Category: strength training

disability · fitness · Guest Post · inclusiveness · mobility · strength training

Becoming a gym person (guest post)

Sam B

by Leela MadhavaRau

I have never seen myself as a “gym person.” Long before I developed the chronic disability trifecta of rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and degenerative disc disease, this was not a place where I felt at home. I have long been uncomfortable with my body – size and type – and being in a gym seemed to be a form of public exposure.  

This, it must be admitted, is hypocrisy of the highest order. For most of my career – over 30 years – I have ensured that the universities where I worked held sessions for those who might feel uncomfortable in a communal gym environment. I have run numerous workshops on respecting and honouring all body shapes, sizes and weights. All that time, and I have never admitted this in such a public forum, I have hated how I looked. 

At the same time, I was doing numerous rounds of physical therapy, which often seemed indistinguishable from what people might be doing in the gym. I remember working on various pieces of equipment and making this comment. The physio said, “It is exactly what you would do if you were paying for Pilates classes.” 

In my first decades, I walked everywhere, and at a rapid pace. My only previous gym membership was to use an indoor track for walking in the winter. In May 2021, I became a dog parent for the first time, to rescue husky Atlas. He gets me walking about 13,000 steps on a weekday (I work from home) and up to 20,000 on the weekends. This has been helpful for my health generally but has also led to several injuries requiring more physical therapy. After the last one – a partially torn rotator cuff caused by slipping on the ice on one of those Atlas walks – I began to wonder whether I should be doing something to strengthen my body. 

However, searching for a trainer and gym seemed a scary proposition. Fortunately, before I got far in my search, I saw a Facebook notice from a colleague in another part of my life.  

This seemed perfect timing – someone who met all my exacting criteria had space. Without giving myself time to doubt, I made contact. When I asked my rheumatologist if I could try strength and conditioning classes instead of the physical therapy he was recommending for yet another joint issue, he looked somewhat surprised but said as long as I was sure to do stretching beforehand and be careful to stop if there was pain. 

So, in September I made my first entrance into a gym as a client, entering into this new setting with some trepidation in spite of my trust in trainer Laura. It was not dissimilar to walking into any new culture – ignorant of the purpose of the many machines and sure I wasn’t going to be able to make use of them.  

However, very quickly, I was immersed in my new environment, learning the language thrown around casually – Romanian Deadlifts, Dead Bugs, Superman, Plank, Bird Dog, Leg Press, Leg Extension. Bands, Around the World, Kettlebell Farmer’s Carry and so on. It must be said that many of these challenge my mind-body coordination but I have managed to complete all – increasing numbers and weights each class. 

I find most classes hard work and it would be easy to give up, but I try to make it a point to never stop unless it is clear that I am moving into the area of disease pain rather than exercise pain. This is the type of distinction for which there must be absolute trust with the trainer. Laura will listen to what is happening with my body and suggest variations on the exercise, or a different one. I appreciate that she doesn’t let me off completely but takes the risk to my health seriously. 

There are obvious similarities with physical therapy – including working toward achieving the same goal of strengthening body parts and enhancing quality of life. However, I find upper body, core and leg training far more holistic than physical therapy on individual body parts. I get through both in a similar manner -much as I cope with painful medical procedures – muttering in my head, “It will soon be over and things will be better.” 

And I do feel better. For the first time, I care less about how my body looks and more about gaining strength and capacity that will be of assistance as diseases progress.  

So, what make a gym comfortable for me, a 60-year-old British South Asian Canadian woman living with disabilities? 

This gym is small, located in a local strip mall. In large gyms I have visited, or been on the periphery of, the feeling of entering an alien culture has always been reinforced. The spaces are often cavernous, with sound echoing (Tinnitus is a side-effect of my diseases so this is always disconcerting), people moving from machine to machine, none of which I know the purpose of or how they are used. In addition, the majority of those present seem in great shape already. I rarely see the very fit but larger physique individuals I know exist. There is also often a notable lack of clothing which enhances the feelings of inadequacy for someone already concerned about their body. As I mentioned, it is a small gym. In my timeslot, there are never more than three individuals working with different trainers – we are all at very different fitness levels. Still, there is no air of competition, something I perceive in other gyms I have been in.  

The trainer’s description of herself is not hyperbole and speaks to what makes me so comfortable to enter the space, as well as sometimes fail in the space: 

Laura has been a beginner in the gym. She’s been the only woman in a gym. She’s had aggressive coaches and trainers who made assumptions (over-estimating and under-estimating) about what she could or could not do. She’s felt unwelcome and uncomfortable, and she’s been made to feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. 

