Using It - July 2nd - July 8th

[Ottawa]

Sunday - Bike to/from church, Heavy bench weights 'til failure
Monday - 22km bike with my wife
Tuesday - 80 situps, 20 minute fast walk with short sprints, 15 mins throwing exercises against wall with lacross ball
Wednesday - Baseball after work Crunches and weights in evening
Thursday - Situps, Hand weights
Friday - Volleyball - drive down for wedding
Saturday - Long walk in Peterborough

Remember to keep your EXERCISE FUN!
http://sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=66

In talking with a few relatives (low calorie dieters, exercising to keep fit) it amazes me how many injuries they get. Two are involved in planning and working toward adventure challenges but often find themselve injured prior to the big event, mainly through their exercising. Their planned adventures are great but they often injure themselves before doing the actual challenge. One of them avoids almost all fat and never exceeds 15grams/day. I have reviewed Protein Power with her but she is in the medical profession and seems to be chasing mainstream ideas, book after book and able to maintain a low weight but prone to injury or short on long term strength. Currently they are on a low GI diet similar to South Beach while restricting fat even further.
Although I have gone through a few minor injuroes myself, and have noticed that heavy resistance prior to a sporting event reduces my performance, our bodies seem to heal so much faster eating this way.

Here is a short 15 question quiz on Exercise (http://sparkpeople.com/resource/quizzes_questions.asp?quizid=33)for those interested. I only scored 10/15 but it gives some good insight into Fitness thinking.

[Mitra]

Randy, you always manage to get such a variety of activities into your week!

I'll be working on my new yoga routine. It's not hugely different from the old one, but does have a bigger range of movement. Once I've done it for about a week (towards the end of this week) I have a few extra things that I can start adding in (assuming my back holds out!). It's quite encouraging looking at the postures and remembering how restricted I was this time last year. Having spent the last few months working on strength and stability, I'm now going to be seeing if I can increase flexibility again without losing the stability.

[Shadow]

Randy - Great lineup for the week :thumbsup:! Loved the article and quiz, too! Mitra is right - you always have the most wonderful variety in your weekly workouts!

Oh yes, injuries... I am currently reading a book titled "Framework - your 7-step program for healthy muscles, bones, and joints" that was written by an orthopaedic surgeon (Dr. Nicholas A. DiNubile). Hopefuly I'll learn enough to prevent future injuries and quit aggravating past injuries :rolleyes:.

Mitra - Great week in your plans, too :D! I'm sure it is thrilling to look back at a year ago and realize how far you've come :)!

[Mitra]

I'm sure it is thrilling to look back at a year ago and realize how far you've come :)!

The trick is to compare with a time when it was worse, not a time when I could do more than I can now :rolleyes: .

[Shadow]

Oh dear, I misunderstood :eek:! I thought you could do less a year ago than now :o. That's what I get for trying to read & post while I'm watching TV :rolleyes:....

[Mitra]

No, you were right, I can do more than a year ago - but not more than I could do two years ago or five, so how happy I am varies depending which point I pick for comparison! So you can keep the TV on ;).

As I think about going on the yoga course in August, I keep remembering when I went away last year, and how careful I had to be to avoid all sorts of movements in the group yoga sessions. This year I think I could do pretty much everything. I have to be more careful with what I do at home, because I'm doing it every day, but for a one-off, there isn't much I would need to avoid entirely now :D. (I might not be able to do it as well as a few years ago, but I could have a go without injuring myself). Actually, I'm as strong as I've ever been and my joints move better now than just before I started PP, so although my hamstrings are a bit tight from not doing much forward bending for the last year and a half, I'd probably have to go back at least 10 years to find a time when I could do more - and there were a few times in my early 30s when I had back problems, so maybe I'd have to go back 15 years or more. And even then, I was just more bendy, I wasn't very strong, so I'm probably fantasising some mythical youth when I could do anything.

[Ottawa]

Randy, you always manage to get such a variety of activities into your week!

I think it's a bit of ADD:o. If it is not interesting or challenging, I soon tire of it so I try to find something on the horizon to hold or create a new interest.
The sports are almost always fun but require regular committment for 3-4 months at a time. The workout videos end up used a few times but then unused for a long time, possibly never again.
My very best workouts are an organized workout like an Aerobics, Kickboxing or Body Sculpting class, where you are pushed to do more.
With teh exception of teh weights and the treadmill in the winter, most other equipment that I have bought ends up in a yard sale a year later.:frown:

[Shadow]

No, you were right, I can do more than a year ago - but not more than I could do two years ago or five, so how happy I am varies depending which point I pick for comparison! So you can keep the TV on ;).
:lol:! Well... I say focus on the positive ;). I think all of us did things 5 years ago or so that we don't today - but I prefer to think that age is bringing wisdom, not a slow down :tongue:!

As I think about going on the yoga course in August, I keep remembering when I went away last year, and how careful I had to be to avoid all sorts of movements in the group yoga sessions. This year I think I could do pretty much everything.
Now see, that is wonderful :thumbsup:! I remember how much care you had to take last year this time - so once again, you've come a long way :D.

... so I'm probably fantasising some mythical youth when I could do anything.
Well, we all have those fantasies :lol:!

[banshee]

Well, looks like I'm on extended holiday from exercise. My knee has actually been getting worse, and apparently it was the walking that was doing it, since I haven't done any other exercise for the past few days. I wasn't trying to walk for exercise on my trip, but I had to do quite a bit of walking in the airports, and then I wasn't thinking and agreed to go for a walk with my dad. That ended up being two miles of brisk walking with the dog, who occasionally would jerk me to a stop when she found something interesting to sniff at. Then right before leaving, I was alone in the house when the cleaning people showed up, and had to take the dog out for a walk again, because she wouldn't stop growling and barking at them.

I really did try not to exercise most of the time, but the walking I did do seemed to aggravate things further, so I've decided that I'm going to take a holiday from exercise until after my surgery next week. That should give me a good solid week of nothing except the walking necessary to get to and from my car, and in the meantime I'm going to ice my knee, take anti-inflammatories, and do gentle stretching. I might also go to a massage therapist and get my iliotibial band worked on to see if they can loosed it more than the stretching seems to be doing. But if it doesn't get better, I'll have to see the doc after I get through the surgery.

Sigh. I never would have guessed before this that simply walking briskly could be so detrimental to the knees. :( Running, sure, everyone knows you're putting a lot of stress on the knees when you run, but I never thought walking could cause trouble.