    For two, you could consider increasing part of the time, such as 1 mile on a day when you feel average, and 1.1 miles (or whatever) on a day you feel especially strong/energetic - mix it up, not full pedal to the metal every time.

    For three, you could keep the walks at 1 mile but add another activity mode, like . . . oh, I dunno . . . maybe 10 minutes every other day of gentle stretching or some exercise bands or some manageable upper body lifting (even soup cans) or something - anything that sounds doable, a little challenging, maybe even kinda fun.

    Not all of those, but the point is there are options and alternatives. You're doing great!


  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 13,989 Member
    @justanotherjen13 welcome to our little family! The hardest part in any fitness routine is simply starting, and you've already done that. Now it's time to make smart decisions about how to continue.

    @AnnPT77 pointed out a few ideas about what you can do to slowly and incrementally increase your routine, let me just share an anecdotal story about why. I've been lifting weights for about 14 years now. Early on, I wanted to see just how heavy I could lift, a good goal, IF you do it smart. Hint: I didn't. I rushed things, went up too fast, thought I was doing great just because the weights kept increasing, but I wasn't giving my body time to adapt fully. My muscles were getting stronger, but my joints were lagging behind, a fact I ignored until the day I almost tore both arms out of their sockets by trying to lift a weight I wasn't ready for. Cost me a LOT of pain, along with several months' rehab (and NOT lifting, which I had come to love). Fast forward to today, and despite the fact I'm at an age where most guys' strength naturally starts to ebb due to simply getting older, I'm at my strongest ever, and I attribute it to being smart and only very slowly increasing my workload.

    How does this talk about weightlifting apply to somebody simply wanting to walk? I rushed it, and paid the price. So don't rush it! Having a goal is great, but you need to be ready. Since you just started walking a mile each day, I'd say do not change anything for at least a couple weeks, just get used to walking that mile. The soreness you are experiencing will begin to lessen as your body becomes used to moving through that mile, and usually will be much less within a week or two, if you stay consistent. Then and only then should you begin systematically increasing your intensity in some fashion, whether through walking longer, or walking faster, or walking uphill instead of flat terrain, or adding resistance, or any of a number of methods. Small changes will make your fitness routine more effective, but only if you actually do them. If the change is too large, you physically cannot do it, or you risk injury. If you are in constant pain, then pretty soon you're going to have psychological challenges on top of the physical ones where you justify not going on today's walk because of <insert excuse here>.

    So welcome to walking and sharing with us! Don't change a thing for at least two weeks, just get used to it, let your muscles wake up to the fact they can do this. Ask questions during this span about what to do to improve next. If it takes a year to increase from 1 mile to 1.5 miles, that's still a full year's worth of walking you've completed, compared to throwing your hands in the air or getting injured and NOT walking at all.

    You got this, and you're in the right place. Welcome to the family!
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    nossmf wrote: »
    As someone who used to run 5k's for fun and competition, just reading your report made me exhausted! lol The only part I could really sympathize with from my own experience was the part where you started in the back of the pack and systematically passed a number of people as you went. That was me during almost every 5k I ever ran...start off with a slow jog to let the crush of people get ahead, then start to accelerate as the crush broke apart into individuals again, concentrating on ignoring my own aches and fatigue by focusing on passing "just that one person ahead of me" over and over again. Though admittedly I passed more people during any inclines we encountered rather than during the declines.

    @nossmf: IDK, I wouldn't minimize your 5k efforts, the 5k race distance can be incredibly painful, since you're pushing at threshold pace the whole time. That 20 minute stretch is intense suffering, just like a 20 minute threshold test in bike training. Long course racing involves a lower intensity effort that goes on for a long time, so you must learn to manage your energy in order to push your limits.

    But both races are as much a mental test as a physical one. The question is simply: How much are you willing to suffer in order to go faster? :)
  • justanotherjen13
    justanotherjen13 Posts: 419 Member
    @AnnPT77 and @nossmf Thanks for the advice. I definitely went overboard this last week. I used to be able to easily walk so much more and underestimated how badly out of shape I let myself get. My original baseline was going to be one mile in about a half hour so a very leisurely pace. After a couple days, that didn't seem like much so I just kept going like I used to when I was younger and would just wander for long periods of time. I think the problem is our neighborhood is on a hillside so leaving my house going pretty much anywhere in my neighborhood is downhill so it's not really hard and I don't think much of it until I turn around and have to walk uphill all the way home. Then I start to feel the burn. Too much burn, lol.

    So I guess this last week was some experimenting to see which routes work best but I managed to just overdo it because I was thinking about what I used to be able to do not what I can do now. My plan for this week is to stay in the flattest part of the neighborhood and try to stay between 1 and 1.25 miles and to slow down so it's not such a strain on my legs.
  • Ernest_Nigma
    Ernest_Nigma Posts: 78 Member
    edited July 2023
    I was out camping with some extended family last weekend so only walking and a few short sprints then. When at home, Monday on, I've been consistently doing a short early morning elliptical workout, 20 minutes today followed by 15 minutes of light calisthenics. I went to the gym to swim this afternoon but found that my swim stuff wasn't in the locker as expected. I did have gym shorts etc. in the locker so donned that and went to the fitness area. 20 minutes on a stationary bike to warm up followed by sets of assisted pullups. Then 20 minutes running on a treadmill and some sets on a lat pulldown machine.

    @Djproulx Your comment about suffering to go faster reminded me of a quote by a British cyclist, Greg Lemond: "It never gets easier, you just go faster" :smiley: However, that's for racing. Beginners should not be suffering while they're building a base.