And she doesn’t want any of that for you. 

Training with Laura means training with a trauma-informed coach in a supportive environment where she meets you where you are in your health and fitness journey. It means being encouraged to try new things and do more while being listened to about what you/your body can do that day. It means learning that you’re stronger than you know while being motivated by a compassionate and knowledgeable coach/trainer. 

So, this January I don’t need any resolution (not that I make them) to keep me going to the gym. At least to this gym to work with this trainer!  

Leela MadhavaRau is the owner of LMR Human Rights and Equity Consulting. She has spent her working life in the field of equity and inclusion, working at universities in both Canada and the United States. Her academic background is in Social Anthropology, with a specific focus on the transmission of culture across time and space. Her degrees are from McGill and the University of Cambridge. She has lived a life between cultures and countries, one of the few multiracial children born in 1960’s London (UK). Leela immigrated with her family to Canada in the 1970’s when “Where are you from” was one of the most common questions. Her career has been one of working to create dialogue; wanting all of us to be able to maintain curiosity and be independent thinkers. This responsibility has been inculcated in her four children, now ages 24 through 31. She adopted her Siberian Husky, Atlas, in May 2021 and her life hasn’t been the same since!

Christine’s Planuary 2025 – Part 1
ADHD · planning · strength training · yoga

Christine’s Planuary 2025 – Part 1

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

Do I know how many parts there will be in Planuary? I do not.

I do, however, know that this is Part 1 so I am going to forge ahead from here.

By the way, Planuary extends far beyond my fitness/mindfulness/wellness plans but since this is not the “Christine talks endlessly about her life” blog, I’m going to stick to things related to our focus here at Fit is a Feminist Issue…mostly.

So, since I can’t seem to stop myself from overthinking at the moment, I decided to lean into it and just let my brain wander around until it settled on something that appealed to me as a possible new fitness practice to incorporate into my life this year.

And I settled on pushups.*

I really want to be able to do pushups easily and, more important than that, I want to *know* that I have the upper body strength to do pushups easily.

I don’t have a particular number of pushups in mind because the number doesn’t matter to me – I’m chasing a specific feeling.

A woman doing pushups outside.
This is the feeing I am looking for – it’s not that pushups are necessarily easy for her but she has put in the work and she knows she can do them. Image description – a woman in black exercise clothes lowering herself into a pushup. She is outside on a deck and the sun is shining.

And I think that seeking a specific feeling will be far more useful to me than trying to reach a certain number because seeking a sensation feels more like a meaningful practice than trying to reach an arbitrary target.

Of course, once I got that settled in my mind, I went into overthinking mode again. This time I churned up a bunch of thoughts about overdoing things, about how my shoulders and neck might not appreciate my pushup goal, and about how anxious I feel when my neck muscles are tight and and and…well, you all know how overthinking goes, right?

And that’s when I overthought my way into a possible solution (yes, this *does* seem to be a dangerous precedent, indeed.)

I’m going to pair my pushup work with some yoga for my upper body.

I know, not a groundbreaking solution, but hear me out.

I have trouble convincing my ADHD brain not to rush through stretching so even if I had great intentions of stretching after each pushup practice, I would soon be strolling along a road paved with those intentions and heading for a hell of my own making.**

BUT

I can definitely convince myself to do a 10 minute yoga sequence for my upper body every day for a month. My brain loves a month long challenge!

A woman doing a seated twist outside
This seems like a helpful sort of twist, doesn’t it? Image description: a woman, seated on a yoga mat outside, is doing an upper body twist so her lower body is facing the camera but her upper body is twisted away. Her right hand is on her left knee and her upper torso and head are facing to the left.

So, when I put those two things together – a plan to get used to pushups over time and a plan to choose an enjoyable yoga practice that will ease tension in my upper body – I may just be on to something.

Now, I’m moving on to Part 1(b) – choosing and practicing an upper body yoga sequence that I enjoy and then adding Part 1 (c) – choosing and following a pushup plan that seems doable.

Further updates as Planuary warrants.

*Yes, I have tried a pushup goal before and, no, it didn’t stick at the time but I know more now than I did then so it’s worth giving it a try.

**Is a hell of your own making the worst kind of hell? There is a case to be made here but I think the philosophers on the Fit is a Feminist Issue team are better equipped to discuss that than I am.

