The Exercise Motivation Thread - 2016

[jtbo]

Yesterday's ride, tempo riding:

maximum_hr_testing.png

• jtbo
• Mar 17, 2016

Today's ride 1 hour and 34 minutes, recovery / base riding, this is almost same route as above, just tad longer until turning around.

base_training_maximum_hr_testing_route.png

• jtbo
• Mar 17, 2016

 

[Norachan]

You're putting us all to shame @JTbo

I did an hour of yoga today. I'm already feeling more flexible, even though it's only been a few days.

 

[jtbo]

You're putting us all to shame @JTbo


I did an hour of yoga today. I'm already feeling more flexible, even though it's only been a few days.

I don't know about that, I have gained 4kg during the last two weeks, I just have to keep moving to get better fitness, weather has been excellent so that has of course helped.


Today's run, there was headwind during first part and at uphill it made intensity too great, so had to resort to walking quite many times, but on way back, new running record distance, around 26 minute mark I did visited a shop and put groceries to backpack, after walking/running to top of hill, I did run all the way back home, that was around 3000 meters, surely it was slow jogging, mostly downhill and tailwind but still managed to do it, which made me happy:

run_18_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 18, 2016

Last week was really poor week for me, this week is perhaps bit better, yellow triangle things are inactivity stamps, which you get if you sit more than 1 hour non stop, I'm doing studying and learning on computer so it does include lot of sitting.

activity_calendar_18_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 18, 2016

I should keep this recovery status at strained level all the time, in order to get better fitness, anything below balanced is loosing fitness, so my month has not been so great, but that Polar Flow website is really great feature of Polar M400, it is quite easy to see when I'm slacking off and it really helps to force myself back on track:

recovery_status_18_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 18, 2016

 

[tammat]

It's Sunday and I've had a very lazy day. I did manage to go for my 20 min Sunday jog.

 

[jtbo]

First there was 20 minutes bike ride, then I did this 1 hour bike ride, at first section there were clear ice in few places and I had to go really slow as I didn't have winter tires on, then I did rode as fast as I could, legs burning, but heart rate just refused to get into red zone where it normally gets.

20_3_2016_1h_3min_max_effort_bike_ride.png

• jtbo
• Mar 20, 2016

After that I ate sweets and decided to do a running, or I should call it jogging as I can't reach pace where it could be called running, my HR just refuses to go enough high where it should go.

Anyway I did manage to jog 40 minutes non stop, that was my first 5K run also, took 35 minutes, I'm awfully slow, but I managed to do it and it was not very hard, but still HR refused to go higher when I tested that at the end, then I waited 5 minutes for HR to drop so I can see HR recovery rate, not sure if it should be faster drop, but got that tested at least.

40_min_jog.png

• jtbo
• Mar 20, 2016

I can jog lot more than 5-6 weeks ago when 0.2K was maximum I could manage, but I'm troubled why my HR is not getting high enough and why somedays 155 feels like nothing and other days 150 feels like death, next week I have doctor visit and I try to print my graphs and data so they would tell me why that happens.

 

[tammat]

Back and shoulders with Rohan today.

 

[foxxycat]

Sweaty Life Fitness's Strength Progression & Regression

todays motivation. No running incase my chest acts up. added another 5 lb to my shoulder press setup. at 27 lbs. using this to do curls, squats, calf raises=using a board to hang the back of my ankles over. using the pyramid lighter weights most reps

15 reps 23 lbs

12 resp 27 lbs

10 rep 30 lbs.

wise that i had a gym at work..for now its ducttape tools together. today is 45 min session. 15 to go

 

[tammat]

Good work foxy cat.
My goal is to look like Heather. I also want her tank top :lol3:. Seriously, Every day I am working toward a physique like Heather. That is my goal. Each year I start out by saying I will look like that by summer ( the end of the year in Australia). I will succeed. I will
Come on everybody. Let's smash our goals in 2016

 

[Norachan]

I did a half hour of yoga before work on Saturday and Sunday and an hour yesterday and today. The weather was nice over the weekend, when I had to work, but yesterday it snowed again. I still have high hopes of starting running again before the end of March.

Do you hear me weather? I want you to stop snowing by the end of March!!!!!

I'm off to run a few errands now, so should get about a half hour bike ride in this afternoon.

@Tammat  Heather does have some pretty impressive arms. I have good shoulder muscles from doing yoga, but I'm very envious of her biceps. If you ever get that buff you have to post some pictures here!

