The Exercise Motivation Thread - 2014

[peaches08]

Ran 32 min.

Yes, those exercises, stretches, and special socks really help plantar fasciitis.  Grabbing a towel with your toes helps too.  New shoes are probably in order.

I'm on the fence about pain killers and problems such as this.  Yes, anti-inflammatories break inflammation. Totally agreed there.  But until you remedy the cause, anti-inflammatories are a bandaid that can cause more problems.  I think you're on the right track, Winchester.  And I meant, "I feel your pain"...often times I should not use my phone for posting, lol!

 

[peaches08]

Ran 32:35 min today, and the longest distance I've run yet at 2.9 mi.

 

[tammat]

Ran 32:35 min today, and the longest distance I've run yet at 2.9 mi.

You are powering along. That's fantastic. I'm so proud of you

 

[jtbo]

So today I will start with 15 minutes.  

How did it go?

This flu is such a bully, feeling almost ok, but when going outside and attempting do anything it is instant sweating and feeling sick, if it is not better after few days from now, I will start exercising no matter what...

 

[cat nap]

 

So today I will start with 15 minutes.  

How did it go?

This flu is such a bully, feeling almost ok, but when going outside and attempting do anything it is instant sweating and feeling sick, if it is not better after few days from now, I will start exercising no matter what...

Hi @JTbo  , it actually went pretty well for a 10 minute stationary bike ride.  My leg muscles began to feel warm so I wanted to continue, but remembered what you said to take it light, at first.

Only problem is that the day before, when taking sister to appointment, I parked the car far, say 3 blocks away (about 600 feet equals about 180 meters).   Well, its far for me, ....lol....not for you "exercisers".  I actually had to go back and forth to the car once, to check to not get a ticket, since only car street park for one hour.  So I think I walked about 2400 feet that day, and more from grocery shopping.

I forgot that when you start to work out and exercise, you are supposed to do mild stretching for a warm up?.

Do you "exercise people", do any warm up before?....in stretching?, and how long do you do it for?

Also, the lactic acid in side of legs does feel sore, but I was told to just continue, tomorrow, in exercising  to flush it away....is this true, you think?  Or would you just work on upper body, and alternate days of each?

P.S.  I don't think you should be exercising quite so soon after the flu.  I read that it takes the body an extra two weeks to recover to its original state.  Therefore your body still needs fluids, rest, for recuperation.

 

[peaches08]

Thank you Tammat!  It's still rough for me to breathe, but I'm doing it.  Two months ago, today's run would have been impossible.  When I want to stop and catch my breath, I remind myself of that.

JTbo, the flu (influenza virus, not the common cold) will take you down to the ground.  Hard.  It took me almost 2 months from start to finish to feel normal again.  Moving is fine, but watch overexertion.  This is not worth going to the hospital over.

cat nap, all movement adds up.  Don't forget that!  And yes, stretching is great but don't stretch cold muscles.  Move around a bit (warm up) and then stretch.  The lactic acid thing is a myth; the pain you feel is micro tears in the muscle.  That's how we build muscle and bone actually:  by breaking some of it down and building it back up.  And if it is mild soreness, then you're fine.  If you have some sort of program that allows for alternating upper and lower body, great!  Do the upper body then and lightly move then stretch the lower body.  Starting slowly is the way to go.  Too much too fast equals being parked on the couch again.

 

[jtbo]

Hi @JTbo
 , it actually went pretty well for a 10 minute stationary bike ride.  My leg muscles began to feel warm so I wanted to continue, but remembered what you said to take it light, at first.

Only problem is that the day before, when taking sister to appointment, I parked the car far, say 3 blocks away (about 600 feet equals about 180 meters).   Well, its far for me, ....lol....not for you "exercisers".  I actually had to go back and forth to the car once, to check to not get a ticket, since only car street park for one hour.  So I think I walked about 2400 feet that day, and more from grocery shopping.

