There was a time, not so long ago ( a year ago) where most of my strength training was done alone, on machines at my work gym.
I had a solid routine of twice a week for an hour. I got stronger, especially on the leg press.
Injuries outside of the gym meant I could
No longer do most lower body machines. I started working out at home with body weight exercises and some dumbbells.
I’m now firmly a fan of dumbbell exercises. Through the two Total Strength programs I’ve been exposed to a wide variety of movements.
The exercises ensure a full body workout that includes flexibility, balance and range of motion.
I like the option of picking different weights for each exercise to tailor my workout.
I especially enjoy sharing this time with Michel. It’s become our touch point four times a week. We laugh, grunt and encourage each other.
When my sister Anj was visiting she joined us. She loved that she could jump in and grab the weight that felt good for her.
Not taking it too seriously and modifying moves makes success achievable.
Nat and Michel squint into the sun on a beautiful fall day. They are wearing black shirts because they are very cool people.
After a summer and fall of traveling with our dumbbells I don’t see me leaving them behind anytime soon. Oh. And I definitely need to go buy some 25 lb ones!
It’s the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend. I kicked it off with taking Friday off for my birthday.
In the run up to my birthday my colleagues got me a card and this giant donut from Boxcar Donuts.
A donut the size of your head with orange frosting. There are brown, yellow and orange sprinkles on the sides. “Thankful” is written in chocolate frosting. It has a whip cream filling. Delicious!
What does a fit feminist do for her fifty-first birthday? Shake things up!
Usually we would host our kids & their partners for Thanksgiving dinner. This year my youngest and her girlfriend are in British Columbia. My oldest son’s beloved is on deployment.
I thought it might be a bit, well, sad to be home and just the three of us.
So I reached out to good friends and asked if they wanted to chip in on an AirBnB. I found one with a hot tub on a river with kayaks. They agreed!
Michel and I are continuing our Total Strength 2 workouts on Peloton with Andy Speer.
My “heavy” dumbbells are now 15 lbs, up from 10 lbs. The classes are feeling good.
Today is a rest day and I’m putting on a big spread. I like serving up our big celebratory meal early in the weekend so we can enjoy lots of leftovers.
On Sunday Michel and I hit 29 years of marriage. We will be calculating our “years of bliss”. Spoiler, it’s NOT 29. There were tough years but thankfully the balance tips towards bliss.
Here’s to a weekend filled with food, fun and friends. 51 is off to a grand start.
The Ausable River and dock of our weekend stay. The water is light brown due to the sand.
It’s not my Peloton instructor Andy’s fault. He has a reasonable expectation that I can count the number of sets I can complete of 6 reps of 4 moves.
I mean. IT IS COUNTING IN MY FIRST LANGUAGE.
It’s as easy as one, two three, right?
Uh. No.
My beloved and I wrapped up week one of our latest strength training program with a 10 minute baseline test. A four minute warmup and six minutes to complete as many sets as possible.
A Strava screenshot showing Andy at full extension of a single arm shoulder press.
Sets were 6 single arm shoulder presses with a medium dumbbell then 6 split squats, repeat on the other side for a total of 24 movements.
The switching of sides challenges my vestibular system. I have a mild impairment and I am improving my balance with exercise. I know it takes a lot of cognitive work for me to move an asymmetrical load.
I suspect that is the point of a single shoulder press, engage your core and glutes to stabilize while pressing upwards. It’s a great move.
I completed the test using my 10 lb dumbbell. I was not at muscle failure at the end of the test. I think I completed six sets? I do not know. Counting reps and staying balanced pushed my set counting aside.
I find split squats, one leg forward, one leg back, very challenging. I do not get the full range of motion to 90 degrees in both legs. I tend to fall more into a lunge.
Screenshot of an instructor demonstrating a split squat. Note the two 90 degree leg bends
I get nervous about dropping past the point of positive control and hitting my back knee on the floor.
I’m using chairs and other assistance to explore going deeper outside of workouts.
Suffice to say, I was challenged in some ways for the test while also feeling validated that I’m stronger and more competent with these two moves. The end of the program test I won’t have a numerical baseline but I’ll use this post as my qualitative baseline.
I hope you are getting the results you want from your workouts!
I do love those big gains when I start something new. In August I told you about Making muscles with Michel
In the post I shared the results of the initial strength test. On September 15th Michel and I did the final test for Total Strength.
It took us a month to complete the scheduled workouts that should have happened in 3 weeks. Pftt. We did not care.
I didn’t really increase my weights much. I often used 5 lb weights because my left elbow tendons were causing me some grief.
