"Fitness Club" Thread

GWC Community GWC Fitness Club
#681

late check in for me, no weigh in either (i’ve found you have to use the same scale or it doesn’t make sense and I’m not at home.

As anyone who follows me on twitter knows I got some bad news on a personal perspective, I had to rush up to Dublin to be with a friend and this lead to drinking and poor eating habits. I will weigh myself tomorow morning when I Get home but I figure a 3-5 pound gain this week.

I’m not acutally that troubled by it, I know this weekend was an arberattion weight and exercise wise and I’ll get back on track.

I’ve found what I’m doing for my chucktieth ( damn I will get that to catch on) I’ve discovered a six day, 26 pub, 73 mile real ale hill walking tour, tbh even over hills 11- 13 miles a day doesn’t bother me, ,even at my most unfit i’ve still been able to easily cover 6-7 miles a day.

So sorry to be negative on tweets and I shall share the news I got once the person involved gives me the OK, it’ll be in the aargh thread as it made me very sad :frowning:

Go wolverines, you gals and guys are a continuing inspiration to me to keep fighting the fat
Alan

p.s. I don’t normally sign off using my name, but this is me speaking, phaze is a rather more happy go lucky and cheerful person, I’m feeling neither right now

#682

Drinking ale and walking up hills for six days sounds like a challenge. I hope you’re back to your old phazedout self very soon, man.

#683

Hey all. I’ve been checking in on the Wolverines thread off & on. Here’s my deal:

I was in the best shape of my life when our first kid was born. Since then, not so much.

I wrecked my lower back a few years ago. Since, I’ve spent a lot of time stretching, nearly daily. But I never really aggressively rehabbed it. I was always waiting for it to get better. Which it didn’t.

Eventually, I realized what I was doing (or not doing) was, at best, keeping it at the same level. And I’d have good weeks and bad weeks. Eventually, I realized I needed to work on it; if it wasn’t getting better, it was getting worse.

So now, for the first time in years, I’m back to working out twice a week, and aiming to increase that number when my back is willing.

This is totally simplistic compared to the detailed diets here, but I’m also back on a diet I did a few years back that led me drop 30 pounds. It’s the Special K diet: 2 meals a day = Special K cereal, with a banana. It worked better last time, but this time, I’m struggling with habitual late-night eating. Anyhow, it’s a nice, easy way to make some progress.

Cheers, all.

#684

Something you might want to consider for your workout is hydro-aerobics, or water aerobics. Way low impact but a good workout. The water gives you some bouyancy taking the strain off your back.

#685

I had a much, much better workout on Monday. No crying! I did shoulders and arms, which are my weakest spots, and I’m really feeling it today. Sore. Thankfully, it’s an evening where I can come home and make a light dinner and relax. A little late-evening work to do but not much.

Hanna is going to visit her parents for the next 10 days, so I’ll be doing all solo workouts for a while. Hopefully I will do well at pushing myself just as hard.

My newest pair of jeans don’t fit anymore. I can slide them on and off without unbuttoning/unzipping. I don’t really plan to go buy a new pair in the next size down. Instead, I just look a little, well, gayer than usual. I should invest in a baseball cap to complete the look. :smiley:

Work pants are another issue, however. I am going to have to go buy some new work pants. That’s good, right?!

Thanks for the advice and reassurance on my post from Saturday. What a rough week! I was so emotionally and physically exhausted that I laid on the couch and watched Torchwood for 6 hours straight. It seemed to help me recover.

#686

If you wanna hold off on the work pants purchase, find a tailor & just have them taken in. The one I found here does it for like $5

#687

Actually, Samantha will do it for me. She is a fantastic seamstress. Good thinking.

#688

I haven’t made any progress toward my goal for quite a while, so yesterday I bit the bullet and joined a gym. I know myself, so I signed up for a few sessions with a trainer right off the bat. had the first one today, and I feel tired, but really good. looking forward to getting back to seeing regular progress. thanks for the inspiration, Wolverines!

