What Was Your Work Out Today?

Treadmill - 1 hr, 3.0 mph, 12% incline

I did a 10 mile walk, then went climbing for 2.5 hours. It was fun; I was in good form. I seem to be back to the form I was in pre-injury. My ankle was slightly swollen at the end, but not painful. (I can do pistol squats again.)

Lower Body

Squat 4x10
Rack Pull 4x10
BB Hip Thrust 4x10
Leg Press <<superset> Leg Press Calf Raise 4x10
Seated Leg Curl 4x10
Cable Crunch 4x10, 15, 20, 25

Must have slept wrong, as my lower back was grunting during squats, and the smart move was to not do rack pulls in that situation. So I swapped in hip thrusts instead. Been a while, felt awkward.

20 min. of outside walking today; 18 min. on the stationary bike; 2 min. of sit-ups and skullcrushers. Not much stretching--I ran out of time before an over-the-phone meeting.

I went climbing on Saturday. 3 hour session; it was fun. I climbed OK.

I did a 21 mile walk today; from my house to Bushy Park and back. The park was shut due to high winds.

At one point, there was a sign saying "footpath closed". This struck me as inaccurate: for example, I was I on the path. Therefore it was not closed. It was clearly more of a suggestion than an order.

However, by a strange coincidence, the mud did get to just below my knees at that point.

Upper Body

Bench Press: 5x8
DB Bench Press: 3x10
Cable Row: 5x5
Pulldown: 3x10
DB Shrugs: 3x10
Seated BB OHP: 3x12
Preacher Curl: 3x10, 12, 15
Cable Pushdown: 3x10
Cable Woodchoppers: 3x10

Due to Thanksgiving week, I knew I was only going to hit upper body once this week, so I did a hybrid of exercises from both of my routines.

Treadmill - 1 hr, 3.0 mph, 12% incline

I can always be more verbose in my recordings if you desire, my lady. 🤓

On an unrelated note, in the past when I opened the emoji box, the displays were so small I had to guess what half of them looked like. But between actually wearing my glasses like I'm supposed to do, plus this time the box opening to twice the size, I just spent several minutes scrolling through the available images and actually seeing what they are, lol.

Of course I do not intend to compete against the posts from recovering MFP'ers, I was just offering to draft up something more literary than the super-quick blurbs I normally do in this thread. To whit:

Overnight it snowed, which was anticipated and the reason I did not go to work today (the commute between cities involves travel through a stretch famous for piling up massive snow drifts, so my boss, who lives near me and makes the same commute, told us to simply start our Thanksgiving break a day early). What was unanticipated was the degree of snowfall at my house: Last storm I got over 18 inches of snow, but this time I had maybe an inch on the driveway. On a hunch, I set aside the shovel and grabbed the shop-broom (extra wide) and it proved perfect to sweep the snow off the driveway. Took less than 10 minutes, not enough to log as cardio.

Weights: Lower Body

Squat 4x10
BB Hip Thrust 4x10
Leg Press <<superset> Leg Press Calf Raise 4x10, 15, 20, 25
Seated Leg Curl 4x10
Cable Crunch 4x10, 15, 20, 25

Increased the weight used on squats for the first time in months, felt paradoxically good as well as the body staring back at me as if to say, "dude, what the...?" I think I will stick to doing the hip thrust for a while in favor of the rack pull, since both involve the same muscles but the hip thrust doesn't require gripping the bar and wrecking your palms.

After the gym, I went to the store and got a replacement pair of weightlifting gloves to protect my wedding ring from getting scratched to pieces by the unforgiving metal bars of lifting. My last pair wore out a few weeks ago, and I have been living with my ring removed and placed in my pocket to protect it (it's a massive fight to get it on/off my finger each time, so I've just been carrying it instead of wearing it). When I went to put my ring on after buying the gloves I couldn't, my finger was swollen a little bit, will try again later. (When my daughter found out I had bought the gloves she was NOT happy, since getting a pair for me was her idea for Christmas, and I just sent her back to the drawing board as it were.)

