Oh my god, I've gone to flab

[pegkerr]

As I mentioned, I'm trying to resume morning workouts. When I started karate (last November), I gradually dropped my morning workouts; I was trying to keep up my cardio by doing elliptical workouts on breaks at work at the office gym. Though I felt guilty about it, I did not keep up my weightlifting.

Today, I tried to do a FIRM workout, the lower body segment of Body Sculpt. It absolutely hammered me, and I couldn't use the weights I used to use. I had to resort to using measley 3 lb weights on the box press.

Am furious with myself for how much I've let myself go. I don't know how long it will take to get myself back to a semblance of where I used to be.

Comments

[splagxna.livejournal.com]

i have not FIRMed in about... six months? a combination of injuries and no time (wedding planning!) is my excuse. i'm very nervous about getting back to it, so i'm trying to work up to it slowly (been doing less intense workouts lately and will wait a little to re-FIRM).

however, once before i dropped off for a while and when i came back - yeah, it was a bitch, but i got back to my 'usual' more quickly than expected, and since then i have read that it's easier to rebuild muscle after not working out in a while than to build up from nothing. no idea why, but there's hope!

[resqdog51.livejournal.com]

....well, if you stay mad, it will take less time than if you don't! Mad is a good motivator.

And I totally know what you mean -- I'm in the same boat and am going to have to fight my way back to fitness, too! *sigh* why is it so easy to get out of shape and so hard to get INTO shape?

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Very much sympathising, here. I doubt I've ever been in as good shape as you describe being in the past, but when I was working at the dojo regularly, that was hard enough work to keep me pretty fit. Then that ended, and I dosolved into a useless puddle. Last winter, I got motivated, and started working out on the nordictrack I have downstairs, as well as doing some weight/strengthening exercises. After a few false starts, I actually got momentum going and got to the point where I was doing at least one, sometimes both kinds of work every day. The amount I could do wasincreasng, I was feeling good--

--and then I had my little workplace accident, which immobilized me for a month or so. And since then, I've kept trying to get back into shape, and it's always one or two days of working out, and then "something comes up" and I spend a day or two /not/ working out, and then it's over.

I'm trying starting again. My motivation's pretty strong this time - but lord, is the flesh weak! I tell Julian grimly, "Can you wait before we do X? I want to work out first....it won't be more than 10 minutes, anyhow..."

But fortunately, I /do/ know that improvement happens rapidly if I just keep working, which is almost motivation enough right there.

What kind of lower-body work do you do? I mean, is it something you can do at home, or does it require a gym? I want to get back into my weight stuff again. Fortunately, I have Miriam Nelson's stuff to work with, and she's so sensible and sane, it makes it all easier.

So--good luck. I'l be thinking of you.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

What kind of lower-body work do you do? I mean, is it something you can do at home, or does it require a gym?

I work out to exercise DVDs at home. For lower body and upper body workouts, I use weights, frequently doing DVDs from a company called The FIRM, which emphasizes weights. They have you do squats, holding the weights on your shoulders, and lots of exercises stepping up and down a 14 inch box, again holding weights on your shoulders. They sell a 14 inch box for this (which they call, irritatingly, "the Fanny Lifter.") But I just use a sturdy plastic footstoll on top of my Reebok step; together they total 14 inches. FIRM workouts are not for everyone. They are very challenging; some people find the older ones rather cheesy. But they are effective.

You can read comments about the FIRM here and a list of all their exercise videos and DVDs here. Here is their website>.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Thank you.

I'll keep it in mind, although I don't think I can follow up on it right now. A: I have mucked-up knees, and so some things, like squats, are right out. Can't exert stress on the knees at less than 90 degree angles. (This is why shotokan-style karate was - is - so good for me - the low, solid stances provide a heck of a work-out for my thighs, without getting into deeper-than-90-degree problem areas. So...guess I should do more of that, even if I don't have a dojo, hm?) And B, of course, is the money - buying DVDs is out right now, when my brain tells me I have Just As Good things that are already paid for. Also, there's C: which is that my body image is so crappy that I need privacy for working out, and where the TV is, there is no privacy.

However, I /can/ do stepping stuff, and I thank you for reminding me of it. I could get a $4 step-stool at the dollar store and use that quite effectively. That would be good.

What's frustrating is that, although I have some problems which consider to be minor - munged knees from high-school, asthma - overall, I actually have a remarkably /good/ body. I retain strength and flexibility far better than I deserve, given the sedentary life I lapse into - although my crappy stamina makes up for it. When I read about people struggling with exercise whose bodies are endemically stiff or have real trouble gaining strength, I feel obscurely guilty for wasting my resources. And, of course, I'm in my mid thirties now - getting fit now, difficult but not overwhelmingly difficult. Staying sedentary for another ten or fifteen years and then trying, muuuuuch harder. So I'm trying to do it now.

/Have/ you ever read Miriam Nelson's stuff about strength training? Strong Women Stay Young and Strong Women Stay Slim are both really worth reading. She offers a program of weight-using exercises, but even if you already have your own exercises, I think the other things she says about such training would be well worth reading. She...disolves shame and talks sense, and makes it possible to just get going. That's a rare gift in someone writing on this subject.

[cedarlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't feel too bad. That section of Body Sculpt is an absolute killer. I cry doing it even when I'm in pretty decent shape.

Have you tried Super Body Sculpt, with Stephanie Corley? It's very easy to do, technique-wise, but it's effective and doesn't leave me swearing at the TV.