I forgot that when you start to work out and exercise, you are supposed to do mild stretching for a warm up?.

Do you "exercise people", do any warm up before?....in stretching?, and how long do you do it for?
Also, the lactic acid in side of legs does feel sore, but I was told to just continue, tomorrow, in exercising  to flush it away....is this true, you think?  Or would you just work on upper body, and alternate days of each?

P.S.  I don't think you should be exercising quite so soon after the flu.  I read that it takes the body an extra two weeks to recover to its original state.  Therefore your body still needs fluids, rest, for recuperation.

Congrats, well done!

I usually exercise at one day and rest for day after and then again exercise. If I do a longer work out then I might give two rest days to my body, that way nothing gets too painful. It is not very exact however as there are so many variables, but best to first go too light than too hard.

What I think is that first one needs to develop a habit of exercising, after that one can start doing more. One guideline is that you should be able to talk without running out of breath to be at safe level, when I started cycling I could not talk and walk at the same time.

For stretching, I'm quite bad in that, I might stretch a tiny bit at around mid way of my daily exercise, sometimes afterwards when having a sauna, but that is about it. I do warm up however, it is just that I start exercise so lightly that I'm not breaking a sweat for first 10 minutes or so. Typical exercise for me is about 2 hours, long ones for 4 hours or more, then I sometimes do only 1 hour short ones, just to wake up my body, but now 1 hour is around similar to what 10 minutes was at the beginning.

i think that lactic acid comes to play when you push really hard or really long, it gives some sort of burning sensation and legs become well done pasta like.

Last summer I did climb up bit over 100 meters as average in 30km distance with bicycle, I did pushed at maximum that I could whole time, that took around 1 hour and 30 minutes, last 4km were difficult ones as legs started to have that burning sensation and they felt to be like rubber, so I had to push really hard to get any effect, that was first time when my lungs were not a limiting factor, thanks to new medication for asthma, it was quite incredible to be able to push so hard, but that was perhaps first time ever than I have had lactic acid effect.

But it also depends a lot of what one has eaten before exercise and also from muscle types as there are differences in what kind of muscles people have, other have more fast muscle and other have more slow muscle.

That has effect in bicycling to which pedaling cadence is appropriate, for example I have more fast type of muscle and for me close to 90rpm is good, that is pedals make 90 full rotations in one minute. I know people who have it closer to 40rpm and that are not even able to reach cadence over 100rpm, it affects to lactic acid and other such effects then too, but I don't think that those are too important at the beginning, I think that first 6 months or so would be just enjoying doing exercise without too much to take in, just more of enjoying and avoiding doing too much or too hard as that is often killing the motivation when there is lot of pain next day.

Even these days I still just do as much as I feel good about, so that I'm not exhausted after work out and almost daily, if not actual exercise it can be visit to shop that is already over 30 minutes of bicycle riding.

 

[jtbo]

Thank you Tammat!  It's still rough for me to breathe, but I'm doing it.  Two months ago, today's run would have been impossible.  When I want to stop and catch my breath, I remind myself of that.

JTbo, the flu (influenza virus, not the common cold) will take you down to the ground.  Hard.  It took me almost 2 months from start to finish to feel normal again.  Moving is fine, but watch overexertion.  This is not worth going to the hospital over.

cat nap, all movement adds up.  Don't forget that!  And yes, stretching is great but don't stretch cold muscles.  Move around a bit (warm up) and then stretch.  The lactic acid thing is a myth; the pain you feel is micro tears in the muscle.  That's how we build muscle and bone actually:  by breaking some of it down and building it back up.  And if it is mild soreness, then you're fine.  If you have some sort of program that allows for alternating upper and lower body, great!  Do the upper body then and lightly move then stretch the lower body.  Starting slowly is the way to go.  Too much too fast equals being parked on the couch again.

I think it has been already more than two weeks, I'm going mad of not being able to exercise

Lung issues might come indeed if one is not taking enough cautiously, maybe just tiny bit of wood chopping.