Stretch? Strengthen? Both? It’s both, isn’t it?
ADHD · fitness · strength training · stretching

Stretch? Strengthen? Both? It’s both, isn’t it?

Christine Hennebury1 Comment

I started my week by getting a root canal.

You know, just for fun.

Ok, so it wasn’t any fun but starting my week with two hours in the dentist’s chair sure makes the rest of my week seem very straightforward.

I know a lot of people get stressed about dental work but I’m not all that fazed by the procedure itself, I just hate the cursed chair.

Even though I know I am only leaning back a little, I always feel like I am practically upside down.

A black and white photo of a bat hanging in a tree
How I feel at the dentist. Image description: a black and white photo of a bat hanging upside down from a tree branch with its wings outstretched.

And, to make matters worse, once I am in the chair, I can never get my neck in a comfortable position for the procedure so I often end up getting a headache or a migraine after a trip to the dentist.

So, in the interests of migraine prevention, I made sure to take the day off yesterday so I could rest and take good care of my neck after I got home from the dentist.

And in the course of doing some (very gentle) neck stretches, it occurred to me that since I often have neck troubles, it might be helpful for me to do more preventative stretches on a regular basis.

That’s when I discovered the dilemma in my title.

Are my neck muscles tight because of how I use them (perhaps putting unnecessary strain on them) so they need to be stretched regularly?

Or perhaps my neck muscles are actually weak and they need to be strengthened instead?

Maybe it’s both?

Let’s be real here – it’s almost definitely both.

Luckily, a lot of the strengthening exercises I found are similar to stretches I already do but when you add reps, they magically become strength training instead.

And that makes them feel infinitely more doable.

So, let’s give it some time and see if combining the two will make some of my activities less of a pain in the neck.

I don’t know if it will help at the dentist though, I think that’s going to require a fancy neck support of some kind.

A dog lying on a massage pillow
How do you think the dentist would feel about something like this? Image description: A GIF of a small light haired dog lying on her back holding a newspaper over her torso while her head is on a shiatsu massage pillow

PS – Have I talked about my neck before? Definitely!

Have I come to this same conclusion before? It is entirely possible.

Let’s just carry on, shall we?

black steel gym plate and pair of blue running shoes Muscles and age, strength training, and protein for WOMEN OUR AGE
aging · fitness · strength training · weight lifting

Muscles and age, strength training, and protein for WOMEN OUR AGE

Sam B1 Comment

I had one of those doctor’s comments the other day that always gets my back up.  You know,  it began with “at your age.” My age?

Apparently at my age weight and weight loss isn’t as important as maintaining muscle. And as you age,  when you lose weight,  it’s more likely that it’s muscle that you’re losing.

From an article in the Globe and Mail, by Alex Hutchinson, We need better guidelines to deal with age-related muscle loss.

“You might be relieved to hear that the creeping weight gain of middle age – a pound or two (0.5 to 1 kilogram) a year starting in your 20s, on average – eventually grinds to a halt. By the time you’re in your 50s, you’ll typically start slowly shedding weight. Don’t celebrate yet, though. There’s a good chance that the weight you’re losing is muscle – precisely what you need to hang onto to stay metabolically healthy and independent into old age. “

You need to be sure you get enough strength training in and make sure you’re eating enough protein.

Okay,  my doctor might be on to something but still the “at your age” comment rubbed me the wrong way. Lol.

I’ve written lots about this in the past.  Maybe I could have shown him some of my posts!

Past posts:

Want to keep muscle after 40?: Eat all the protein and lift all the things
Sam is thinking (again) about protein and aging muscles
Muscle loss is in the news again
Changing protein needs with age
Elmo
cardio · Dancing · fitness · strength training · tbt · weight lifting · weight loss

Ozempic butt, ballerina bodies, and near-impossible beauty ideals

Sam B

What a day in the world of fitness-focused social media. Two new phrases passed my way. Two new impossible-to-achieve body types. First, being thin without a thin butt, that is, avoiding Ozempic butt. Second, the ballerina body.

See Ozempic is transforming your gym? for my introduction to the phrase “Ozempic butt.”

