Category: Health and Wellness
Hello,
This is Tara. How many of you enjoy exercising? I love exercising. I enjoy doing my eliptical machine.
It is my religion.
I really enjoy having energy after I exercise, and when I do my machine, I listen to music to keep me motivated.
I haven't been going like I would like too with this last bit of finals, but I'm a huge fan of weight lifting. Best.. Sleep.. EVER!
Haven't been working out as much recently as I would like to. But I do plan to get back on track soon. Can't say that I really enjoy exercising, but it actually makes me feel more energetic when I do.
I don't really have access to equipment here, but I go for walks, and that's nice
enough.
I am not a fan of exercising, at all
I just like eating
(lol)
Think I'm an excersizing atheist. In all seriousness, I know it's important to keep the body healthy. I just haven't found anything active I'm passionate about yet. I do walk too and from work, which is twenty minutes each day. That probably doesn't count though.
That counts. all walking counts. Though twenty minutes of it isn't a lot.
Does 40? Because I do it both ways.
Forty is actually pretty good, especially if you keep up a brisk pace. Forty
minutes of shuffling along, not gonna do much for you. Forty minutes of hard,
purposeful walking that actually gets your heart rate up, that would be good.
I'm somewhere in the middle. I don't shuffle like a dispondant teenager, but I don't walk so fast as to break a sweat either. I'm more of the look like you're in a standoffish hurry in order to feel like you're getting to your destination fast persuasion.
Good health is important. Calisthenics, elliptical, barbells have been part of my daily routine since long ago.
There is rarely a day that I don't walk long distances, both for pleasure as well as necessity, I am a biped after all. When I walk I think clearly, the same when ironing clothes. Thinking is a bonus...
I've worked out most of my life. My workout involves mainly weight training and cardio on an elliptical machine. I enjoy any type physical activity like hiking and swimming whenever I get the chance which isn't often. I've recently started dancing classes and believe it or not I think it's helping with balance and coordination.
I prefer the treadmill and situps, myself for my daily exercising. I can usually do a lot while I'm on the treadmill, including catching up with TV shows, podcasts or even reading a book if I don't listen to music. Pretty much same goes with situps. Four-five sets of 30-40 situps depending on how I'm feeling. It's not as much as one might hope, but well, it works for me.
If I could afford one I would get an elyptical or a treadmill. I just have dumbbells here and this abdominal exerciser thing.
Starting strength, I lift three times a week and it's enough for me.
I'm with Maddog. Treadmill and situps, but I've let the situps fall by the wayside, over the last year or so. I intend to get back to the treadmill in a few months. I like to listen to a TV show or book while I walk, too, but it's also a great help to listen to nothing, and let my mind clear, or have space to let thoughts filter through without the chatter of a distraction. Helps with writing, a lot.
Remy, walking counts for exercise--it's not necessarily that you have to walk long and hard, but rather, that you even walk at all.
I have a manual treadmill that I've had for some time; before I owned it though, I'd never even heard of a manual treadmill. Anyway, I walk on that every other day. Sometimes I walk on it two days in a row, then take a break the next day. In addition, I do crunches, as well as various stretches/balancing exercises.
To me, maintaining good health to the extent that I can, is of utmost importance, especially being that I know that at some point, the assorted health issues I have will crop up and knock me down. I also just enjoy the way workouts make me feel, plane and simple.
I've always preferred ski machines to tredmills. Tredmills are really hard on
my knees. I love to put on a podcast or a book and go to town on a ski
machine. I wish I had the room for an incline abdominal bench too. Those
things are fantastic.
Mark and I just recently joined our local Anytime Fitness. We have a friend who goes there too, and we go to and from with her, because she lives about five minutes away from us. It makes for good accountability for us and her, since we're all kind of depending on each other, in different ways. Even though my body is still getting used to the new exercise, I've really missed it. There's a circuit of weight machines: not free weights, but the kind where you set a pin, and it sets the weights. Once we got oriented to the machines, that's easy for us to do independently. We've also labeled the cardio equipment. All those machines have flat-panel screens, but we've use tiny, transparent locator dots to mark the buttons we need. That way it doesn't mess up reading the display for everyone else, but we can use the cardio equipment, too. They have treadmills, ellipticals, two stair-climbers, and two bikes. I like the treadmill best so far. I know the elliptical is easier on joints, but for some reason it still kicks my butt physically. I can walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes, but I get about five on the elliptical before I have to stop. Not quite sure why that is, but it's something I'm going to have to work up to. I'm just glad to be working out again.
Very obvious why you can walk longer on the treadmill than you can on the other machine, because the elliptical is more of a workout. The treadmill you're pretty much just moving your feet in a walking motion on a more or less flat surface.
So how do you find a routine? That is what stops me from doing anything and I am really wanting to get back in to a routine. I have looked online and tried out apps but the descriptions on what to do is not always clear or something horrifying.
I tend to give up feeling defeated and like I am working hard doing nothing.
I have all kinds of machines available down stairs and would have to ask how to use a few but that is fine.
I have in my home 1, 3, and 5 pound dumb bells.
a tred meal
tactiled yoga mat and described for the blind CD's but I rather have a routine with it because it just tells you how to do the poses but does not provide a routine.
a hula hoop but not enough space to use it.