    As I recall, there's a common progression for many begining runners. First your aerobic capacity starts to improve. The running feels easier but the muscles are easily strained. Think DOMS for instance. Then the muscles start catching up and runners have the wind and strength to hurt tendons and ligaments which toughen much slower. Or the muscles can develop faster than the fascia encasing them. The last thing to get stronger is the bones. I saw a video once of a female teenage highschool crosscountry runner collapsing near the finish line with broken legs. The moral of the story is to build slowly, even when it feels like you could be going much faster or longer.

    I hurt myself once by not allowing enough recovery after a 70.3. It had been my best time to date as I was training for a full distance event. The day after I ran an easy 5k and it felt good. So, the next day, I pushed hard. However, the big muscles were still recovering and I ended up straining a small stabilizing muscle that was trying to compensate. Believe me, even a little muscle can lay you up!
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    justanotherjen13 wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 and @nossmf Thanks for the advice. I definitely went overboard this last week. I used to be able to easily walk so much more and underestimated how badly out of shape I let myself get. My original baseline was going to be one mile in about a half hour so a very leisurely pace. After a couple days, that didn't seem like much so I just kept going like I used to when I was younger and would just wander for long periods of time. I think the problem is our neighborhood is on a hillside so leaving my house going pretty much anywhere in my neighborhood is downhill so it's not really hard and I don't think much of it until I turn around and have to walk uphill all the way home. Then I start to feel the burn. Too much burn, lol.

    So I guess this last week was some experimenting to see which routes work best but I managed to just overdo it because I was thinking about what I used to be able to do not what I can do now. My plan for this week is to stay in the flattest part of the neighborhood and try to stay between 1 and 1.25 miles and to slow down so it's not such a strain on my legs.

    @justanotherjen13 - Welcome! Great decision to start walking. You're on the right track in taking the suggestions offered by two veteran exercisers above. I'll just add that the most important thing you're doing right now is building the habit of exercising. Doesn't matter at all how far you go, how fast you go, or how hilly or flat the route is. The key to long term success IMO is to do something (anything) consistently until it becomes a part of who you are. And I smiled when I read your comment about your mind wanting to go farther than your legs would carry you. Boy, I've been there lately!!

    The other point I'll make is that you'd be surprised at what you'll be capable of in a very short time. And in response to your comment about "I was thinking how I could never do that", I'll give you an example that may provide some inspiration into what IS possible.

    This is a video from a race I did in 2018. Its 9 minutes long, but you can skip right to the parts that give you an idea of wide variety of people doing the race. Starting at the 2:30 mark, you can see and hear "regular folks" as they prepare their gear in the dark. Notice the smiles and enthusiasm. Then, skipping to 7:59, the heavy set guy who says "Tonight's the night" and later crosses the line to finally become an Ironman after 6 failed attempts. Finally, at 8:25, the announcer calls in a 75 year old athlete as he crosses the finish line. The point is not to try to sell you on triathlon, ;), but to suggest that we can do so much more than we think we can when starting out.

    Anyway, enough yammering from me. I'm looking forward to hearing about your progress.










  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,419 Member
    The usual roughly 7k in bow of the quad today, calling technical focus pieces, starting with early square-up and progressing via several focus-steps through drawing through all the way to the ribs then tapping down to release. Then we did some "hold consistent strokes per minute" intervals at a couple of different spm levels. There was East wind (directly counter-current on our stretch of river) so it was a little choppy.

    I was supposed to volunteer-supervise an open rowing session tonight, but there were thunderstorms in the area, so I took myself out for good Mexican food instead. ;)
  • DiscusTank5
    DiscusTank5 Posts: 656 Member
    @justanotherjen13 -- my elderly cat is currently perched on my left shoulder as I write this, and we both like your stopping to pet a cat during your workout. Welcome!

    @Djproulx, great video! It makes me want to go for the middle distance IM.

    @nossmf --your description of nearly tearing your arms off in the weight room sounded terrible and also made me think of Chewbacca. :) I'm in my third week off from running after trying to do too many miles, too soon. Brought on by thinking too much about what I used to do years ago and going from a 25 to a 45 min. run in one week (or maybe the shin splints had already started, who knows?).

    You said something about that too, @Ernest_Nigma, trying to recapture a past level of fitness too quickly.
  • drmwc
    drmwc Posts: 1,115 Member
    I went climbing yesterday. It was really good fun, I was in the best form I've been recently. I got one climb graded v5, although it was probably more like a medium v4. It's odd; I was terrible on Monday but a day's sort-of rest sorted it. (I don't really like rest days, so I did an hour's yoga and three hour's walking on Tuesday.)
  • Ernest_Nigma
    Ernest_Nigma Posts: 78 Member
    Swimming this morning, really early to catch one of the few times they have the bulkheads moved for 50m lanes. 13 x 100m with lots of rest, 40 minutes. 100m times are still nowhere near what they used to be but. like the signs @AnnPT77 mentioned, "You are Here" and here is where I'm working from.
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    Ernest_Nigma wrote: »
    Swimming this morning, really early to catch one of the few times they have the bulkheads moved for 50m lanes. 13 x 100m with lots of rest, 40 minutes. 100m times are still nowhere near what they used to be but. like the signs @AnnPT77 mentioned, "You are Here" and here is where I'm working from.

    50meter lanes are nice. Good news is that swim pace seems to respond well to an increase in training.

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