My approach to the program is committed but not serious. I don’t push past my comfort. I modify movements. I swap out others.
The results?
My squats in 1 minute went from 22 with body weight to 33 holding 20lbs. Yay early gains!
Knee pushups saw similar results starting at 12 very wobbly ones to a set of 17 good form ones. Yippee!
Imperfect adherence and mediocre effort can still yield results, even over a relatively short period of time.
Go do the thing you said you’d do… most of the time. Half ass it or go through the motions. Even your minimum effort supports your fitness goals.
It all counts.
I’m thrilled to have left behind my “all or nothing” thinking when it comes to fitness, especially strength training.
I’m enjoying these moments with my beloved. We are finding joy in our sweaty basement workouts.
I hope your workouts are giving you what you need too.
Nat holds the camera to take a selfie with Michel. Her arms are looking burly and she is smiling. Michel is looking over her shoulder sporting a red t-shirt and a dapper salt and pepper beard.
I definitely snuck down to our car last Saturday morning to get some dumbbells. The oak stairs at the bed and breakfast creaked with each step.
Out of consideration for the guests below us, Michel and I modified our workout to be low impact.
Plain 5 lb dumbbells sit in front of a blue antique glass beauty set that includes a perfume sprayer. Boxes of Chanel No. 5 sit in the background.
We washed up then took our bags and weights to the car. Other guests, decked out in cycling gear were enjoying the 7 course breakfast. We went for a walk until our seating time.
It was worth the wait.
Breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, smoothie, coffee, juice all served in crystal drinks ware and blue and white chins. There were croissants and soufflé too!
As our trip through New Brunswick continued we worked out in the kitchen of our next stay.
This open kitchen meant we easily fit two sweaty humans in there.
The best spot, bar none, has been the two workouts on the deck of my parents’ house. They overlook the St Croix River that forms the US border with Maine.
5 lb dumbbells sit on the deck railing. Beyond is the lush riverbank.
Was is a bit quirky to pack our dumbbells into the car?
Yes.
Was it awkward?
Sometimes.
Was it worth it?
Absolutely.
We had committed to doing a 4 week strength program. I wanted to figure out how to make it work on our vacation.
It felt good to keep the consistency. It was fun to figure out when & where. Our families were very supportive.
I’ll definitely keep fitness as part of my vacation planning in future.
I’ve come to enjoy strength training. I had a run of a few years going into my gym at work. It was twice a week for an hour. Not enough for big gains but definitely enough to support my wellbeing.
I had a few injuries last year and I stopped going to the gym. There were so few things that I could do there that I couldn’t do at home it didn’t feel worth it.
When looking at my overall movement I had not been consistent at home. Yes, I was doing Physio exercises and the occasional strength workout but. It was sparse.
Michel wanted to get back to a regular strength routine. I am happy to take classes with him. We grunt, fart and laugh as our bodies ineffectually do things.
To put more structure to our training we decided to go back to a Peloton favourite, Total Strength with Andy Speer.
It’s a great 4 week program to begin/restart strength training. It’s 10 minutes of warm-up, 30 minutes of strength and 10 minutes of stretching.
I’m not great at warming up or stretching so this has been a welcome change.
This week we wrapped up week 1 with a short test.
A Strava screenshot showing a smiling Andy with open arms. The text announces the 5 minute strength test with Michel in my group.
What’s great about beginnings is the early gains. I got 22 squats and 12 pushups. I’ll let you know my week 4 results. They are sure to change.
I was talking with my RMT Kiet about restarting strength training. I shared that I was starting even easier than i thought I could do to build success.
He agreed that a common mistake is to go too hard too early and then folks don’t go back.
I focus on form, then get the speed up on reps and finally add more weight.
It’s a slow ramp up that works for me.
I hope you are finding fitness things that are working for you!
I have written many times about Outsourcing motivation Lately though I’ve been the one pushing us to do strength training. I enjoy it and find it easy to bring into my day.
Michel , on the other hand, is great at getting his cycling in but struggles to stick with strength training.
I was asking him if it was ok to write about his dislike. He said “I know it’s important but it’s not dislike, I really fucking hate it.”
Wow. That surprised me. So we have made the strength workouts some together time.
Adrian from Peloton is showing us a lung with some weights.
We are at 45 minute full body classes plus a warm up and stretch. We modify as needed. It feels good to have company and the time flies.
It’s nice to be able to support Michel’s goals. A bit of reciprocity on motivation feels good.
We pick classes where the instructor is a bit silly. Laughing helps.
I’ve also snuck in a few dance cardio warm ups to mess with his Strava feed. Hehehehe
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.
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.
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.
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.*
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.
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?