What do you think about this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactate_threshold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid

My understanding is that pain during exercise and hitting that "wall" is at least partly because of lactate acid buildup (also burning all hydro carbons might result hitting the wall), but pain next day would be because muscles growing?

 

[peaches08]

I think it has been already more than two weeks, I'm going mad of not being able to exercise

Lung issues might come indeed if one is not taking enough cautiously, maybe just tiny bit of wood chopping.

What do you think about this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactate_threshold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid

My understanding is that pain during exercise and hitting that "wall" is at least partly because of lactate acid buildup (also burning all hydro carbons might result hitting the wall), but pain next day would be because muscles growing?

I skimmed those two links, and I didn't see anything wrong with what they were saying.  Lactic acid is produced and used by the body under certain conditions.  I'm so out of shape, my running is probably less aerobic than most runners, lol! The "myth" I'm referring to is when people are sore the next day (or days later called DOMS) and they're told that it is lactic acid still sitting on their muscles.  It's not, the lactic acid has been used and dealt with by that point.  The soreness from the micro tears is explained in DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).  I normally hate wikipedia, but for our purposes I can understand using it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness

 

[Winchester]

 
Ran 32:35 min today, and the longest distance I've run yet at 2.9 mi.

Yay you! That's just wonderful. Congratulations! 

JTbo, take it easy. Flu can knock you on your butt and keep you down for a while sometimes. 

Cat Nap, when I was really into exercising, I would do upper body one night, followed by lower body the next. And keep alternating like that. Weekends I would either take off or do a very light work out.

 

[AbbysMom]

Nice job peaches08!!!

I give up. I think I've got plantar fasciitis. No elliptical this morning and I don't know if I'll be walking over lunch. Must call the doctor.

Just about the time I get going again and things really seem to be going well, something else happens. And I'm tired of dealing with it all.

I'm sorry. I hope it starts to feel better soon. :nod:

I've still been walking around 4 miles a day and adding some yard work in. Today is iffy because I hurt myself yesterday, but we'll see.

 

[cat nap]

Nice job peaches08!!!

......

Hi @AbbysMom  ....I am so hoping that you did not hurt yourself while exercising.   Because this exercise thing is oh so painful, when first starting.

I do think I have that DOMS that @peaches08    mentioned,  in the micro muscle tears, since I was no where near an intense workout for lactic acid build up.  That intensity would be way too high for me.

I am hoping that this DOMS goes away quick, or else my body just gets used to it, because I want to take some advil, but I understand that it can cause stomach irritation, so I will try not to.  A friend who body builds is constantly taking advils (ibuprophen) and has stomach issues as well.

Thanks @Winchester  and @JTbo.....I will be taking it slow, no weekend workouts, and will be alternating days and upper vs lower body.

I do need to make it a habit for at least six months like you said JTbo.  

 

[jtbo]

I skimmed those two links, and I didn't see anything wrong with what they were saying.  Lactic acid is produced and used by the body under certain conditions.  I'm so out of shape, my running is probably less aerobic than most runners, lol! The "myth" I'm referring to is when people are sore the next day (or days later called DOMS) and they're told that it is lactic acid still sitting on their muscles.  It's not, the lactic acid has been used and dealt with by that point.  The soreness from the micro tears is explained in DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness).  I normally hate wikipedia, but for our purposes I can understand using it:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness

Oh yes, that is then quite how I have been thinking.

That myth has not been happening here, I think that most think that lactic acid comes to play when doing exercise and they don't confuse that to next day soreness.

I did visit a shop again, got some lingonberry jam as shop was out of Heinz ketchup. This time I used my other bicycle that has been under repairs, it is a Hybrid bicycle so it is bit faster on asphalt roads, but I went quite slowly, still around 30 minutes as it was tail wind to uphill section and bike is tad faster than my MTB.