Talking about the pressure gyms are facing to move to strength training instead of cardio as their main focus, Brooke Masters writes, “Weight-loss drugs will exacerbate the pressure. As the drugs gain acceptance, fewer people are likely to rely on exercise as their primary weight loss tool and the drugs’ side effects, nausea and intestinal distress, can make high-impact cardio activities uncomfortable. However, GLP-1 users still need the gym. Studies suggest that the drugs cause significant muscle loss along with fat, leading to problems with balance and mobility as well as saggy skin sometimes dubbed “Ozempic butt”. Strength training seems to be the answer not just for GLP-1 users but everyone else. A growing body of medical literature suggests strength training cuts mortality, particularly for women, while also helping to prevent osteoporosis and relieving the symptoms of depression. “It’s gone from being health and fitness to health and wellness, which is a lot more holistic” says Eleanor Scott, a partner on PwC’s leisure strategy team.”

(Two quick comments from the peanut gallery over here. I think any method of rapid weight loss, indeed any method of weight loss without strength training, has this problem. And I think, in general the move to strength training makes sense for gyms because the pandemic taught me that while I can run and bike at home, I really like having a bench, a squat rack, and lots of heavy weights and benches at the gym. Also, we’re learning how much strength training matters for older people.)

And then the She’s a Beast blog introduced to me to the ballerina body as an ideal, which is just about as silly and unreachable as it sounds. See What is so wrong with wanting a ‘ballerina body’?

Casey Johnston writes,”It feels important to note that not every body aesthetic is unrealistic or expressive of patriarchal oppression. But, “ballerina body,” I mean…… come on. And this is not even to say that ballerinas are per se unhealthy! (Though the industry certainly has its issues). Ballet dancers do lift weights! But the body of a ballet dancer, just as with the elusive “swimmer’s body” for men, is inversely selective to what we perceive from the outside: They are ballet dancers because they have a particular body; they don’t develop a particular body from being ballet dancers. It has so little to do with training and so much to do with genetics that it’s nothing but an illusion, in terms of attainability.”

We’ve written a bit about the role of genetics too. See Tracy’s Is It True that Endurance Training Won’t Make You Thin and Lean Anymore Than Playing Basketball Will Make You Tall and Lanky?

Is It True that Endurance Training Won’t Make You Thin and Lean Anymore Than Playing Basketball Will Make You Tall and Lanky?

Back to original content tomorrow, when #tbt comes to an end!

women s dancing ballet
Ballerinas, in white, against a blue floor. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
ADHD · habits · motivation · strength training · stretching

Christine outwits her brain and does some strength training

Christine Hennebury

I outwitted my brain on Sunday night. 

Hmm, now that I look at that sentence I realize that I am claiming that my brain outwitted itself so I guess I really mean that I consciously chose to override an automatic behaviour?

That is definitely not as fun, let’s go with the first sentence instead.

So yeah, I outwitted my brain.*

A drawing of a human brain surrounded by things it is ‘saying.’
My best depiction of my brain doing its best to conserve energy and maintain the status quo. You can tell it’s my brain because of the sprinkling of gold stars. Oh, and the chatter, that gives it away too. Image description: a drawing of a human brain surrounded by things the brain is saying. ‘One set will do, right?’ ‘You don’t need to stretch, it’s fine!’ ‘No plan? Ok, but how about making a list?’ And in the bottom corner is my response ‘Nice try, brain! ❤️C’

The knot in my shoulder/neck has almost completely gone away so I had decided that I was going to do some upper body strength training on the weekend. 

Saturday was a jumbled sort of day and I never got to my weights so I picked a specific time (8:30PM) on Sunday to get started. (That’s Step 1 in the outwitting. I didn’t leave it for an ambiguous ‘later.’)

For the rest of Sunday, one part of my brain kept reminding me to make a plan for the specific exercises I was going to do. I tried to make a list but then another part of my brain started telling me that there was no point in making a one day list, it had to be part of a long-term plan. I felt complete resistance to that idea so I shelved the whole plan to plan. (Step 2 – I didn’t let my brain get all ‘shouldy’ – you know how I feel about the word should. Ick. Ick. Ick.)

Since I didn’t want to make a plan, I reminded myself that any exercises I do are going to be helpful – any repeated exercises will make my arm muscles stronger. So, while making a plan can be helpful and would let me see my progress over time, actually doing the exercises is far more important than planning or tracking them. (Step 3 – I found the most direct path.)

So, planless and with a specific time to start, I did my best to put aside any other thoughts about my exercises and went on with my day until 8:30.

