Hello, and I hope you're having a great day. I am, except for my sore knees and my throbbing ankle. I promised to tell you about my workout routine, which is what has reduced me to limping like a woman three times my age. (You can tell that I'm really excited about it, can't you? In reality, I've had some really good days with it, but I think I just overdid it. I'll be OK, though -- live and learn.)
My nutritionist wants me to get some work-out time in every weekday; the weekends are up to me. He believes in rotating light weights, high-intensity interval training, and constant tempo aerobic training. It looks like this:
1) On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I do 20 to 30 minutes of weight and resistance work, to include crunches, bridges, straight leg raises, mulekicks, woodcutter squats, push-ups, overhead dumbbell extensions, hammer curls to press, and planks. Whew! I'm getting tired just talking about it. I do two sets of anywhere from 12 to 25 reps (depending on the exercise) before going to the next form of torture. For the weight work, my guy doesn't want me using more than 5- to 8-pound weights. I have minimal if no rest between. I'm actually supposed to cycle back through another time after my first cycle, but I just can't do that and still get done in the 20 to 30 minutes. And considering the low calory intake, my nutritionist never wants me to go longer than that for this portion.
2) Following the weight and resistance work, I go right into the high-intensity interval training. You probably know, but I had to ask what this was. The nutritionist explained, "Let's say you're riding a bike, going along at a good, steady pace for a couple of minutes. For the next 25 seconds or so, ride as fast as you possibly can. Then, go back to the steady pace for a couple of minutes, and so on." OK, I could do that. I figured I could walk two blocks and then run a block, etc.
Now, you have to know me to know that the thought of me running is...well, let's just say, it's not in my comfort zone. I don't run. I actually really don't even know how to run. But I thought, "I'm going to lose 4 to 5 pounds a week! I have to run if I'm going to hit my goal." And so I ran. After maybe two such work-outs, my right ankle started to ache. "Wimp!" I said. "You can work through that!"
The next time out, I was already noticing my lung capacity seemed to be greater. Sure I was still winded, but at least my lungs weren't screaming the way they were the first couple of times out. But now my knee started to throb. "Please, Lord, take the pain away. Please. I have to do this." Next time around, that left knee ached to the point that I was limping when I ran. My right knee started to mimic the pain in my left knee.
I limped in for my doctor's appointment and asked, "Do you think I should add more fish oil to my diet? My knees and ankles are giving me fits."
"No," the nutritionist said. "You need to stop running." He went on to explain that, if I wasn't used to running, now was not the time to start. I was running on hard surfaces, which had no "give" at all. And I was wearing walking shoes to run, apparently another "no-no."
3) Anyway, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do the constant tempo training, which just basically means moving at a steady pace.
For all activities, I'm not to exceed the 50-60% max (which I'm sure I was doing when I was trying to run.) And I'm not supposed to work out more than 40 minutes on any given day.
I'll just try to keep moving, even if it's at a snail's pace until my joints begin to feel better. Wish me luck. Oh, yeah, another 1.8 pounds down, for a total of 14.6 pounds -- not as fast as I'd like, but I'm getting there.
Enjoy your day. Enjoy this blog.
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