Leg day:
- Barbell Squats
- Romanian Deadlifts
- Leg presses
- Leg curls
- Calves

Currently running PPL. Rest day tomorrow (thank you Jesus)

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

Gym today:
First, treadmill 10 min. at 5.0 mph; 20 min at either 3.5 mph or 3.0 mph pace with a 6% incline and 1 min. at 12%. Don't know how you keep that up, @nossmf!
Second, calisthenics / free weights circuit x 2 for 20 min. of battle ropes, shoulder press; candlesticks; squats with 10 lb kettlebells. Lots of lunges pre- and post-running.

In other news, I got my colonoscopy set up for Dec. 19th, which is one year exactly from my last one, where they discovered 2A colon cancer. I had surgery 2 days after that, recovery, then 6 mo. of oral chemo pills. It has been three months since then, and I've been back in the gym for maybe half of that time.

@AnnPT77: The receptionist I spoke with on the phone today casually mentioned that they had just been talking about me and keeping open an emergency surgery slot after my upcoming colonoscopy "just in case." So that's terrifying. According to the medical literature, my chances of recurrence in the next 3 years are roughly 10-20%, maybe 2-4% less than that given the oral chemo regimen I opted to do. So why do I feel like it's a 1/2 chance? At least my thirty minutes on the treadmill today helped me regain perspective on this whole thing.

I'm going to turn those worries off now and enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving week. Peace and joy and good food to all of you!

@DiscusTank5, I hear what you're saying, and deeply empathize. Please try to keep yourself on the side of hope and happiness to the extent you can.

I will not say that improves prognosis, though some folks may say that staying positive improves survival odds. (I think they are unintentionally being cruel when they do so.) The research I've seen doesn't necessarily support that.

We're going to have emotions about these kinds of things. They won't all be sunshine and roses. That's OK.

I think that some people who can't understand/accept that maybe haven't been through anything similar, and perhaps even implicitly hope they'll wall themselves off from ever having to go through it, because gosh, they're just so darned positive. 🙄 If that could be correct, I'd be cheering them on to be positive in their own lives. I think it's not true, instead is just wishful thinking.

What I do think is that staying as undiscouraged and life-affirming as practical does improve the quality of our days, and that's a worthwhile thing in itself. I can't tell you how many things I did, during chemotherapy especially, to try to stay as often in a non-catastrophizing, non-depressed mood as I possibly could. (I didn't succeed every minute, of course. Pursuit is more important than perfection, IMO.)

At diagnosis, I was told I had around a 60% chance of 5 year survival. (Different cancer type, of course.) On the one hand, that's better than even odds, which is good. And risks of metastatic recurrence (in my cancer type) decline with time, though never go to zero. Now, I'm 24 years after diagnosis. But it's still scary sometimes.

With time, it does get a little smaller in the rear-view mirror IME. But worries still pop up.

I admit, I don't know a lot about your cancer type. I do know that for some types, healthy weight, a nutritious diet, and exercise activity can each improve survival odds at the individual level. You're giving those good attention in your own life, and that's a good thing. We can only do the things we can do.

For sure, I AM cheering for YOU. I hope everything will go great with your upcoming colonoscopy. Keep us posted, if you feel up to it, OK? Sending health rays in your direction!

I went climbing on Wednesday. It was terrible, gravity was far too high.

I lifted weights on Thursday (fingerboarding, pull ups, bench and deadlift.)

I went caving today. We wandered down a valley with a vague aim of finding new passage. We think we've found around 10 metres of new passage; if we can move a boulder we are within spitting distance of caverns measureless to man.

You need to go through a boulder choke which is pure choss. It feels like it could collapse at any point. So if it does go anywhere, we'll need to shore things up a bit.

There were major floods in Wales last week. The water levels were still high. I've been trying to upload a photo, but the caving hut wifi is not up to the task. I will try again when I am home.

@AnnPT77 my injury was pretty mild in the scale of these things. I suspect I may have broken the ankle, but I'm scared of doctors so didn't see one. So now it is broadly fixed, I will never know.

Off topic but similar anecdote: I mildly broke my arm when I was 17, and walked 2 miles from school to home with the broken arm. I fancied a cup of tea before going to the hospital, so I tried to avoid my parents spotting until post tea. (I failed, and didn't get the tea.)

@DiscusTank5 best of luck! As Anne said, keep us updated if you feel up to it.