Then I had another small disagreement with my brain – this time it tried to tell me that I needed specific exercise clothes. Luckily, seeing as I was wearing leggings, a tank top, and a cardigan, I managed to bring it around to the idea that I could probably just take off my cardigan and swing my weights around. (This is a joke, of course. I lifted them in a controlled manner, worry not.) (Step 4 – I recognized yet another form of resistance and sidestepped it.)

So, I went to the living room and picked up my weights (I put them in the corner on Friday so they’d be right there when I needed them – a very preemptive outwitting, that’s Step .5) and did one set of a series of exercises. I almost stopped there because my brain claimed that I had done what I set out to do.

I disagreed. 

If I was tired, if my time was limited, or if I just wasn’t feeling it, then one set would be completely acceptable. However, none of those things was a factor, and my shoulder felt ok, so I did another set. (Step 5 – I questioned my automatic thoughts.)

After two sets though, it was definitely time to stop and my brain tossed up the idea that I didn’t need to do any stretching because, and I quote, ‘You didn’t work that hard.’ (brains can be such jerks!)  BUT, luckily, in that moment, I remembered a fact that often eludes me – Sunday night me is the same person as Monday morning me. 

So, while Sunday-night-me might not feel the need to stretch, Monday-morning-me is going to wish that I had. (Step 6 – Today’s self doesn’t always know best.)

So, I stretched. 

And even Sunday-night-me felt good about it. 

So, as Monday-morning-me writes this post that will go up on Tuesday morning, I am happy that I outwitted my brain, I’m happy to have done the strength training I had planned, and I am a little bit sore but only ‘I did a workout’ sore, not ‘I can’t move’ sore. 

And I have this post to prove to my future self that the effort to outwit my brain is totally worth it.

*I read somewhere that referring to your brain as separate from yourself is a neurodivergent thing. Is it? I certainly wouldn’t know.

Ten-pound hexagonal dumbbell in the foreground on a wood laminate floor, with a blurry background that includes a pair of running shoes on the left and two kettlebells to their right. Photo by Tracy Isaacs Tracy dives into the EPIC program
strength training · training

Tracy dives into the EPIC program

Tracy I1 Comment
Ten-pound hexagonal dumbbell in the foreground on a wood laminate floor, with a blurry background that includes a pair of running shoes on the left and two kettlebells to their right. Photo by Tracy Isaacs
Image description: Ten-pound hexagonal dumbbell in the foreground on a wood laminate floor, with a blurry background that includes a pair of running shoes on the left and two kettlebells to their right. Photo by Tracy Isaacs

We are almost into 2024 and maybe, just maybe, you are looking around for something you can really jump into to kickstart your year. I was already feeling that way back at the beginning of December, when I decided I couldn’t wait until January. I started easing myself back into some resistance training with short sessions by Irish YouTube trainer, Caroline Girvan. The workouts themselves are easy to find on YouTube.

Before I knew it, I stumbled into her EPIC series, which started with the first ten-week EPIC program about three years ago, when all of our training went virtual because of the pandemic. As I write this, I’m into week three of the program and loving it. It’s five workouts a week: three are about 45 minutes, Fridays are an hour-long full body workout, and Sundays are a 30-minute-ish HIIT session. Rest days on Thursday and Saturday. All you need are dumbbells, a mat, and your body, with some sessions, like HIIT, requiring just bodyweight and a mat. It’s ideal for home workouts, although already I can see that I’ll be wanting some heavier dumbbells along the way.

That’s okay. For now, I’m making do with a set of 4LB and a set of 10LB dumbbells, a 15LB kettlebell and a 20LB kettlebell. I wouldn’t mind some 8 or 12 pound DBs, and definitely a set of 15 pounders. I have a full range of more than I will ever need downstairs in my condo’s fitness centre. But for now I’m loving that I can just do these workouts in my own space at my own pace with no one else around.

The program is not for the feint of heart. If I hadn’t had so much pandemic training from Alex, who taught us how to modify where needed, I would probably have decided I wasn’t up for the challenge and opted for something less intense.

Image description: Sheet of paper with EPIC 1 SCHEDULE written at the top and Monday to Sunday calendar grid of squares, indicating workouts/rest days. Twelve squares have stickers with checkmarks on them.

I printed off the schedule and posted it on my wall to motivate me and keep me on track. Each time I complete a workout, I put a sticker with a checkmark on that day in the calendar. I have come to know something about myself: I am highly motivated by streaks. Once I can get a streak going, I don’t want it to end. So far I have done each workout on its scheduled day. This morning was Day Twelve: a full 45 minutes of shoulder work.

