Why I’m Choosing To Exercise (Week 3 Update)
Fat down, Money up
Working my way toward my New Year’s Resolution.
This week I would like to talk about why I am doing this?
Of course, there are many reasons to begin exercising and to lose weight, for me, though, the main reason for putting exercise on my list of priorities is that I have really felt my body age over the past couple of years; and by age, I mean that I feel stiffer than I have ever felt before, and more prone to injury as well. It also seems to me that my stomach, which really isn’t that big, is interfering with my movements more and more. When I bend over to tie my shoes, I feel it pushing into my legs and pressing inward against my organs. When I move quickly up or down a staircase, I feel it moving heavily in the opposite direction of my body: up when I’m going down, and down when I’m going up.
I don’t like this. I don’t like not being able to crouch down comfortably. I don’t like feeling like there is something getting in the way of my natural movements. And I don’t like the way that my hips, legs, and back feel after dealing with the extra weight that I am carrying.
As I have said, I’m not that big, but if I know that if I don’t begin making changes now, the problem, which I am already uncomfortable with, is only going to get worse.
For much of last year, I saw a physical therapist. He treated me for what appeared to be a case of frozen shoulder. It began without incident and gradually became worse—an ache in my shoulder that led to a severe lack of motion for more than six months. It’s hard to say what began where and which problem led to which, but throughout much of last year, I suffered from increasing stiffness in the hip and shoulder joints on the left side of my body and also from an increasing stiffness in my lower back.
Everyone ages differently, I know, but at 38, I can’t help but feel that some of the issues I’m encountering are premature. I don’t want to lose mobility. I don’t want to become stiffer. And I don’t want to go to my annual checkup this summer and be told that I’m another kilogram or two heavier, or that my waist is a few centimeters bigger. These two very things have been said to me year after year for the past five or six years and I’m finally ready to make sure that I don’t hear them again.
We may not have complete control over how and when we age, but our actions definitely have an impact on these two things. This year, I’m determined to start doing things a little differently. I’m determined to act and behave in a way that will have a positive impact on my body so that I can be loose and flexible, quick and energetic, and so that I can move with ease and comfort.
This Week’s Accountability Report
Exercise: Four out of seven days
Weight: Slight weight loss (from 82.4 kg to 81.3 kg and back to 81.8 kg this morning)
Waist Measurement: 107 cm
Thoughts: Exercising everyday continues to be a difficult goal to achieve. I’m not convinced that it’s one hundred percent necessary to exercise everyday to achieve the results I am looking, but it’s an ideal that I initially decided to work toward (even though I don’t have a particular reason for doing so).
Over these past three weeks, I have felt myself get stronger. The added strength shows in my workouts. I can do more reps now than I could three weeks ago, and I have much better control over my movements. I don’t yet feel like I’m ready to change my current routine because the increased number of reps that I am doing keeps the workout challenging. At some point, though, maybe when the weather gets better and the sun comes up a little earlier, I want to add a cardiovascular activity to my current exercise routine. If I do that, I think it will be much easier to exercise everyday because I will be able to walk or jog on days when I am not doing nine minutes of interval training. We will see.
Keep it up! Starting out your workout journey is always a series of ups and downs and it's easy to feel like you've plateaued. If you're feeling a bit more adventurous, I'd suggest trying the Insanity videos. It's a bit crazy all at once but you could work yourself up to do the first 10 minutes, then slowly the first 15, then first 20. The key is to keep up the intensity and your form more than timing! Keep us posted on how things go!
Thanks. I’ll look at those videos. Having a little guidance would be nice. To begin, I just wanted to try something I felt pretty confident about being able to fit into my schedule and keep up with. In that regard, I think I’ve chosen well.
I don't think you need to exercise everyday. I guess it depends on what you are doing and what your body needs though.. but from the sounds of it it's already having a decent impact and once you start jogging, or walking you will notice a different positive change too.. I myself just try to stay active. I go play Frisbee golf, or basketball sometimes. Go out and run around throwing a football with my nephews, or skateboarding or bicycling around. It feels less like a workout for me so it's all easier to do.. or I go and hike and climb up crazy mountains to see crazy things and appreciate awesome vantage points.. I need to do reps and do all of the things that happen in a room though, I need to lift weights, do push-ups, pull ups, squats, jump roping, and etc. That kind of stuff is hard for me
I much prefer your approach, but I’ve found it harder and harder to get away from family and work responsibilities to do such things. I hope that I can get back to mountain climbing and cycling when my children get a little older, so for now I’m doing the indoor workouts to keep my health for later, when I will hopefully have more time. It’s a struggle every morning, but making myself accountable is helping me to continue.
