The Exercise Motivation Thread - 2016

[foxxycat]

Good girl Winchester. I took today as a break. I was going to try another round of exercises but my knee is throbbing. I am looking up the details for my insurance and make an appointment with the ortho that I went to in 2007. I hate to do this so late in the year but going to push this out until Jan so I don't have to pay a deductible twice. I doubt I can get the surgery before Jan to scope the junk out of the joint. I know it's fragments of garbage floating around. No amount of PT is going to help it. I have been doing PT on myself for how many weeks? I already tried the cortisone shots and I will refuse anymore. Where I want to continue weight lifting I don't want to damage any of the ligaments/muscles in that area. Winchester have you tried that turmeric again? I keep forgetting to put some in capsules..I should try to do this tonight.

 

[Winchester]

I'm glad you're going to see your ortho about that knee. Good luck with it!

No, I keep forgetting to go into the natural food store to get the capsules. My mind is shot and if I don't write a note to myself, chances are I don't get things done anymore.

Last night I did my ab work and my PT stretches

3.5 miles walked today during lunch.

Foot still hurts, but I do think the Traumeel is helping a bit. I don't want to give up my walks if I don't have to.

 

[foxxycat]

I tried to call the doc several times yesterday and put on hold. Hung up after 10 minutes. I have been doing massage on it-I am wondering if I strain/sprained it. Ice helps. Maybe I just stretched the ligaments too much. I still couldn't find out how much the office visit and how far out the schedule is. I will see how the rest of the week goes. Today is ok. I still have those stickon lidocaine pain patches from the pharmacy that are the bomb. They really work-you still feel the pain but it takes it from a 6-7 down to a 2-3. manageable.

Nothing done today again. I feel lazy but the temps supposed to be warm this afternoon so want to enjoy the outdoors before the clocks go back. Sunday they go back an hour and screw me up for weeks. I hate any changes to my schedule. Work is also wanting to shuffle our hours again. They tossed out the 4-10 workweek and instead want us here half an hour early and stay over half an hour. to get short day on Friday. it will bite them in the butt. They seem to forget they hired leadmen for carryover so they don't need the entire union body of 192 people to shuffle our workweek when the salary people still don't come in until 8:30 or later. Stupid crap is irritating...I really should pound out a few miles after work when I am in a mood. The madder I get the harder I train..GRRRRR.

 

[Norachan]

Sorry to hear your both suffering with your ankles and knees.

I was too busy for anything except a 30 minute bike ride yesterday. I got up early and walked for an hour this morning. Just as I was finishing work this afternoon I got a call from someone who had seen a cat matching Twinkle's description about a mile from where we live.

I raced down there as fast as I could and walked around for about an hour calling her. No sign of her, but I went back after dark and set up my trail camera and a big bowl of tuna.

Fingers crossed it really was her.

 

[Winchester]

Oh gosh, I hope it was Twinkles! 

Foxxycat, I hope it's just a bit of stretching and that's it. It's good that ice is helping with the pain and swelling. I tend to worry about tendons and ligaments, though.

My ankle pain seems to be subsiding a bit. I've been using Traumeel twice a day, in the morning before putting on my socks and then at night before I go to bed. The worst was when I first got out of bed in the morning and today, it wasn't that bad.....more like a dullish ache.

Did all my exercises and PT stretches last night. Man, seems like it takes forever to get everything done.

I did 3.5 miles on the treadmill this morning. Our local weather-weenies have been talking about rain today now for the last week. So I got up and hit the treadmill, thinking I wouldn't be able to walk during lunch. Came back upstairs after my walk and Rick had TWC on. Now the rain/sprinkles "may" come tonight. I could have walked at lunch! And since I've cut back to once a day because of the ankle, I don't want to walk twice today. 

 I'd much rather walk outside at lunch than walk on the treadmill. Darn it. Oh well, it's done for the day now.

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

So we are still walking every day for two miles. I am at my weight goal and am trying to maintain and not lose more. I want to do something to tone my upper arms. I bought some 3 lb. dumb bells at Wal Mart.
I am looking at some exercises to do with them.

I have read of the importance of stretching muscles, warming up etc. to keep from having muscle injury. Can anyone give me some useful tips.

 

[jtbo]

Warming up, go light, like walking not too fast and not for too long, usually I can find legs being bit stiff after walking about 1/4 mile or even less and I stretch hamstrings and muscles of legs at that point, just reaching my toes, pulling ankle to butt and such stretches at that point, most difficult is to keep stretch on for enough long as even 5 seconds feels like eternity when stretching.