#689

My return to exercising has run into a snag. I have come down with a case of ‘shingles’, needless to say I am into far too much pain to do any exercising. Once this is cleared up I shall return to the gym…

And I was almost up to half of the poundage I used to lift and press, sigh, oh well. :frowning:

#690

coulnd’t resist the futurama refernce there :stuck_out_tongue:

well as promised I hopped on my scales post-shower and weighed in this morning, I was expecting the worst but, much to my suprise, I’ve actually lost weight :confused:

previous weight was 105 kilos/ 232 pounds, I’m now down to 104.4/230&1/2

I know it’s not much of a weight loss but given the vastly unhealthy weekend I had this is a huge boost for me.

I’m back walking in to work this morning and more closely monitoring what I Eat but yay, now I can say this with prie and cheerfulness

WOLVERINES!

Phaze
on the "surprised and cheerful about the weight loss, onward and downward (as it were) " ID

#691

I have lower back issues as well. Physical therapy was very good for it. They massaged out the muscles, especially when they spasmed. They also put heat on it and ran electric current through it. Once the muscles were relaxed, they taught me specific exercises to do to strengthen my core muscles. Finally, they taught me what aggravated it. In my case, having my back rounded (slumping in my chair) or putting pressure on the front of my lower vertebrae (leaning over to lift things) would cause a lot of problems. I found PT very helpful. It was one of the things that got me going to the gym in the first place a couple of years ago.

#692

Ran into problem today:

Foot injury has been acting up again. Went back to doctor 2 weeks ago and we started PT again. Today he says I need another cortisone shot because the tendon is swelling very quickly and is starting to pinch a nerve. So I am taking Friday off of work for that. Le sigh.

Getting poked with needles full of steroids is no fun, sure, but the worst part is that this will definitely impact my workouts. I can skip Saturday without major consequences and he said I can go on Monday as long as I do upper body. However, he doesn’t want me doing cardio for more than 25 minutes at a time and increasing the number of sessions per week to make up for it. Frak.

I have been so good about getting to the gym 3 times a week but to do that I leave work “early” (exactly at 5:30) twice a week. My job is not a 40 hours a week kind of deal–it really requires 50 as a bare minimum. So I am yet again feeling torn between doing something that has been helping me a LOT–I have been feeling so much happier and more energized in the last 6 weeks–and maximizing my career opportunities.

I am frustrated and feeling down.

Oh well, I will be at the gym tomorrow, even if I have to keep it short-ish. And hopefully the second round of PT and steroids will be more effective.

Trying to look on the bright side!

#693

I have taken a break from my distance running to try and start working on improving my 1 mile speed. My goal is to break a 10 minute mile something i have never done in my life. to be fair until the past 5 months of so i have never really been a runner at all. I would dabble in running a bit but never really made too much of an effort at it. I am taking advantage of the NHL playoffs (mostly the Lightning games) to set mu running and break times. I will go an make a quick mile run right before the game and then in between each period. So i roughly have about 25 minutes between runs. When there is about 5 minutes on the clock i start stretching again for the run. Tonight was the best night of running i have had.

I started off kind a cold (I started late and wanted to get back for puck drop so i forgot to stretch before i ran) but still managed a decent time of 11:20 (which is much faster than most of my mile runs).

During my second run my iPod shuffled to on of the Anamatrix songs and that song really helped me set a great pace. As it was ending i i skipped back to the beginning. Between that song and the brief adrenaline rush i got from almost getting mowed down by an SUV (my fault i was at my halfway point and was turning around to head back and almost turned into it) I ran my fastest mile in my life running a 10:41 which beat my previous record by 13 seconds.

Some the second break of the Hockey game i went out again, this time running only to the Anamatrix soundtrack. I started off feeling a little bit stiff but knew my pace was pretty decent. Around the .4 mile point and then again at the .6 mile point i got to see fireflies in the woods/swamp which is one of the best coolest things about running in the dark. On the return trip i always have to go up the biggest “hill” in my neighbor hood which is only about a 10-12 foot rise but its only over about 50 feet so its fairly steep and exhausting to run up. I made it up the hill but shortly after i did have to pull up and walk for about 10 to 15 sec to catch my breath. But after that i gave it my all. And then when i checked my time at the end i found that i had set yet another personal record. This last run was 10:31. hopefully by next week i will break the 9:59 mark.