Honestly I think it's a confidence thing, after taking some time off from lifting and working out it's become much harder to find the motivation to start a consistent regime. Feeling weaker and stiff makes the workout not really feel good, but I know after a week or two I'll see some improvement and be more motivated. I'd say start slow with bodyweight exercises. Just do like one set of each, and build up each week
Have you heard about the crypto coin that pays you for exercising. "Sweat coin". It uses a gps to track your movements so it won't work on the threadmill. **Fat Down Money Up ** :-)
I hadn’t heard of that. That makes me want to make another cross country bike trip. At the moment, I’m mostly staying in one place, but that could be extra motivation for running or walking. Thanks.
If I found something like that, I do not know if it was the same or it was another, it still exists, I also knew and used a cryptomoneda that was shaking the mobile was to go to do sports with the mobil in hand and every time the mobil noticed with the sensors the mobimiento added a few coins (that was the special form of mining that I had) are very interesting ways to mine without using electric power, also as steemit where we write when we are mining.
I love seeing people who are motivated enough to see a change in their life. It keeps me motivated to improve myself.
From my experience (2 years of body weight training + 3 years of weight training) you don't have to workout daily to see the results that you want. Just increase the intensity of your workouts and (as you mentioned in your post) improve your cardiovascular strength in order to raise your fitness standard.
I really suggest you try body-weight training for additional benefits. I recently wrote a blog on body-weight training. You should check it out:
https://steemit.com/fitness/@mujtabazahmed/why-body-weight-workouts-are-worth-it
Keep up the good work!
I will. Thank you. One thing that I don’t fully understand is when people say increase the intensity of your workout, does that mean I should go all out for as long as I can, which might only be thirty seconds, or should I pace myself to last the full minute, but pace myself in a way that is intense and challenging over the slightly longer period of time?
Both ways work. However, I'd suggest to pace yourself to last the full minute since this way you're forcing your body to fight till the end (which really burns a lot). This way your endurance also improves.
Once you're stamina is up then you can change your focus onto shorter high intensity workouts. This is what I did and it really paid off.
As we all know it is easy to lose track of all the good intentions that the start of a new year brings us. This year started off as a new month, in a new year and on a Monday. You are doing what most have already given up on or lost the motivation to keep going. Keep up the good work. Holding yourself accountable and to a higher standard with pay off dividends.
Accountability is huge. Without it, it’s too easy to lose sight of things, as you said. That’s why I trying to make myself accountable to as many people as I can. Thanks for dropping by.
My husband started cycling in the gym last year, an hour a day, 5 mornings a week and lost 5 kg in the first 3 months . Maybe you can try that as well
I would like to get to a gym on a regular basis. Right now, though, I have to make breakfast for my family in the mornings and get my children ready for nursery school, then take them there, go to work, pick my kids up in the evening, work or eat dinner with the family at night, wash the dishes, bathe the kids, brush their teeth, read to them, and put them to bed. By that time, there isn’t much time left in the day. For now, I have the hour between 5:00 am and 6:00 am to work with, so I’m trying to stay close to home. That limits my options a little, especially with the winter weather my town gets. We’ll see. Maybe I can find a way to get to the gym moving forward.
Has your husband continued to lose weight, or has he leveled off?
Man o day these kinds of results from consistency and determination are inspiring. The everyday initiative is tough, but effective if done well. Just make sure to target specific muscle groups and give others time to rest. Rest and nutrition are essential for long term success in a plan as aggressive as yours.
I’m only trying to do nine minutes a day: one minute of squats, one minute of mountain climbers, one minute of push ups, then a one minute rest. After that I do two more three minute sessions with different exercises. It definitely wears me out, but is it aggressive? I have no context for judging. That’s why I ask.
I prefer the muscle group splits. If you are going full on with leg workouts each day, you wont be giving yourself time to fully recover.
Try focusing on a muscle group each day then allow at least one-two days of rest for that group before working it again.
For me, working leg muscles has always been a group that needs 2 days of rest. I go full on with squats, lunges, jump-split squats, and burpees. It works the muscle group to exhaustion. So the next day I'll typically do back and biceps. Then chest and triceps. Abs are something i try to do a little bit of each day. Focusing on just abs for an entire day can make it really hard to get out of bed the next day!
That sounds like solid advice. Thanks! I’ll look into breaking things up a bit.
Thank you for sharing.your experience is very good.
Join me if you like.
Good experience
For me, yes, it is.
I work out for the same reason- not to get beach body, but for the health. Well, of course, if I will get my six pack as an extra, I don’t mind😂😂😂
I hear ya. Ending up with a six pack would be a nice extra;)