Something that might be some interest:
https://www.acefitness.org/blog/1575/debunking-fitness-myths-stretching

Anyway, I find that when I stretch after 1/4 mile of walking or so, rest of the walk goes much easier, without it it can get quite like walking on wood blocks. Same goes for cycling.

After exercise I do same kind of stretches and I have not had sore legs for really really long time.

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

Warming up, go light, like walking not too fast and not for too long, usually I can find legs being bit stiff after walking about 1/4 mile or even less and I stretch hamstrings and muscles of legs at that point, just reaching my toes, pulling ankle to butt and such stretches at that point, most difficult is to keep stretch on for enough long as even 5 seconds feels like eternity when stretching.


Something that might be some interest:
https://www.acefitness.org/blog/1575/debunking-fitness-myths-stretching

Anyway, I find that when I stretch after 1/4 mile of walking or so, rest of the walk goes much easier, without it it can get quite like walking on wood blocks. Same goes for cycling.

After exercise I do same kind of stretches and I have not had sore legs for really really long time.

jtbo I am not concerned about the walking. We have been doing that six months or more. My question I needed help with is concerning using the hand weights. They weigh three pounds each. I want to learn to use them in some way to help me tone my upper arms. I read there is a risk of over extending muscles using these dumb bells. Do you have any knowledge about that.

 

[foxxycat]

I did some workout yesterday..this video..


Blueeyes=go to youtube and type in hand weights arms women and there are hundreds of videos=you can select longer videos on the search options or look for shorter duration. That is how I learned to do the exercises. you can also google search hand weights arm exercises in the images section and you will find plenty to try. you can also carry those weights on your walk. The motion of just holding them when you walk will help your shoulders/arms etc.

overextending is something I am not familiar with. When completing a rep=you can just open the joint halfway and then bring it back to the starting point. Some exercises want you to complete the 180 degree motion and others you only have to do half of that. like you stand with arms at waist=lift arms oout to side with hands at same height as shoulders=this is easy at first until you get to rep 10-15. then bring the arm out straight in front of you to shoulder height. these two work both shoulders and biceps etc. you can do curls. there are different variations of curls. the best exercise for back/shoulders is what they call lawn mowers..it's like pulling a cable from the lawn mower=google it..i found this term on a men's workout video. of course they make it look easy. I found tons of material on Google search,  on youtube I found the following: popsugar, HASfit are the two I really like. They go slow and explain everything as they go. Hoping this helps..

yes you want to warm up walking/marching in place prior to working on weights. the muscles are more flexible when your body temp is warmed up. Or just sitting wherever it's hot will work but movement works better for the body. I generally don't focus on prestretching=this is counter-productive. you want the body limber and warm=generally you want to do stretches AFTER about 15 minutes of exercising. The key is warm stretching to avoid stretching a cold muscle. That's how injuries happen-stretching while you are not warmed up you will find uncomfortable and you may get frustrated due to not being able to stretch as far as you can when body is warm. 

I often make up moves as I go along=I may do two or three moves in one to save time=squats-then curls-then push the weights up over my head=shoulder pushes? I don't know the actual names of the exercises...hope this helps...

 

[jtbo]

jtbo I am not concerned about the walking. We have been doing that six months or more. My question I needed help with is concerning using the hand weights. They weigh three pounds each. I want to learn to use them in some way to help me tone my upper arms. I read there is a risk of over extending muscles using these dumb bells. Do you have any knowledge about that.

I would think that 3 pound hand weights are mostly for warmup, so you do warmup, then stretch a bit and after that would come exercise/work part.

I have read that dumb bell weight should be so that you can do 5 to 10 repeats at maximum, depending from source, that is when building muscle. More repeats with smaller weights for building endurance.

Adjustable dumb bells might be good investment as during first months weights might need to be increased several times as one gets stronger and gets better with technique.

With 3 pounds, I doubt you will have any issues as long as you remember that never let gravity do the work, don't drop your hands with weight and also don't swing weights up, happens really easily as it makes work feeling less taxing. Slower is better and maintain control all the time, if you feel you are failing controlling dumb bell, decrease weight or repeats, increasing resting between repeats until you can do movements with full control.

 

[Norachan]

I left my trail camera and some cat food at the spot Twinkle may have been seen for the past two nights. Nothing showed up at all. That's kind of disappointing, the place is a few cottages surrounded by woods so I thought I would have got some wildlife on camera at least.