#694

I have no run into a bit of a snag with my workouts as well. Been having some shoulder pain that wasn’t clearing up & at times was getting worse. Was worried about losing range of movement & went to the Dr today. He says it’s either tendonitis, arthritis or a torn rotater cuff. I now have and anti-inflamatory, he wants me to ice it twice a day & has given me some exercises to do. Problem is, he doesn’t want me using weights with that arm for my workouts until this clears up. sigh

#695

weighed myself this morning, and even after 2 weeks of not having a regular exercise schedule, and frankly not eating the best, I still managed to lose 1.5lbs! :open_mouth:

#696

Whenever I work it hard I get some deep pain in my right shoulder. Once it was bad enough to require me to take a week off working it, but the trainer helped me correct the exercises that were tweaking it and we re-arranged my workout schedule to put more days between shoulder-stressing workouts. Funny, though: it hurts today because I backed chest day up a day. I think we’re going to switch to some fat-burning circuit stuff at my appointment today and I didn’t want to miss my favorite chest workout. :slight_smile:

Always listen to your doctor, of course. But in general if you disable (through workouts or otherwise) some portion of your body you can almost always find exercises to work other parts and still get your calorie burn. When my legs gave out, I did upper body only for a week. And when I injured my shoulder I did cardio and legs and the trainer showed me some adjusted arm exercises that didn’t strain the shoulder.

The big thing is to remember your minimum fall back schedule and keep to it. Every time I think “poor me” I remember the guy who lugs his O2 bottle around the gym and the 80+ year old Asian couple that comes in and helps each other on to treadmills to walk at like 1.5 mph. (When they can’t do that they do the hand crank cardio–sometimes together even.)

#697

This appears to have been a week of physical challenges… and mine wasn’t so much an injury as an evil, evil head cold. One does not want to be doing any inversions when one can’t breathe because of congestion.

I dithered about going to my weekly yoga class this morning, and guilted myself into it. However, the class itself was amazing - my body feels like it’s doing what I want it to do, and the stretching actually helped minimize some of the pain I’ve been feeling in my back (because I believe I may have strained muscles coughing).

I think I’ve mentioned this before in this thread, but I’ve always been at a normal weight, so for me the WOLVERINES! madness is more about relaxation, allowing myself to care for my body in the midst of all the stress in my life, and getting myself used to valuing my physical health in a way that I never really have (since I’ve been blessed to be relatively healthy my whole life) in the hopes of maintaining it into the future.

Plus, I managed to do a kick-ass half-moon without falling over today, and for my plow pose my legs were almost not bent :slight_smile:

#698

I’m nowhere near you folks, I cannot run, seriously, I’ve had both PT and medical opinion on this, my knees are screwed up from being repeatedly hit by cars in the 90s, they will not take the impact and if I try and road running I’ll be barely able to walk, trust me I’ve gone there (not an excuse, accepting the abuse my body has taken).

I can (and do) however walk, I know it’s not he intense cardio vascular workouts you folks do but it’s working on weight loss plus I feel exercised and happily endorphins and exhausted after.

This may seem minor compared to sub 10 minute miles but I made a decision today to divert and extra .75 miles to the pharmacy to pick up my cholesterol meds, in the evil yellow burning light, still happily wandered in to the house feeling more exhausted but happier with additional effort.

I will cover a minimum of 4-6 miles every day over my four day Easter break, with sun cream and a silly wide brimmed hat as appropriate ( I need it, 10 minutes in unfiltered sunlight will burn me, twenty will burn me badly).

When my weight drops below 100 kilos/220 pounds i will re introduce the wii sports active thing with their 30 day challenge as well as the walking still aiming to try to be in the low 90s kilos wise by the end of July.

I shall close with the clan cry, as always you guys are an inspiration to me, even if I don’t have you edication or intense workouts.

WOLVERINES
Phaze
on the “My housemate turne the frakking heat on this evening even though it was 16 degrees celcius outside” ID

#699

I’ve had a really crappy food day and I am trying hard to put it in perspective, but its really hard right now. Excuse me while I go sit in a dark office cubicle and try to suck it up.

#700

Phazedout, have you tried doing any exercising in a pool? The bouancy of the water can take a lot of the burden off of your knees and ankles, it is used by a lot of PT’s for physical therapy of accident/injury victim’s.