The Exercise Motivation Thread - 2015

[catlove15]

14 minutes of shovelling today to get my car out. according to my fitbit charge hr, which is a bit wonky sometimes. had done about 11 minutes last thursday too. other than that, i somehow walked more than 5,000 steps today too. usually 2500 or so. when snow gets less, will take dogs out for 40 minute walks again. 

you guys rock, keep up the great exercise and motivation !! 

 

[Norachan]

90 minutes of yoga this morning and 90 minutes of walking this afternoon.

I did my first hand stand of the year! Not a very good one, it was what my yoga teacher used to scathingly refer to as "The Banana".

 

[Winchester]

Good job, people! Great handstand, Norachan! 

3 miles walked during lunch today

 

[cyndilaupurrr]

 
Love this cartoon!

Now's the perfect time for you to have Cyndi in your life, cats have such a lot of healing energy. 

Thanks N,

I had that saved from a blog I wrote when I had my first heart attack.Sad thing is If I would have done my 1 hour a day for the last 5 years I probably wouldn't be back to square one again.

 

[cyndilaupurrr]

Good morning fellow feline caregivers

Just wanted to introduce myself and talk about my motivation for contributing to this thread.

I am  a 59 year old male who 5 years ago suffered a heart attack caused by blocked arteries, they were able to put a bare metal stent in one but the other was toofar gone. I take full blame for letting myself go so bad. I was well aware of the harm I was doing to my body each and every time I consumed a greasy burger or added salt to an already seasoned dish. I smoked for the best part of 40 years and did my fair share of recreational drugs as well so the miracle here is probably that I survived.

So jump ahead 5 years to September 2014 I had my 2nd heart attack and it turns out was the same artery blocked again but this time I had an added bonus of a blood clot letting loose in my leg. Thankfully I was in ICU at the time so a quick surgery saved me from a stroke or even death. Recovery from that was hard and still had not started an exercise routine as I was waiting to see a Cardiologist to get the green light. So when I do get in to see him he isn't happy with my test results and sends me home hooked up to a portable heart monitor to wear for the weekend. When I go back on Monday he tells me that my heart beat was messed up and that at one point even stopped for 5 seconds when I was sleeping. So end result last week I had to go and have a dual chamber pacemaker installed,I would post pics but would gross you all out,,, So

After a visit on Monday to the Pacemaker Clinic in Peterborough I have the all clear to start a cardiac rehab program. My unit is working fine but still have to be carefull not to dislodge the leads that connect to my heart so can only do walking for now but that is fine by me. I did buy a used treadmill after the heart attack in prep for rehab so will finaly start using it. It is old and can't adjust slope and only measures miles instead of kilometers but only paid a $100 for it so will make do. Also have a step calculator so will start using that to make sure I stay mobile when I am not on the treadmill. 

Was thinking of buying a good fitness calculator, I have a cheap one for heart rate and calculates calories burned but you have to wear a stupid band around your chest and the wrist band is so small I can hardly see the numbers. If anyone wears one that is good would appreciate a review.

Okay enough this post is too long already, have a great day all.

Ron aka Cyndi's Daddy

 

[AbbysMom]

Good luck with your rehab, Ron! We can all cheer you on. :nod: Does the clinic have their own rehab program? I know a few of the local hospitals do.

It was shoveling for me again yesterday. The inch of so on the driveway from overnight was easy, but I shoveled a path to the bird feeder. I was puffing by the end of that.

 

[Winchester]

HI Ron! Welcome to our little group. Wishing you the best with your rehab.

3 miles walked today during lunch

 

[cyndilaupurrr]

Good luck with your rehab, Ron! We can all cheer you on.

Does the clinic have their own rehab program? I know a few of the local hospitals do.

It was shoveling for me again yesterday. The inch of so on the driveway from overnight was easy, but I shoveled a path to the bird feeder. I was puffing by the end of that.

Thanks sooo much,

Nope I live in the sticks so it is a 2 hour drive to get to the clinic so will have to figure it out on my own, I remember a lot from the first time I was in Kingston, Ontario, the rehab nurses were so tough on us we called them physio terrorists

 

[cyndilaupurrr]

 
HI Ron! Welcome to our little group. Wishing you the best with your rehab.

3 miles walked today during lunch

Thanks for the warm welcome, now that I found this place to hang out I like my chances a wee bit more

 

[tammat]

Welcome Ron good luck with your rehab.
I could feel myself coming down with a cold yesterday. I didn't feel miserable just really tired. I slept a lot and ate a lot. No exercise for me. Today I'm training with Rohan so he will have no sympathy :lol3:. I hope to make up for yesterday on the weekend. Today is chest and biceps.