I feel like I spend a lot of time prepping and I rather just jump in.
I have to dress for it, pull my hair up, get my shoes on if tred meal, get water, get back ground noise that is not going to have to be managed like skipping a song I hate that came on
, then shower after so on
There is no type of exercise that is available where you don't actually have to -work- for the results and do some early prepping. I mean, unless you just want to do jumping jacks or something like that. Though, I suppose yoga might not require early prepping. I wouldn't know. Never tried it. Granted, for a girl, that early prepping is probably harder than it might be for a guy, but there we are. If you don't even want to dress for the treadmill, put shoes on, get water etc, then there is really little that we can suggest for you, and any routine we give you would just be a wasted effort. You have to be willing to get up, dress in your workout clothes, fill up that bottle of water, and spend maybe an hour or so doing what we suggest. Though, we might just suggest something for you that's only a half hour or so initially.
Motivation is the hardest thing for a personal trainer to do. Smile. You've got the stuff, now get to it.
No matter what you do, doing something will get you going.
MadDog, that makes sense. The elliptical has become a personal challenge for me, one of those things that I intend to work on until it doesn't kick my butt so much.
Nicky, I'm not sure what kind of routine you're talking about. As far as prep, there always will be some, no matter what you do. Dressing for exercise, pulling your hair back if it's long, etc. If you have a SmartPhone, you could make play lists specifically for exercising, so it only plays songs you like, and you don't have to worry about skipping ones you don't. That's what I'm doing. And of course the shower afterward. Or did you mean a routine with the equipment you have? That part I can't help you with. We have some dumbells and such things here too, but I could never do much with all that. It felt like I was doing a whole lot of nothing. That, and when I'm at home, I don't tend to exercise. Going somewhere else allows me to get out of the house, and the way the machines are set up provides a routine all itself. Sure, the getting ready, getting there, and showering after are a bit of a hassle, but the way I feel after having worked out is more than worth it.
the routine for the exercise, like
this many of this, and that many of that on these days and not those...
switch it up here and there. so on...
My personal suggestion is to do a cardio workout for at least a half hour every day. A brisk walk on the treadmill, something like that. Obviously, you have to do a few minutes of stretching before you get on the treadmill so that your muscles don't cramp up. Reach your hands up, hold them for about ten seconds. Then reach down and try to touch your toes, hold that for about ten seconds. Then, spread your legs apart. Reach down first with both hands to try to touch your right foot, hold the pose for ten seconds. Then repeat with trying to touch your left foot.
Then maybe since you don't exercise very much, you can start out by doing something like 3 sets of 10 situps. In case you don't know, you would basically do ten situps, rest for like 20 seconds, do 10 more, and repeat. As you get better, you can steadily increase the number of situps.
Throw away the one and three-pound dumbbells. They're worthless. Do some lifting of the five-pound ones. Maybe one in each hand or something. Lift and lower your arms while holding them again, in three sets of ten.
Obviously, these are basic getting-started exercises. All in all it should take you a total of one hour to do all of what I suggested when you include the few minutes of stretching before you get onto the treadmill.
I walk a lot too. 1 K to the station on my way to work, and a K back home from station at night.
I forgot to mention that my treadmill has an incline, which makes it even more of a good workout because you are strengthening your whole body. Whereas, with an electric treadmill, you are mainly just strengthening your legs. I'm not saying that one is better than the other for other people, even though I personally have an opinion about which one I think is better.
One tip I'll add, since others have given advice/recommendations, is that I usually work out in the morning when I feel fresh. If I feel good at nighttime as I did last night, for example, I work out at night. I do that just to change things up a little.
Another way I change things up, is that sometimes I'll do exercises laying down or sitting, and other times I'll do standing exercises--that way, I can't ever get bored with the same thing.
I wish I could find a way to run outside. I hate tredmills, but I wouldn't mind
actually going for a jog. Its the act of running without going anywhere that I
hate, plus I find that a push upwards more than I do forwards on a tredmill, and
that tires me out faster than jogging would. But I haven't found a way to jog by
myself outside.
Cody, I've known of at least one person who runs with her guide dog. Is this not an option in the neighbourhood you live in?
it is, but I wouldn't feel safe doing that. Its not good to run with your guide
dog. They can't work well at such high speeds.
Hmm. The person I'm referring to has been doing it for awhile, and from what I can gather, there have been no real issues. This person lives in a city, and wanted to start running, so she just sorta got on and did it.
Can totally see how reaction time is much shorter though. I'm only meaning to suggest that depending on environment, it might be doable if you want to take a bit of a risk.
Put an add on Craigslist, or in your local gym for a running partner.
You are associated with a college too.
Put an add there.
Mad Dog thanks so much.
I run with my dog and she does well. You get use to it. I point my finger ahead and yell bus. She takes off like a rocket. If she slows down I say something like, "oh no, there it goes, we are going to miss it!" lol, works every time, even if there is no bus near by. Then I tell her good job when we slow down. This is only sometimes though but I will tell her lets go or run and she will start to run.
It's something I need to get more into, but yes I do enjoy it.
There is a curves just down the street. I love the structured routines they do there. I wish it wouldn't be completely awkward for everyone if I joined my wife there. I mean I can barely see anything anyway.:) Nothing like that for guys that I know of unfortunately.