Caroline’s style is a “follow the leader” kind of style. She gives some remarks at the beginning of the workout explaining what’s to come in terms of the timing of work intervals and rest intervals. For example, today’s was 30 seconds on followed by 30 seconds of rest, but often it’s 40 seconds of work and 20 seconds of rest, and on HIIT days rest can be as little as ten seconds. She also gives some tips and suggestions at the beginning. And for context, she tells us what weights she’s using for the workout that day.

But once the opening remarks are done, she doesn’t talk again. Instead, she clearly demos the moves and you just follow along with her. There is a count-down timer on the active intervals and the rest intervals, and the screen tells you clearly what is coming up, including an inset video that shows her doing the next set. You get three beeps before the end of a set and then a longer beep to indicate it’s over. I find it really easy to follow along and I love that she doesn’t talk throughout. This is really a matter of personal preference. I know others who prefer the style of trainer that talks you through and motivates you that way. For now, I’m enjoying this approach.

Anyone familiar with resistance training will find a range of familiar moves, sometimes with variations. You’ll find all manner of squats and lunges, push-ups and burpees, planks, presses, dips, curls, skull-crushers, raises, flyes, deadlifts, and sometimes very complex (to me) moves like makers or burpees into an overhead press. The Sunday HIIT sessions are pretty intense. I’ve only done two Sundays so far and last time I had to opt for the low-impact alternative. It was clear from the outset that I would be completely defeated by 30 minutes of burpee variations. But I love that she offers a low-impact option, and it was intense enough for me.

The workouts vary in approach. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they are usually a focus on upper or lower body, but sometimes really zero in — like today’s shoulder workout and yesterday’s quad-focused squat-fest. Some days they are “no-repeat,” where every single set is different. Some days, like today and yesterday, the sets are repeated in the traditional way you would expect. They are always (or at least so far) by time, not by reps.

Ab work is included some, but not all, days. It is really hard.

Caroline herself has a chisled physique and an enormous amount of energy. She throws herself into the workouts and never asks anyone to do anything she’s not doing herself. That said, she is human and sometimes has to take breaks too. I find that reassuring.

If I had one complaint it’s the music. I understand that for copyright reasons it’s just not possible for her to use all the latest and greatest workout hits and switch up her playlists. The music for workouts is basically the same playlist every day, and it’s not particularly catchy though it’s got a decent beat. It’s either the limited playlist that she has purchased a license to use or it’s available open source. Either way, it gets rather repetitive and if I didn’t need the beep countdown to tell me when a set was over, I might do as Anita suggested and mute her tracks to play my own. Yesterday I experimented with putting the volume on her music very low once the workout started and listening to an audiobook. That worked pretty well.

As is always the case when I see quality content for free on YouTube, I am really impressed that this is a free offering. I’m sure she has enough followers now that, like Adriene of Yoga with Adriene, she has developed a solid income stream through YouTube ads and some premium content that she offers through her app.

Looking ahead, I still have quite a few weeks left of EPIC 1. I have enjoyed every workout so far and I already feel as if I am getting stronger. Caroline Girvan’s EPIC program has definitely lifted me out of my rut. With four more EPIC programs available to try after this ten weeks is up, I feel good about deciding now to make her EPIC series my focus for resistance training in 2024.

Do you have any YouTube trainers to recommend? What are your plans for 2024?

fitness · strength training

Slowly getting stronger

Sam B

I’ve been going to personal training once a week at Movati. It’s a mix of knee rehab, functional fitness, and overall strength. We’re using kettle bells, dumbells, the TRX, and my favorite, the sled. There’s just something that feels good about pushing and pulling a weighted sled. It makes me smile.

I was using the sled at physio for awhile too but now physio is focusing mostly on mobility and balance. We use the leg press machine every once in awhile to check in and see how it’s going.

My plan is to keep up personal training for at least a year. I’ll revisit after that.

How about you? Do you work with a person trainer for strength? How is it working for you?

Pushing a weighted sled
Pulling the weighted sled
cardio · fitness · injury · strength training

You can’t do everything and that’s okay

Sam B
Turtles

Saturday I posted in the 223 workouts in 2023 group, “One lap of the Beach Island Loop with the Thundering Turtles, 30 minutes. My goal is to up my time consistently through fall and winter to get my cardio fitness and endurance back. Obviously, that fell through the wayside while I was recuperating from knee surgery, and the focus was all mobility, strength, and balance.”

