My back is the bane of my existence. Yes, I appreciate that I need it for life, but holy hell it annoys me.
Everything will be fine for a while, and then BAM! It goes out and I'm stuck laying down for at least half a day.
Of course, the fact that I'm up and around after that half-day is a testament to the work that Karen and I have done since February. Even with all that work, my back is giving me more problems than Karen or I would like, so we've decided to make some changes...
For the next 4-6 weeks, we're going to be working exclusively on core/back strengthening exercises to see if we can get my back to a more optimal place. Once we get there, I'll go back to my strength workouts. I'm going to keep doing the cardio because that doesn't usually cause me any pain.
If you're running into problems with pain in your workouts, it may be a good time to take a step back and see if you can do something to help the weaker parts of your body before pounding the hell out of them.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
Latest Email to My Trainer
Hi Karen,
I just realized I didn't give you my take on the new TB workout. As I am so fond of lists, that is what you shall get now.
1. I still hate lunges. Of any kind. Sadly, I do recognize their value.
2. Those kickbacks are a bitch. I can feel things EVERYWHERE when I do them.
3. I am not coordinated. At all. Trying to get the ball tap down without falling on my face is QUITE challenging.
4. Working out while you don't feel well is always exciting. Wednesday I took a nap after I got home from work. I ALWAYS feel nauseated when I get up. Ugh. Today it was having greasy food for dinner. I farted myself out of my room. I am gross.
5. For some reason, the dumbbell alternating curls always make my stomach retch. I'm trying to breathe more as I do them to see if that helps. So far, no improvement.
All in all, I dig it. My upper back is definitely getting a work-out with this!
Until next time...
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Worst. Workout. Ever.
I've been working with the fantastic Karen over at afitterimage.com for over two months now. I've had some hard workouts and I've had to push myself a lot. I've had setbacks with my health - my back acting up, catching a cold - but I haven't wanted to quit. Until Monday night.
Allow me to paint a picture for you. It's sometime last week, and Karen's sitting in her fitness lair, devising my workout plan for Monday. She sits, hunched over her computer, elbows on the desk, fingers steepled a la Mr. Burns. In the background, Charlie Daniels Band's "Devil Went Down to Georgia" is playing, but only the part where the devil's on the fiddle. There's a flash of light as Karen realizes the torture she's going to unleash on me. Her hands feverishly cross the keys, each stroke designed to bring me more pain than the last. When she's done, she uploads "Boot Camp," and cackles with glee.
Okay, I may have exaggerated a bit there. But man, that kicked my ass. And not in the, "Wow, I feel really accomplished" way. Rather, it was the "Oh my God, I want to die, I can't breathe, please shoot me now" kind of way.
To be fair to Karen, I wasn't feeling super hot that day. I'd done a bit of drinking Saturday night and spent from 4am to 6am praying that the Vomit Gods wouldn't visit me. I took a little nap around 9am, but woke up to go get a mani/pedi, get my hair done, and go to dinner and the movies with my sister. I went to bed later than I should have. The entire day, I had a headache and felt a bit sick to my stomach. That lingered into Monday.
So perhaps I wasn't in top form Monday night when I attempted the workout. I wanted to die. So much.
I guess the takeaway from this isn't really that Karen's evil. Instead, it's that if you treat your body like shit and then attempt to make it do something like a kick ass boot camp workout, you're going to be miserable. I should have listened to my body and just taken the night off instead of trying to prove something to myself.
Nah. I'll just blame Karen.
Allow me to paint a picture for you. It's sometime last week, and Karen's sitting in her fitness lair, devising my workout plan for Monday. She sits, hunched over her computer, elbows on the desk, fingers steepled a la Mr. Burns. In the background, Charlie Daniels Band's "Devil Went Down to Georgia" is playing, but only the part where the devil's on the fiddle. There's a flash of light as Karen realizes the torture she's going to unleash on me. Her hands feverishly cross the keys, each stroke designed to bring me more pain than the last. When she's done, she uploads "Boot Camp," and cackles with glee.
Okay, I may have exaggerated a bit there. But man, that kicked my ass. And not in the, "Wow, I feel really accomplished" way. Rather, it was the "Oh my God, I want to die, I can't breathe, please shoot me now" kind of way.
To be fair to Karen, I wasn't feeling super hot that day. I'd done a bit of drinking Saturday night and spent from 4am to 6am praying that the Vomit Gods wouldn't visit me. I took a little nap around 9am, but woke up to go get a mani/pedi, get my hair done, and go to dinner and the movies with my sister. I went to bed later than I should have. The entire day, I had a headache and felt a bit sick to my stomach. That lingered into Monday.
