Archive - February 2016

My journey towards fitness continues. I embarked on this Quixotic quest for two reasons. The first one is obvious. I’m larger and rounder than I’ve ever been. I hit my highest weight ever (my personal best!) and needed to start getting serious about my shape. Then I read and realized that fitness won’t help with that. There’s a dbaggy quote going around on Pinterest that says “Abs are made in the kitchen and not the gym.” Yeah yeah, whatever. This will still help with my roundish shape.

The more important reason is because I have become a VERY sedentary person. Once we moved into this lovely home, I sat around so much during the week and on the weekends that I literally started to hurt FROM sitting. One day over the holiday break, I felt my back seize up as I merely leaned a few inches over to the right to grab a magazine off of my to-read pile.

Ugh.

Listen, I know I am never going to be the fittest person ever. I’m never going to be a Crossfitter or a long distance runner. But I have at least 40 more years to go and I’ll be damned if I’m going to get injured sitting on a sofa.

My priorities are strength and flexibility. Cardio/stamina has to come later. No use trying to start jumping rope if my back will twinge when I bend over to pick up the rope, right?

So Total Gym and yoga it is…

My Total Gym routine

(incline set to 1 because I have no abs)

Scrunches, 2 sets of 15 but not nearly as nuts as this video.

(incline set to 4, most exercises done with 2 sets of 12/15/18 reps)

Arm Pulldowns

Hip Abduction

Cross cable row

Bicep curls

Oblique twister (one set on each side)

Pullups (there are 3 positions to pull, I do one set on each position)

Toe touch stretch (until I feel humanish)

(set incline to 9)

Squats!

30 with both legs
30 with the right leg either in the air or crossed over the left
30 with the left leg either in the air or crossed over the right.
30 with both legs

Yoga

My yoga days are spent with Adriene, of Yoga with Adrienne. The first two weeks, I did her Yoga for Beginners video. Then I promoted myself to her Gentle Yoga video for two weeks. Now I’m working through her Yoga Camp videos every other day.

And on Wednesdays, I do nothing.

The first week, even with the incline set on 1 for ALL exercises, I felt destroyed. Now I’m gently sore, but not so bad. My back feels stronger. I have more strength in my legs to tackle all of the stairs at the train stations. My posture is better. I have a little more energy and a little more bounce in my step.

And my belt is getting larger. 😉

I’m discovering that I can be a fit person again 1) if I stick with it, and 2) with the support of a partner going through the same thing.

Your reward for sticking through this self-indulgent post is a look at my exercise playlist named “Fitness Sucks.” You’ll notice a lot of wrestling entrance songs. I am unashamed.