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Daily Exercise
Dec. 6th, 2017 09:56 pmI've been noticing that I'm not as fit as I used to be. I have more trouble getting up off the floor. When I was stepping over make-shift gates at my sister's, I could tell that I can't lift my leg as high as I used to (using just my leg muscles). And when I went to gym class yesterday, I was in worse shape than even a couple of weeks ago.
When I'm just hanging around the house, it is quite possible for my pedometer to measure less than 500 steps (when 10,000 steps is a rule of thumb for good health).
So I want to be aerobically fit and stronger and more flexible. I've decided it would be a good idea to try to exercise every day. And not just walking.
Every Day?
Lots of sources say you're not supposed to exercise every day. Like if you jog, you are supposed to take off at least one day a week. And if you are strength building, you should take a break every other day to give yourself time to heal the muscles that you tore down in your workouts. Especially when you get old.
Well, I'm not old yet. And I know about counterexamples. I had an asthmatic friend in grad school who had to go jogging outside every single morning to keep his asthma in check. It's like if he breathed in the pollution while exercising in the morning, he was inoculated for the rest of the day. Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about, but he did go running every single day and it worked for him.
I have an acquaintance who has to do yoga every single day or else her back hurts her.
I have an online acquaintance who did that 12-minute workout every single day for a month and did not notice any weird side effects.
I suspect I'm not exercising hard enough to really have to worry about needing to take breaks, but I will be paying attention, just in case. I also suspect that occasional failures to exercise every day will lead to plenty of natural breaks anyway. I can't go wrong!
Talking about plans like this can either be motivating or de-motivating, and for me it tends to be de-motivating. So I'm going to borrow an idea from the motivated types and add to my accountability by recording a little description of my previous day's exercise after each blog post. Starting now.
Exercise update - Yesterday I went to a "Silver Sneakers" class at the gym. This has both aerobic and strength-training components and though it is geared toward retirees, it's plenty easy for me to get a good workout. I also sat down on the floor and got up again without using my hands four times in a row. Because, you know, use it or lose it. Today I had mildly sore muscles, especially in my legs.
Vlog post of the day - The vlogbrothers' The Life Changing Magic of Thumbs Up - I can't remember if I've shared this before, but it's mildly relevant and I love this quote: 'So I was running, and I wasn't feeling awesome. And somebody ran past me on the trail and they gave me a thumbs up. And I was like, "Oh, God, I hate strangers interacting with me. And there's something vaguely condescending about a really fit runner giving a schmo like me a thumbs up. One of the reasons I like running is that I'm by myself and I don't have to interact with people." But after I got the thumbs-up, a super weird thing happened, which is that I started to be able to run faster. You can actually see this happen on my running app. You can see the mile where I received the thumbs up.'
When I'm just hanging around the house, it is quite possible for my pedometer to measure less than 500 steps (when 10,000 steps is a rule of thumb for good health).
So I want to be aerobically fit and stronger and more flexible. I've decided it would be a good idea to try to exercise every day. And not just walking.
Every Day?
Lots of sources say you're not supposed to exercise every day. Like if you jog, you are supposed to take off at least one day a week. And if you are strength building, you should take a break every other day to give yourself time to heal the muscles that you tore down in your workouts. Especially when you get old.
Well, I'm not old yet. And I know about counterexamples. I had an asthmatic friend in grad school who had to go jogging outside every single morning to keep his asthma in check. It's like if he breathed in the pollution while exercising in the morning, he was inoculated for the rest of the day. Obviously I don't know what I'm talking about, but he did go running every single day and it worked for him.
I have an acquaintance who has to do yoga every single day or else her back hurts her.
I have an online acquaintance who did that 12-minute workout every single day for a month and did not notice any weird side effects.
I suspect I'm not exercising hard enough to really have to worry about needing to take breaks, but I will be paying attention, just in case. I also suspect that occasional failures to exercise every day will lead to plenty of natural breaks anyway. I can't go wrong!
Talking about plans like this can either be motivating or de-motivating, and for me it tends to be de-motivating. So I'm going to borrow an idea from the motivated types and add to my accountability by recording a little description of my previous day's exercise after each blog post. Starting now.
Exercise update - Yesterday I went to a "Silver Sneakers" class at the gym. This has both aerobic and strength-training components and though it is geared toward retirees, it's plenty easy for me to get a good workout. I also sat down on the floor and got up again without using my hands four times in a row. Because, you know, use it or lose it. Today I had mildly sore muscles, especially in my legs.
Vlog post of the day - The vlogbrothers' The Life Changing Magic of Thumbs Up - I can't remember if I've shared this before, but it's mildly relevant and I love this quote: 'So I was running, and I wasn't feeling awesome. And somebody ran past me on the trail and they gave me a thumbs up. And I was like, "Oh, God, I hate strangers interacting with me. And there's something vaguely condescending about a really fit runner giving a schmo like me a thumbs up. One of the reasons I like running is that I'm by myself and I don't have to interact with people." But after I got the thumbs-up, a super weird thing happened, which is that I started to be able to run faster. You can actually see this happen on my running app. You can see the mile where I received the thumbs up.'