So perhaps I wasn't in top form Monday night when I attempted the workout. I wanted to die. So much.
I guess the takeaway from this isn't really that Karen's evil. Instead, it's that if you treat your body like shit and then attempt to make it do something like a kick ass boot camp workout, you're going to be miserable. I should have listened to my body and just taken the night off instead of trying to prove something to myself.
Nah. I'll just blame Karen.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Sado-Masochism Explained
Latest email to my trainer...
Karen,
I don't think anyone ever really pegged me as the masochistic type. I'm pretty sure if someone had to choose between either sadist or masochist to explain me, they'd choose sadist (apart my from some of my relationships and friendships I suppose).
More shocking than that is the revelation that you are clearly a sadist. I mean, Karen, really, I'm shocked. You never struck me as the sadistic type. Today's Killer Upper workout showed me your dark, sadistic side.
At this point I'm surprised I can type you this email. My arms are something akin to total jelly. Congratulations. A 5 year old could beat me in an arm wrestling contest. I just want to know which little brat put you up to it.
More seriously, I'm kicking the shit out of the plank. Closer to 25 seconds than 15, but 30 is way out there. Those dumbbell front raises are really kicking my ass. I'm having trouble getting to the full extension and by rep 8 I'm contemplating dropping one of the weights on my foot so I can stop. My push-up is pretty high up, but I'm actually doing a full push-up, and that's the goal, right?
I think this is working well and I'm excited about the improvements I'm likely to see.
Your favorite masochist,
Lyndsy
Karen,
I don't think anyone ever really pegged me as the masochistic type. I'm pretty sure if someone had to choose between either sadist or masochist to explain me, they'd choose sadist (apart my from some of my relationships and friendships I suppose).
More shocking than that is the revelation that you are clearly a sadist. I mean, Karen, really, I'm shocked. You never struck me as the sadistic type. Today's Killer Upper workout showed me your dark, sadistic side.
At this point I'm surprised I can type you this email. My arms are something akin to total jelly. Congratulations. A 5 year old could beat me in an arm wrestling contest. I just want to know which little brat put you up to it.
More seriously, I'm kicking the shit out of the plank. Closer to 25 seconds than 15, but 30 is way out there. Those dumbbell front raises are really kicking my ass. I'm having trouble getting to the full extension and by rep 8 I'm contemplating dropping one of the weights on my foot so I can stop. My push-up is pretty high up, but I'm actually doing a full push-up, and that's the goal, right?
I think this is working well and I'm excited about the improvements I'm likely to see.
Your favorite masochist,
Lyndsy
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Weigh This, Biznatch!
In case the title of the post didn't give it away, I'm not a big fan of the scale.
A few years ago, I went on Weight Watchers. And I kicked the shit out of it. I dropped like 60 pounds in 5-6 months. I got on the scale EVERY DAY. I could tell you to the tenth of a pound how much I weighed on any given day. I was the smallest I'd been in YEARS. I saw my dad and he was like, "Oh my God! You haven't been this little since high school."
That was all well and good, but to succeed with Weight Watchers, you have to keep doing it. And doing it. You wonder why there are 50 year old people in those meetings who have been using it for years. They're there because they HAVE to be there.
Needless to say, I put the weight back on. Not all of it, I don't think, but most of it.
The thing is, I got compulsive about my weight. Obviously the less you eat, the more you lose. So I'd just rein it all in. I wasn't using all of my points every day, or even close on some days. I tried to throw some exercise in, but then the scale wouldn't budge, and I would get SUPER frustrated.
The other thing is that I was eating crap food. Sure, I was eating less of it, and there's something to be said for that, but I wasn't eating well. Which is why when I got off Weight Watchers, I gained it back.
This time around, I'm not using the scale. I'm trying to see how my body FEELS. How my clothes fit.
And it's funny, I got on the scale this week, just to see because my trainer asked how I was progressing. I weight about 7 pounds more now than when I started. Odd thing is, I look slimmer, I feel slimmer, and my clothes fit better.
Because I'm not using the scale as my gauge, I didn't freak out. I thought about what I've been eating, realized I could be doing it better and hopped off the scale. No throwing things, no avoiding food, none of it.
I know I need to eat better, and if I were, I'd probably be seeing crazy results. But, I know myself well enough to know that if I make drastic changes, they'll never stick. I can jump into an exercise routine and keep that up no problem. But my diet, well, that's a completely different story. There is NO point pushing into something I can't keep up.