 

[foxxycat]

Yep I do love her arms. I've got some big arms myself but I'm waiting until I drop another ten lbs before I post pictures. We could always post our photos to encourage each other. I've always been lifting weights and luckily never lost my biceps. I work with men and being strong makes me feel safe plus they don't mess with me when they see my muscles :nod:

 

[tammat]

Oh yay for shoulders Norachan
And yay for good arms @foxxy
You gals inspire me. Woo!!
I did my legs today. I added in my hamstring curls at the end instead of Friday and then I went for my 20 min slow jog. It was slow alright!!! At first my legs felt like they were made of lead. I just love that 20 min jog. I get out in the sunshine and fresh air and I think. Lifting weights is great I love it but I have to count and remember technique. There is no time to think and process. I love walking for that reason too plus walking has the added bonus of looking at other peeps gardens

 

[foxxycat]

Today's concentrated arms=if you get overwhelmed I have done these exercises sitting on the couch. its a great way to learn correct form and concentrate without worrying about falling over, I am a klutz and often fall or stumble. a kitchen chair is a great tool and a big book in each hand. keep up the good work.

today i tried a hand stand but i cheated=i put my hands and head against the wall in the hall and use my feet to walk up the other wall-i didn't put my feet all the way up-just wanted to see how much weight i can put on my shoulder. i did it twice, i wont know until tomorrow if it hurts. so sometimes using your body weight is more than enough-yoga and plant position is really great way to work on core,. or if i walk i do arm circles or push arms over my head with light weights,. and i want my arms to look like the ones in this video!! strong!

keep up the good work!

 

[jtbo]

Today I felt that I had bit better day, so I did a 5680 meters run again in 33 minutes 16 seconds, 12 minutes was 2100 meters and 5000 meters was 29 minutes 42 seconds. I did run after sunset, -10 Celsius and bright moon on sky, clear ice on small forest road that I did run, no artificial lights, really pretty and I like to run on clear ice as bottom of my shoes is not wearing so quickly, also it encourages to run smoothly or one might fell.

Run_around_pond_22_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 22, 2016

This is 5K, still slow, but I did improve my time about 5 minutes over last time I believe:

5K_run_around_pond_22_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 22, 2016

I still think that my heart rate is way too high for the speed and again at 161bpm there was this wall where I could not get higher HR but I started to slow down no matter how hard I did try to push.

 

[Norachan]

today i tried a hand stand but i cheated=i put my hands and head against the wall in the hall and use my feet to walk up the other wall-i didn't put my feet all the way up-just wanted to see how much weight i can put on my shoulder. i did it twice, i wont know until tomorrow if it hurts. so sometimes using your body weight is more than enough-yoga and plant position is really great way to work on core,. or if i walk i do arm circles or push arms over my head with light weights,. and i want my arms to look like the ones in this video!! strong!

keep up the good work!

The thing about doing hand stands is that it actually feels like a lot less weight when you are totally vertical than it does when you're walking your feet up to the vertical position. Somehow the weight goes straight down through your shoulders and arms and you can hold yourself up-right quite easily.

I think the trick is to have a flexible lower back. Remember when you were a kid and you could just kick your legs over your head and go into a hand stand position against the wall? If your back is flexible enough to allow your legs to be high enough when you plant your hands on the floor you can just kick yourself straight up into a hand-stand position. Being able to balance unsupported comes later, but I'm sure you already have enough strength in your arms to hold yourself up there.

Try this yoga pose to loosen your lower back.


This one feels awesome, it's like having a shot of espresso, it's so energizing.


I walked for an hour today, but now I've started looking at yoga tutorials on Youtube I'll probably do some yoga after I finish work.

 

[tammat]

I did my chest and biceps with Rohan this morning and went for a 20 min jog in the afternoon. My kids rode their bikes whilst I jogged and they argued so I had to double back to hurry them up. Today it was not Mummy's time to think. :wife:

 

[foxxycat]

Originally Posted by Norachan  
 
The thing about doing hand stands is that it actually feels like a lot less weight when you are totally vertical than it does when you're walking your feet up to the vertical position. Somehow the weight goes straight down through your shoulders and arms and you can hold yourself up-right quite easily.

I think the trick is to have a flexible lower back. Remember when you were a kid and you could just kick your legs over your head and go into a hand stand position against the wall? If your back is flexible enough to allow your legs to be high enough when you plant your hands on the floor you can just kick yourself straight up into a hand-stand position. Being able to balance unsupported comes later, but I'm sure you already have enough strength in your arms to hold yourself up there.

Try this yoga pose to loosen your lower back.

Norachan-thanks for this info! I used to have back scoliosis and yep that first exercise is what they had me do but I couldnt grab my ankles. 