I keep going back there at different times of day and waiting around, just in case.

The weather was really nice yesterday. I spent all afternoon walking around, giving lost cat posters to everyone I met. One guy said he had seen a cat about a 10 minute walk uphill from the place I've been leaving the camera. Checked that area for about an hour, but no sign of her.

It's nice that people seem so genuinely concerned though.

I think I'll leave the camera where it is for one more night, then try the place further uphill.

About 4 hours walking altogether yesterday.

 

[Norachan]

I got a huge stag on camera last night. No cats though.

Walked about 3 hours in total yesterday and 90 minutes today

 

[tammat]

I trained on Monday with Rohan. I started my new programme. I did my back and chest and then planned to go home and do my biceps. I got home, ate and crashed. I didn't do my biceps nor did I train again until the Thursday. [emoji]128576[/emoji] I was unmotivated. That's pretty much a first for me. Sure I procrastinate and muck about but I always get there in the end. I didn't even care if Rohan growled at me. He didn't. In fact he was great. I trained with him on Thursday then by myself on frid and yesterday I did my legs light and ran 5kms. Today I am really busy and I have to try and fit my workout in. Wish me luck [emoji]128512[/emoji]

 

[Norachan]

90 minutes walk this morning.

2 hours raking up leaves and pulling out weeds this afternoon. Still got half the enclosure to do tomorrow.

 

 

[Winchester]

Good luck with your workout, Tammat!

Norachan, I'm truly sorry; I keep hoping she'll show up.

I walked 3.5 miles today during lunch (with no pain, believe it or not!) 

 

[foxxycat]

Great for you Winchester!!

Lunchtime I did walking/gentle side to side stepping.

Gym tonight. Gonna try tomorrow before voting then wed. I still have to take one of the cats for laser therapy but its too late in the day to get both the workout and her appointment done. Where's that extra hour we got? Oh that's right-I was wide awake all sat night into sunday...

free pizza night at planet fitness. still sore in knee but I am not bending my knee as much. gonna see how this afternoon goes..I miss the gym and moving around. I rested my knee all weekend. Forgot my ice pack.

Sorry Norchan that your kitty is still not home.

Good job everyone! If I can do an hour a day that's my goal. today was 20 min so far-but I didn't break a sweat. Just gentle movements.

 

[tammat]

I did it!!! I trained after dinner last night. I did back and chest. Today I did shoulders and triceps with Rohan and tonight I did my biceps which I was supposed to do last night but it was too late.
Today I signed up with a nutrition coach. It's crazy expensive and I woke up in the middle of the night worrying about the cost but I just did it. It's for 6 months and I'll see her one on one every two weeks to make adjustments ect... For this first two weeks I'm just going to change my carbs.
Hope you find your kitty soon Norachan.
Woo!! Winchester. Fingers crossed the pain free continues.
Go foxxycat. You are back girl.

 

[foxxycat]

It was a ghost town last night. Obama was in Durham and caused all kinds of traffic backups. Many grumbled about the stupidity of the timing but we made it out of the traffic jam. Hit the gym for abit. Elliptical machine for 54 minutes-just under 4 miles. Then did chest and arms on that smith machine thingy. I still can press 70lbs. I was surprised.  I started at 50lbs and it was still easy...so bumped it up in 5lb increments. Tonight is rest night. Need to go at it slow and easy. Plus with elections I really don't want to stand in line all night. So tomorrow after work I will start on legs or at least what I can do without too much discomfort.

 

[Winchester]

Good work, ladies! Keep it up!

3.5 miles walked during lunch today

 

[tammat]

It was a ghost town last night. Obama was in Durham and caused all kinds of traffic backups. Many grumbled about the stupidity of the timing but we made it out of the traffic jam. Hit the gym for abit. Elliptical machine for 54 minutes-just under 4 miles. Then did chest and arms on that smith machine thingy. I still can press 70lbs. I was surprised.  I started at 50lbs and it was still easy...so bumped it up in 5lb increments. Tonight is rest night. Need to go at it slow and easy. Plus with elections I really don't want to stand in line all night. So tomorrow after work I will start on legs or at least what I can do without too much discomfort.

Yay You!! 54 mins on an elliptical is mammoth. Australian tv is broadcasting the American Presedential vote. Wow! It's pretty amazing. What the heck is going to happen???