 

[cyndilaupurrr]

 

[cyndilaupurrr]

Yesterday didn't do any measurable workout but did do a few hours of housework so figured that is a great start. I found my cheap polar heart monitor and read the warning that says may not be safe if you have a pacemaker, so researched it a bit and seems there are mixed responses so am really unsure if it is okay to wear it. I sent an email to the pacemaker team that is monitoring me and will wait to hear back before using it to measure my workouts.

Today will resume my patrols of the property I provide security for, a normal patrol used to take 30 minutes but when the walkways are snow covered can take a lot longer and is a real workout when you add the weight of winter coat and boots. Also I will carry Cyndi in her travel carrier so that will add another 5 pounds.

Have a great day all and remember

1vu077.jpg

• cyndilaupurrr
• Feb 12, 2015

 

[jtbo]

Remember safe workout rule, one should be able to speak without gasping for breath, any harder workout is just giving more stress to body without helping much when trying to build back into 'normal' shape.

Those athletes and them with years of daily training can perhaps do harder workouts, but for those of us that are still building the base, that rule should provide safe way to get back in shape, someday I hope, I have been on couch too much again, off to bicycling on ice again

 

[Norachan]

2 hours walk today.

I got lost again.

 The snow ploughs haven't been through here all week and sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm following a foot path or a deer trail that's just going to disappear in the middle of nowhere. 

Ah well, safely back home now.

 

[jtbo]

2 hours walk today.

I got lost again.  The snow ploughs haven't been through here all week and sometimes it's hard to tell if I'm following a foot path or a deer trail that's just going to disappear in the middle of nowhere. 

Ah well, safely back home now.

If there is a sun visible even slightly, it is quite easy to tell which general direction to go, but then one needs to know few things:
http://www.naturalnavigator.com/find-your-way-using/sun

I have learned to use signs in nature quite well, cloudy days are bit difficult (but even then often there is brighter side and shadow side on trees), but when I'm picking up berries in the forest, I can leave big bucket on some place, then go quite far and return to where my bucket was, I just need to estimate distance I travel and time I spend when traveling, usually I don't have any kind of watch with me either, I just check where sun is and when I'm on yard I tend to check time from the position of sun too, it is always there and does not add any weight

It is also nice when tracking animals, it is quite fast to make markings on the map as I don't need compass to align the map.
When I was kid we often were boating and there one had to keep track of how far one has gone, that might help me quite bit now as I can quite easily tell how far I have gone.



Today 1.5 hours of bicycling, it was +2C so I had only t-shirt under my summer coat and while it was windy I still was sweating a bit Great weather actually, little bit of sunshine and lot of smooth ice, which is of course the best surface to ride bicycle on.

 

[Norachan]

@JTbo  I'm amazed that you can ride your bike in the snow and ice. I have enough trouble keeping control of my own two feet. I should learn how to navigate. At the moment I can always see Fuji so I know roughly where I am, but when the trees get all their leave on I won't be able to do that.

One hour of yoga and a one hour walk today.

 

[jtbo]

@JTbo
 I'm amazed that you can ride your bike in the snow and ice. I have enough trouble keeping control of my own two feet. I should learn how to navigate. At the moment I can always see Fuji so I know roughly where I am, but when the trees get all their leave on I won't be able to do that.

One hour of yoga and a one hour walk today.

I have trouble with my own two feet also on ice, but no trouble at all with my bicycle, there is no slippage at all, grip is better than at summer when there is loose gravel, I can brake so that rear wheel lifts up, grip is so good that it still is bit hard for me to really push bike to limits as my brain refuses to accept that bike is like glued on the ice.

Last winter even little bit of ice caused me to crash, I had then Schwalbe tires with 208 studs each, now I have Finnish made "Suomi tyres" brand tires, 294 studs front and 300 at rear, bike runs faster and yet has out from this world amount of grip, well worth of extra money they did cost.


I was running low of cat food so had to visit shop again, roads were even more smoothed out and there was lot more ice, people probably though I was crazy with mad grin on my face as I did ride all clear ice spots instead of spots with sand


Almost had an accident when I dismounted from the bike, shoes had absolutely no grip at all on ice, that is one of the problems, certain type of snow is also bit of a problem, it is kind of very tiny ice marbles and when there is enough of it, tires kind of float on top of ice marble sea, which does not offer much sideways grip.
Also when there is car tire track in deeper snow, track has such edges that soft snow outside the track is not providing much for tire to grab and edge of car tire track can be so steep and tall that I loose sideways traction.
Also enough deep snow tends to cause small issue when pedals sink into snow, shoes tend to get wet, but maybe proper shoe covers would help with that.

 

[Norachan]

No time to exercise today, had to work a 9 hour shift with just a 25 minute break. That's more tiring than my usual work out routine.

 

[Norachan]

90 minutes of yoga this morning and a 2 hour walk this afternoon, to make up for spending the day hunched over my computer yesterday. 

 

 

[Norachan]

Another 90 minutes of yoga. Snowing too hard to go outside for a walk today.