Archive for the ‘General’ Category
I’ve never been a “gym rat“.
In fact I’ve never really been one for organised keep fit of any sort.
Growing up I certainly took part in organised group sports but the ones I excelled at mostly required individual skill, excellence and preparation…. swimming, 10 pin bowling, cycling. The only two to go against that grain were rugby and cricket. I loved rugby and was always disappointed I never did more with it whereas cricket is a leisure sport for me – something to be enjoyed and winning was very much secondary.
But I digress.
The point is, despite the stuff I did being individualistic I am very much a social person; a group joiner; a let’s share together person.
So when my doctor recommended “exercise by prescription” I went “what?”. He, being French, simply shrugged his shoulders and claimed to know little about it.
So colour me very surprised when 5 weeks into my “E by P” that I am still going to the gym and attempting to make 3 sessions a week on top of my Tang Soo Do. And what’s more I am actually enjoying it.
The difference as I see it is that the gym staff have all been trained on helping folks to rehabilitate themselves from being overweight; joint replacements; heart attacks; etc, etc … it is these dedicated few that take time to talk to you. To check on your progress. To make the time go by a little easier even whilst they make comments like “enjoy the pain” or “I think we should increase the resistance”….
It makes a gym human again.
It isn’t a sterile (or not) place full of sweaty bodies locked into their own little world. Or the bodybuilder who’s so vain they only have eyes for their deltoids or … well you get the picture.
Gyms are soul-less places.
They are the height of what is wrong with our modern world.
But. I’m still attending one.
And what’s more I do believe I can feel / see a bit of benefit.
So I’m back at the Chiropractors and telling him how I’m doing and what I’m doing to improve my overall fitness levels, etc.
So first I tell him I started on Tang Soo Do and his face frowns – he’s a Chineese gent so he gets the benefits of a martial art but doesn’t like the aspect of high kicking in TSD. He tells me, no high kicking and then proceeds to show me how limited my actual leg movement is.
Well I knew that one. But ok, I get the point.
Then I tell him I’ve started running and he instantly shakes his head whilst muttering “no”. OK, so no running, I get the picture. So I try to explain that I’m wanting to shed some of the excess weight and that the TSD and cardio sessions aren’t doing it – so thought adding running would be good. Tell him I have the right gear and all but still he says “no do”.
OK, so running is out.
So there ends my C25K experiment – to be honest, I’m not that gutted as I think the weight needs to drop first before I could have seriously continued with it. On that note, my doctor says if my weight is still the same in two months we’ll discuss taking tablets to assist me.
So there you have it – body says no.
Any other suggestions for easy on the lower back methods for getting rid of excess weight?
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Well amazingly, I’ve made it to week 2 of the process.
However, I partially failed. I ask myself, can one really partially fail? Well yes, I believe you can. In week 2 (for example) the workout is a process of 5 minutes walking warm up followed by a 90 / 2 process. That is 90 seconds running and then 2 minutes walking with a final 5 minute cool down after the last 90 second run.
That totals 31 minutes of workout in which there are 6 x 90 second runs.
With me so far?
Good.
So how can I partially fail?
Well on run 5 of the 6 I only managed to do 68 seconds of running before I simply couldn’t stagger any more at a run / jog pace. That meant when my cool down was complete I was short of the finish line (my house) by about 400 metres. In week 1 I’d managed to reduce the distance I finished from the house to being only 100 metres and that had gradually improved to that point. Now I need to see how the rest of this week goes before deciding what to do next.
On another point, I was able to discuss with my Tang Soo Do ma’am last night about certain aspects of the training and let’s just say light dawned. However, it also made me realise to reach my goal I will definitely need to move off shifts as soon as I can. In short I need to give myself to training on more days than I do and I can’t do that whilst on shifts that have a moving start date each week.