It’s important to acknowledge this. While I’m a physio and knee replacement surgery success story, not all of my areas of fitness survived equally. I got back to strength training pretty early in. Physio focuses a lot on mobility and balance. But cardio fitness? I lost that pretty quickly. Here’s what Triathlete magazine has to say about losing cycling fitness. They estimate the time to get back to where you were is about 2/3 of the time you were off. So, for me, it’s been a year. That makes getting back to where I was last summer a reasonable winter goal.

Getting my cardio fitness back is going to be a focus of my fall and winter training. I’m not beating myself up about it. I’m not feeling bad about it. But it does feel urgent to get it back. Here’s my fall and winter plan.

It also feels good to know I’m not alone. A fit feminist friend on Facebook commented on my Beach Island Loop post, saying, “I will follow your model. My cardio fell off the wagon (but was slipping anyway) with the pacemaker. I’ve been all strength, mobility and balance too. Having trouble getting going as my sleep apnea has been horrid (just had a study) and I’ve lacked motivation. Will walk, starting at 15 minutes (that’s where I am), try to be consistent and gradually work up. Thanks. You are always an inspiration to me.”

It also helps me to remember that it’s true for serious athletes, too. You can’t do everything. You can train for explosive power but not also for peak endurance. You can train for strength and muscle development, but that will make it hard to train for running marathons. That’s just because different sports have different demands.

In my case, without strength, I couldn’t tax my cardiovascular system. I needed to rebuild strength first. But strength is back, and this winter’s focus will be cardio endurance. Wish me luck, folks!

A drawing of a large green question mark surrounded by small green question marks. Another Question From Christine
ADHD · fitness · self care · strength training

Another Question From Christine

Christine Hennebury7 Comments

Here’s another post in what is apparently my August Questions Series.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asking about core exercises.

Last week, I was wondering how you handle things when you’re feeling off-kilter.

This week, I’m wondering about strength training.

Specifically, I’m wondering about upper body exercises – what ones you do, what ones you like, and how you structure your workout.

(Yes, I could go see a trainer and I probably will but that’s a project for Future Christine. Current Christine is in a gather-info-then-DIY phase and it’s working for her…ahem, for me.)

Anyway, in a similar sort of way that many core exercises bore me, I find doing multiple sets of the same exercise boring.

For example, I hate knowing that I have to do three sets of bicep curls. I think I’d be okay if I could just do 36 in a row and be done with them but bodies don’t work like that.

Mine especially, since concepts like ‘repeat to fatigue’ or ‘repeat until you are too tired to keep good form’ make no sense to me whatsoever. I mean, I understand them in principle, I just don’t know how to recognize them in practice.

And I also hate knowing that I am going to have to repeat the same set of exercises I just did. As in, if I do one set of bicep curls, tricep dips, and two other exercises and then I have to repeat that same group of exercises two more times? Glerg.

My brain will immediately pull out all the stops to ensure that I never even start the first set.

I’ve tried (and enjoyed) doing strength training in my Apple Fitness + app but there are A LOT of squats in there. I don’t quite have the fitness level nor the coordination to do that many squats that quickly in good form without irritating the muscles around my right knee. (The hopeful word ‘yet’ should be in that sentence somewhere but damned if I can figure out where to put it.)

The ones that didn’t have a lot of squats included a lot of pushups and that’s tricky in a whole different way. I’m also working on that.

ANYWAY…

What I am looking for is a way to work my arms and shoulders and upper back by doing multiple exercises for each part.

For example, by doing three different bicep exercises instead of doing three sets of the same one.

I was hoping to find a YouTube workout or to Google a premade workout that I could use as a starting point but I couldn’t find the right combination of search terms to generate what I wanted.

And that’s where I’m hoping you can help:

1) Do you know of an upper body workout that doesn’t include multiple sets of the exact same exercise?

And/or

2) Do you have an upper body exercise to recommend? I have weights and all kinds of exercise bands and I like bodyweight exercises so I have lots of stuff to work with.

Thanks, Team!

PS – I know it would be more straightforward to “just” make myself do the boring, repeated sets but it’s hard enough to convince my ADHD brain to exercise in the first place, making myself do something that is hard AND boring burns a lot of energy that I would rather put into the exercise rather than waste it by arguing with myself. The straightforward thing in this case to for me to accept what I’m like and work with my brain instead of against it.