Many years ago I was in gymnastics. I was quite the flexible monkey. Now I always had a fear of falling on my back so never did back walk overs or back hand springs-and tried hundreds of times to walk on my hands-but never could get it. We used to do the vault-you run and spring off this board thingy onto that horse and flip over-I couldnt do it-ran my face right into the horse and froze up. Never found out why I have a fear of falling on my back. I can't bend my back enough to do that second video-I even tried those foam round things in gymnastics at 8-11 years old and I just couldnt do it. Maybe I will try again..

yes I remember putting my back up against a wall and kick up-I still can do it but I had shoulder surgery in 2007 so I havent done much with my shoulders so I am curious to see how much weight it can handle-it was a scope out of arthritis at 32 years old. Hurt like the dickens before and after.

I always loved yoga and watching videos on youtube because I get bored easily. This is why I stopped exercising. I used to buy those P90 extreme workouts and couldnt stand the music in the background..so I spend my lunch watching different videos..i search for recent uploads because I want to see what is new and trendy..some of these newer workouts are much more extreme than I remember.  If I had the time and money I would go back into gymnastics if nothing else than to build back my flexibility and keep me young.

 

[jtbo]

I'm not sure what this means?

"Balanced" tells you that your recent training and the time you need to recover from it are in balance. When you devote enough time for recovery, you can make sure you get the most out of your training.

"Strained" shows that your training load has cumulated and become high. This may also mean that you're not fully recovered from your past training and activity. Improving fitness and performance requires strenuous training every now and then, but also time to recover well.

"Very strained" means that you have been training hard lately and your cumulative load is very high. Over time this will improve your fitness and performance. You just need to give yourself enough time to fully recover before your next heavy training period or competition.

Should I keep exercising or should I have rest days so that strain level would be at Balanced level until I do next exercise, maybe I have been doing too much lately?

recovery_status_23_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 23, 2016

I don't feel any ill effects, but I'm just unsure if I should take it more easy to have faster gains?



Today I did chop firewood for elderly lady, it felt lot harder than it looks from heart rate graph, running at over 150bpm average feels lot easier than this firewood chopping I did:

wood_chopping_23_3_2016.png

• jtbo
• Mar 23, 2016

Of course hard = fun, suffering = pleasure, feeling tired = push harder, trough pain one gains success, so never ever give up, no matter if everything goes wrong, or nothing makes scale happy, just push, push, push, that is what I do.

Doctor sting me with Cortisone to shoulder that has been painful for nearly 6 months, now it really feels lot more painful, I don't care, I just push trough the pain, trough the head wind, because I know it will make me better when I just keep it up.

 

[foxxycat]

Today I focused on legs because I did arms for two days in a row. I could only make it to 20 min in the video before my knees throbbed. So I did some light jogging and stretches. Also sprints in the beginning to get the blood moving. I found this was very helpful having a rest between each set of exercises.

I don't know the answer to your question @JTbo. Maybe its as high as its going to get. My heartrate is higher than most peoples. my resting is 85 and exercise is not unusual to go 160 to 190. I have been at a doctor with an ekg and nothing came about it. So I think each of us is our own normal. As long as you dont have chest pains, or other signs of heart issues then keep going. also the older we get the slower our heart beats..I am still waiting for this to happen..good job keeping moving everyone!

 

[tammat]

foxxycat my friend does Cathe friedrick DVDs. She absolutely loves them. You might like her too? She is on YouTube. I'm not sure if she has full workouts on YouTube though? You might have to buy them? Cathe has some rockin arms

 

[jtbo]

Today I focused on legs because I did arms for two days in a row. I could only make it to 20 min in the video before my knees throbbed. So I did some light jogging and stretches. Also sprints in the beginning to get the blood moving. I found this was very helpful having a rest between each set of exercises.

I don't know the answer to your question @JTbo. Maybe its as high as its going to get. My heartrate is higher than most peoples. my resting is 85 and exercise is not unusual to go 160 to 190. I have been at a doctor with an ekg and nothing came about it. So I think each of us is our own normal. As long as you dont have chest pains, or other signs of heart issues then keep going. also the older we get the slower our heart beats..I am still waiting for this to happen..good job keeping moving everyone!

My resting HR has been now 42, but if I would keep two to three rest days it might be below 40, that and HR not getting very high is telling doctors that I'm in great shape, but I did show doctor how my Cooper run times are very poor, some 4 year old kids can do over 1500 meters, I can only bit over 2000 meters, so it is not great shape.

So after verbal wrestling with a doctor he agreed to have some blood tests, but I know already they will not reveal anything, they have been done many times before. Test that would reveal something is not possible to do in health care, that is oxygen intake measurement with heart rate monitoring during high intensity workout.