A few years ago, I went on Weight Watchers. And I kicked the shit out of it. I dropped like 60 pounds in 5-6 months. I got on the scale EVERY DAY. I could tell you to the tenth of a pound how much I weighed on any given day. I was the smallest I'd been in YEARS. I saw my dad and he was like, "Oh my God! You haven't been this little since high school."
That was all well and good, but to succeed with Weight Watchers, you have to keep doing it. And doing it. You wonder why there are 50 year old people in those meetings who have been using it for years. They're there because they HAVE to be there.
Needless to say, I put the weight back on. Not all of it, I don't think, but most of it.
The thing is, I got compulsive about my weight. Obviously the less you eat, the more you lose. So I'd just rein it all in. I wasn't using all of my points every day, or even close on some days. I tried to throw some exercise in, but then the scale wouldn't budge, and I would get SUPER frustrated.
The other thing is that I was eating crap food. Sure, I was eating less of it, and there's something to be said for that, but I wasn't eating well. Which is why when I got off Weight Watchers, I gained it back.
This time around, I'm not using the scale. I'm trying to see how my body FEELS. How my clothes fit.
And it's funny, I got on the scale this week, just to see because my trainer asked how I was progressing. I weight about 7 pounds more now than when I started. Odd thing is, I look slimmer, I feel slimmer, and my clothes fit better.
Because I'm not using the scale as my gauge, I didn't freak out. I thought about what I've been eating, realized I could be doing it better and hopped off the scale. No throwing things, no avoiding food, none of it.
I know I need to eat better, and if I were, I'd probably be seeing crazy results. But, I know myself well enough to know that if I make drastic changes, they'll never stick. I can jump into an exercise routine and keep that up no problem. But my diet, well, that's a completely different story. There is NO point pushing into something I can't keep up.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Today's Lesson: Check Your Equipment
I mentioned recently how much I used to love riding my bike, but lately it's been more of a chore than anything else. Today I may have discovered why.
As I was getting ready to ride off into the sunset, I decided to check my tires to make sure they had enough air. I rode once on tires that weren't inflated enough, and it's a lot harder to ride that way than when the tires are properly inflated. I'm not really trying to earn points for extra difficulty with this, so I keep them well-inflated. It took much longer than it should have, but I got my tires all pumped up and ready to go. I figured that would solve the problem. Wrong.
I'd been riding for a couple minutes when I felt the familiar pain creep back into my legs, right at the top of my knees. Since this has been happening, I've been thinking about a friend of mine who posted pictures of his knees being iced on Facebook. He'd been riding his bike for a while and suffering from the knee pain I've been complaining of. I'd chatted with him about it, and asked him if he needed to adjust his seat since he was probably riding with it in the wrong place.
Now, how that didn't spur me into action to check on my own seat is beyond me. When I bought my bike they fitted me to it, so I assumed that everything was a-ok.
Let's think about this for a minute. My bike sat, unused, for nearly a year. It had been moved from one place to another to another. It rode from Seattle to West Palm Beach on the back of my car. Even after all of this it still didn't dawn on me to check the seat until after I started riding today.
And, it's not like I stopped because I thought I should check the seat. I stopped because MY SEAT WAS MOVING. I was worried about sliding off and running myself over with my own bike. Turns out, the locking mechanism on the seat was loose. and the seat was turning. My guess is that the seat has also slowly been sliding down and, as a result, I've been too close to the pedals.
I raised the seat up, locked it, and got back on my bike. Amazingly enough, my legs stopped hurting as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm what you call a "hard learner."
(The title of this post is a lot more exciting than the topic turned out to be. Be honest, you were hoping this was going to be dirty. It's okay. This is a safe place.)
As I was getting ready to ride off into the sunset, I decided to check my tires to make sure they had enough air. I rode once on tires that weren't inflated enough, and it's a lot harder to ride that way than when the tires are properly inflated. I'm not really trying to earn points for extra difficulty with this, so I keep them well-inflated. It took much longer than it should have, but I got my tires all pumped up and ready to go. I figured that would solve the problem. Wrong.
I'd been riding for a couple minutes when I felt the familiar pain creep back into my legs, right at the top of my knees. Since this has been happening, I've been thinking about a friend of mine who posted pictures of his knees being iced on Facebook. He'd been riding his bike for a while and suffering from the knee pain I've been complaining of. I'd chatted with him about it, and asked him if he needed to adjust his seat since he was probably riding with it in the wrong place.