Yesterday's "workout" was an hour spent descending to the basement, figuring out how to jigsaw the boxes and bins of Christmas decorations out of the utility/storage room where they were mixed in with all the boxes and bins for other holidays, then lugging the Christmas items upstairs to the main room, rinse and repeat. Definitely breathing hard, and enjoyed the sensation of using gym-built muscles in real life to accomplish a goal. Holiday season diet-relaxation aside, I think I earned those peanut butter cookies I got to indulge in after everything was retrieved! lol

(Of course, today comes the part of putting everything onto walls etc...)

nossmf wrote: »

Yesterday's "workout" was an hour spent descending to the basement, figuring out how to jigsaw the boxes and bins of Christmas decorations out of the utility/storage room where they were mixed in with all the boxes and bins for other holidays, then lugging the Christmas items upstairs to the main room, rinse and repeat. Definitely breathing hard, and enjoyed the sensation of using gym-built muscles in real life to accomplish a goal. Holiday season diet-relaxation aside, I think I earned those peanut butter cookies I got to indulge in after everything was retrieved! lol

(Of course, today comes the part of putting everything onto walls etc...)

Gotta love those holiday decorating workouts! Yesterday I only meant to hang up a few Christmas wreaths, but in the process ended up dusting, sweeping, and mopping the front porch. I'm tempted to log those minutes in as exercise . . . .

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

@AnnPT77: The receptionist I spoke with on the phone today casually mentioned that they had just been talking about me and keeping open an emergency surgery slot after my upcoming colonoscopy "just in case." So that's terrifying.

We're going to have emotions about these kinds of things. They won't all be sunshine and roses. That's OK. [ . . . ]
staying as undiscouraged and life-affirming as practical does improve the quality of our days, and that's a worthwhile thing in itself. I can't tell you how many things I did, during chemotherapy especially, to try to stay as often in a non-catastrophizing, non-depressed mood as I possibly could. [ . . .]
For sure, I AM cheering for YOU. I hope everything will go great with your upcoming colonoscopy. Keep us posted, if you feel up to it, OK? Sending health rays in your direction!

That's so, so helpful. Even before cancer I tended to catastrophize (you all should have seen me during the pandemic, esp. with my job in higher ed. and schools closing left and right, some of them permanently. My university made good strategic decisions and we survived fine but I worried a lot at the time.)

I have a subscription to Outside Magazine, and in the most recent issue they report on a study of the 15 traditional predictors of death (blood pressure, age, cholesterol, cancer diagnosis, diabetes diagnosis, etc.) The most recent findings suggest that the BEST predictor is how much someone moves, followed by age. I found that to be so encouraging, especially since it is something within my control (movement, not age) unlike a family history of certain cancers.

I'll update my test results to this message board. I've got a CT scan on the 5th and a colonoscopy on the 19th. Prayers and / or health rays much appreciated.

@DiscusTank5, people sometimes talk about food being medicine (which I admit makes me 🙄 a little), but movement certainly is important in a similar way. Eating more nutritiously, moving more in positive, useful ways . . . better quality of life, IME. Ditto for being at a healthy weight.

I never would've imagined, in advance, how much better life would be from doing better with those things. Too theoretical then, maybe?

I wish I had the character to "do it because it's good for me", y'know, harnessing all that motivation and discipline that I personally don't have much of . But mostly I stay active because it's fun (once I figured out the right thing(s) to do) and makes me feel good. (I admit, I do some things that are slightly less fun, in some cases even non-fun, to stay tuned up for the fun stuff, because the fun stuff is just that good. )

At my age (69), I think it's a little too late to work on a character or personality transplant, and those generally aren't very successful anyway IMO. I can still harness the power of happy habits, and that's good enough to accomplish a surprising amount, IME.

I feel sad when I see people here who've decided that all exercise is unpleasant, or people who feel that exercise has to feel miserable in order to deliver benefits. Their future self will inherit the consequences, but one's future self is a pretty misty concept for most of us anyway.

Motivationally, my future self is one of the things I've narrowed in on personally, though, during the experiences of improving fitness and reaching a healthy weight. (Those things happened years apart for me, better fitness came first by over a decade . . . post cancer treatment, in fact.)

Current Ann occasionally feels a little testy about past Ann's life choices , though not usually for long: Unchangeable now, right? But it does bring home the fact that my current choices - even some small ones - can affect my future self's happiness and overall well-being in surprisingly big ways.

Best wishes!