As I was riding I got think about how hard I pedal and most of the time it is somewhere around 10% or even less from maximum, even steep uphills I'm rarely going over 50%.
That is because I try to keep pulse around 100 and train my body to work longer without tiring. Also I try to follow rule which says that one should be able to talk without gasping breath.

That is also safety thing, as I spent most of my previous life without any physical workouts, I need to build lot of base slowly, there is danger of cardiac arrest and who knows what else if one starts too hard. I could do harder workouts already, but I tend to stick with such 'easy' workouts as it is good for fat burning too, it means I can workout longer and as local energy from muscles gets depleted fat burning starts or something like that is what I did read long time ago.

 

[peaches08]

I did a short run today, only 25 min since you can't go hard every day.  My shins are bit sore and I don't want to run into shin splints, no pun intended. 

@cat nap do you have a very sensitive stomach when it comes to advil?  If not, then take the advil and see if it helps.  I take aspirin since it works better for me.  I have GERD, so I try to take aspirin with some food or even calcium (for some reason that works for me) and that keeps my stomach from getting upset.  There's no sense in being in dire pain, but some soreness is going to remain regardless what you take.  So I guess it depends on how much discomfort you're in.  Keep doing what you're doing, light and short workouts until you get a base on you as JTbo mentioned.  Extreme workouts can cause a multitude a of problems when a person isn't conditioned for it.  Also consider icing the sore areas.  I love my ice packs!

Keep it up everybody!

 

[cat nap]

 
I did a short run today, only 25 min since you can't go hard every day.  My shins are bit sore and I don't want to run into shin splints, no pun intended. 

@cat nap do you have a very sensitive stomach when it comes to advil?  If not, then take the advil and see if it helps.  I take aspirin since it works better for me.  I have GERD, so I try to take aspirin with some food or even calcium (for some reason that works for me) and that keeps my stomach from getting upset.  There's no sense in being in dire pain, but some soreness is going to remain regardless what you take.  So I guess it depends on how much discomfort you're in.  Keep doing what you're doing, light and short workouts until you get a base on you as JTbo mentioned.  Extreme workouts can cause a multitude a of problems when a person isn't conditioned for it.  Also consider icing the sore areas.  I love my ice packs!

Keep it up everybody!

My stomach does get irritated from advil as well as from coffee at times.  It sometimes just depends upon other foods as well.  I had endoscopy so nothing major, just hiatus hernia from past and given pantoprazole magnesium (Tecta)  for flare ups.  Strangely, I find that a tablespoon of vinegar washed down with two glasses of water makes the pain in stomach go away faster. I also stay away from certain acidic foods like tomato sauce or fried foods which cause some pain.

But I never do this vinegar trick with the advil, since I don't know if it would cause worsening stomach aches.

I have never tried aspirin, and I know you can get it enteric coated, so will try that.  Tylenol, is the only other thing I take for headaches or colds.

I have not tried the calcium with the aspirin, but do take meds whenever possible with food.

Today, is better on the legs than yesterday, just the biceps feel sore, but really did not use them for much except carrying groceries and holding on to handlebars of bike.....lol......I know I am going to feel soreness in places I forgot existed.....but I just hoped it would last one day and be over....wishful thinking....I know....lol.

Thanks for all your advice.  Will do the icing, and also read that epsom salts....maybe in lukewarm bath would help.   At this point anything is worth a try.....and since none of you actually complain of soreness and pain, I figure its just I have to get past it, and then my body will tolerate it more.  Tomorrow is an exercise day, just not sure if upper or lower yet.  

 

[jtbo]

My stomach does get irritated from advil as well as from coffee at times.  It sometimes just depends upon other foods as well.  I had endoscopy so nothing major, just hiatus hernia from past and given pantoprazole magnesium (Tecta)  for flare ups.  Strangely, I find that a tablespoon of vinegar washed down with two glasses of water makes the pain in stomach go away faster. I also stay away from certain acidic foods like tomato sauce or fried foods which cause some pain.
But I never do this vinegar trick with the advil, since I don't know if it would cause worsening stomach aches.