Now, how that didn't spur me into action to check on my own seat is beyond me. When I bought my bike they fitted me to it, so I assumed that everything was a-ok.
Let's think about this for a minute. My bike sat, unused, for nearly a year. It had been moved from one place to another to another. It rode from Seattle to West Palm Beach on the back of my car. Even after all of this it still didn't dawn on me to check the seat until after I started riding today.
And, it's not like I stopped because I thought I should check the seat. I stopped because MY SEAT WAS MOVING. I was worried about sliding off and running myself over with my own bike. Turns out, the locking mechanism on the seat was loose. and the seat was turning. My guess is that the seat has also slowly been sliding down and, as a result, I've been too close to the pedals.
I raised the seat up, locked it, and got back on my bike. Amazingly enough, my legs stopped hurting as well.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm what you call a "hard learner."
(The title of this post is a lot more exciting than the topic turned out to be. Be honest, you were hoping this was going to be dirty. It's okay. This is a safe place.)
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
One Month In
I started this battle a month ago and I think this is a good time marker to make some comments.
1. I hate thrusters, medicine ball circles, and my quads.
2. I'm glad I'm doing this. I've stuck with it, even when I just didn't want to do my exercise for the day.
3. My bike and I aren't as good a friends as we used to be. Because I'm working my legs so much, the bike hurts more than it used to. I'm glad because this means that I 'm really working those muscles, but I'm sad that I don't ride the way I used to. I do know that cardio on its own isn't a way to really get fit, so I'm okay with this.
4. I'm not really doing well with the eating component of this. My diet sort of sucks. I feel like the results would be better if I were paying more attention to what I was eating. Some of it is that I can only make so many changes at once. Another part of it is that I just started working again and I'm trying to get a good rhythm together for making food. So far meal planning has pretty much been a complete fail. Now that I'm sort of getting the hang of working and working out, I don't have any excuses not to prepare better for the week.
5. I don't feel like I've lost any appreciable size. But, I'm sort of okay with it. Do I want to be smoking hot and thinner than I am? Hell yes. However, my back feels SO much stronger that it's hard for me to worry about much else. I'm REALLY pleased with that. My poor back needs all the help it can get. I still get some soreness, but it's not as frequent and I'm not getting laid out because of it. As I keep going through this process, it'll get stronger and stronger.
6. My arms and inner thighs make me want to scream. I have a mirror in my workout space and as I do some of the exercises, I can see the FLAB. It taunts me. "Hello, bitch. I'm here and I'm not leaving. HA!" But around the flab, there is toning happening. AND I CAN SEE IT. Just wait, flab. I'm coming for you.
Overall, I'm very pleased with what I'm doing. I know I need to make a better commitment to my diet, but I'm just not overly motivated to do it. I have no idea what's going to get me motivated either.
1. I hate thrusters, medicine ball circles, and my quads.
2. I'm glad I'm doing this. I've stuck with it, even when I just didn't want to do my exercise for the day.
3. My bike and I aren't as good a friends as we used to be. Because I'm working my legs so much, the bike hurts more than it used to. I'm glad because this means that I 'm really working those muscles, but I'm sad that I don't ride the way I used to. I do know that cardio on its own isn't a way to really get fit, so I'm okay with this.
4. I'm not really doing well with the eating component of this. My diet sort of sucks. I feel like the results would be better if I were paying more attention to what I was eating. Some of it is that I can only make so many changes at once. Another part of it is that I just started working again and I'm trying to get a good rhythm together for making food. So far meal planning has pretty much been a complete fail. Now that I'm sort of getting the hang of working and working out, I don't have any excuses not to prepare better for the week.
5. I don't feel like I've lost any appreciable size. But, I'm sort of okay with it. Do I want to be smoking hot and thinner than I am? Hell yes. However, my back feels SO much stronger that it's hard for me to worry about much else. I'm REALLY pleased with that. My poor back needs all the help it can get. I still get some soreness, but it's not as frequent and I'm not getting laid out because of it. As I keep going through this process, it'll get stronger and stronger.
6. My arms and inner thighs make me want to scream. I have a mirror in my workout space and as I do some of the exercises, I can see the FLAB. It taunts me. "Hello, bitch. I'm here and I'm not leaving. HA!" But around the flab, there is toning happening. AND I CAN SEE IT. Just wait, flab. I'm coming for you.
Overall, I'm very pleased with what I'm doing. I know I need to make a better commitment to my diet, but I'm just not overly motivated to do it. I have no idea what's going to get me motivated either.
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