I have never tried aspirin, and I know you can get it enteric coated, so will try that.  Tylenol, is the only other thing I take for headaches or colds.

I have not tried the calcium with the aspirin, but do take meds whenever possible with food.

Today, is better on the legs than yesterday, just the biceps feel sore, but really did not use them for much except carrying groceries and holding on to handlebars of bike.....lol......I know I am going to feel soreness in places I forgot existed.....but I just hoped it would last one day and be over....wishful thinking....I know....lol.

Thanks for all your advice.  Will do the icing, and also read that epsom salts....maybe in lukewarm bath would help.   At this point anything is worth a try.....and since none of you actually complain of soreness and pain, I figure its just I have to get past it, and then my body will tolerate it more.  Tomorrow is an exercise day, just not sure if upper or lower yet.  

There is also those ice gel packs, you just stuff it into fridge and when you need one, take it out from fridge and put in area that is sore. I do that for my shoulders quite often. But be aware, at least my cats like to claw into those bags and then magic stuff comes out which causes them not to work

We have ibuprofen too branded Burana, issue with ibuprofen seems to be that it rises liver values in medical checkup and even I never drink any alcohol they used to talk about drinking when they saw my liver values, then I have tried to avoid any painkillers whenever possible and just accept that I can't do much because of the pain. There are some alternatives of course, but for me Aspirin is a big no no, can't even remember what was the issue, but when I was a kid I was rushed to hospital because of that. Also Penicillin is sure death for me, instant bleeding from nose and I get red dots everywhere.

My boss had bad liver issues too from ibuprofen, there are also some studies about it:
http://livertox.nlm.nih.gov/Ibuprofen.htm

As they mention it is rare, but also it does happen, so be careful with painkillers.

Good thing is that it is only at beginning that those pains really are a bother, at least for me they have been quite mild after first week or two, also at some point I found that I have become excepting some soreness, if there is not such after workout I start to wonder if I would need to do heavier workout

Sauna is great for sore muscles too, it somehow causes them to relax afterwards, not sure if it makes soreness go away faster, but at least it does not feel half as bad after sauna


As I was feeling better, I did carry some sawdust to roof of sauna and small room, steep stairs and 60 litres of sawdust made quite a good workout, repeated few times and had to stop as world started spinning and ran out of air.

 

[cat nap]

We have ibuprofen too branded Burana, issue with ibuprofen seems to be that it rises liver values in medical checkup and even I never drink any alcohol they used to talk about drinking when they saw my liver values, then I have tried to avoid any painkillers whenever possible and just accept that I can't do much because of the pain. There are some alternatives of course, but for me Aspirin is a big no no, can't even remember what was the issue, but when I was a kid I was rushed to hospital because of that. Also Penicillin is sure death for me, instant bleeding from nose and I get red dots everywhere.

My boss had bad liver issues too from ibuprofen, there are also some studies about it:
http://livertox.nlm.nih.gov/Ibuprofen.htm

As they mention it is rare, but also it does happen, so be careful with painkillers.

Good thing is that it is only at beginning that those pains really are a bother, at least for me they have been quite mild after first week or two, also at some point I found that I have become excepting some soreness, if there is not such after workout I start to wonder if I would need to do heavier workout

Sauna is great for sore muscles too, it somehow causes them to relax afterwards, not sure if it makes soreness go away faster, but at least it does not feel half as bad after sauna

As I was feeling better, I did carry some sawdust to roof of sauna and small room, steep stairs and 60 litres of sawdust made quite a good workout, repeated few times and had to stop as world started spinning and ran out of air.

Thanks,  @JTbo    but please don't overdo it, listen to winchester and peaches08.  Not worth getting worse after a flu.  No world spinning or running out of air.  TAKE more breaks,  and like you told me.....go slow.

I do have those ice bags, and after reading that journal report on ibuprophen, the pain suddenly does not feel so strong....lol.

Seriously,  I do not take advil in amounts that high, normally only 1200mg total in a day, only when needed ...but it may be better to find an alternative.  Doctors here, always recommend tylenol, (acetominophen)(paracetomol ...over there, I think),   but I found it did not help as much with body pain, only headaches..

Right now, I am not focusing on the soreness, listening to music, and so I think I'll see how I feel at night.

thanks for the suggestions and articles.....very informative.

One question though:  Do you think that cold therapy is better for sore muscles, then,  at first ?

and then heat therapy, for muscle pulls,....because I use menthol gel, when I have pulled a back muscle, but not sure if I should try it here?

 

[jtbo]

Thanks,  @JTbo
   but please don't overdo it, listen to winchester and peaches08.  Not worth getting worse after a flu.  No world spinning or running out of air.  TAKE more breaks,  and like you told me.....go slow.

I do have those ice bags, and after reading that journal report on ibuprophen, the pain suddenly does not feel so strong....lol.
Seriously,  I do not take advil in amounts that high, normally only 1200mg total in a day, only when needed ...but it may be better to find an alternative.  Doctors here, always recommend tylenol, (acetominophen)(paracetomol ...over there, I think),   but I found it did not help as much with body pain, only headaches..

Right now, I am not focusing on the soreness, listening to music, and so I think I'll see how I feel at night.
thanks for the suggestions and articles.....very informative.

One question though:  Do you think that cold therapy is better for sore muscles, then,  at first ?
and then heat therapy, for muscle pulls,....because I use menthol gel, when I have pulled a back muscle, but not sure if I should try it here?

Yeah, I try to be careful, but it is bit hard to know where limits are, they come so early and sudden compared to my normal

Cold works best for real pain, imo. If only sore and just feeling that have done something, warm is just fine, it does not make it go away much, just makes it feel bit different.

I think that paracetomol does not do anything to me, does not help with migraine induced head pain, does not lower fever and for other pains I generally don't take anything, just cold therapy if even that. Thing is that whole my life some spot has ached at least a bit, so I don't think that I could even live without some reminder that I'm still alive.

ibuprofen does make me sleep a lot better, but I refuse to use it even for that purpose. Every medicine seem to come with some cost that is not advertised much, I try to stay clear of any medicine from that reason.

I use such cold gel for my neck and shoulders sometimes, it is quite good when pain gets so hard that it starts really limiting motion of head etc. But maybe because there always has been some hurt somewhere in body, I don't find soreness to be much of issue anymore, I kind of even like it, it means that I'm getting to better shape

Once I even had a broken wrist for several days, it did hurt only when attempting to use more strength so I did not see need to go to doctor, but as it did not go away I had to. So maybe there is also some differences in how different people feel the pain. Once one of my cats bit me few times to wrist, fangs sank to their full length and she even hold tight for a moment, it did hurt a lot more than broken wrist, but it was not still very much, migraine headache is far far worse.
So I think that it might be different what works for different people, but knowing how for example I experience pain might give better idea of what might work for you as pain and things that help with pain seem to be at least somewhat subjective instead of absolute.

However massage works for me quite well too, just sliding thumb along sore muscle and keeping bit of pressure, some repeats and that seem to help quite nicely, but again I do that only when soreness is such that it is hard to be still.

 

[pat]

 
I give up. I think I've got plantar fasciitis. No elliptical this morning and I don't know if I'll be walking over lunch. Must call the doctor.

Just about the time I get going again and things really seem to be going well, something else happens. And I'm tired of dealing with it all.

I'm so sorry.  I've had that and it takes time to get it resolved.  My doctor's advice, which worked for me was never go barefoot - if I was up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, slipped on some sandals.  With time, that did the trick (I am notoriously fond of going as close to barefoot as I can 24/7 unless I'm out in the yard or out driving <G>.

 

[pat]

Rode my exercise bike 3x this week and did a lot of walking yesterday (weather was so lovely out here).