forgotten_aria | Entries tagged with exercise

I am much better about exercising when attending classes, so I was hoping to find a class close to me close by that would be fun and help me get into shape for my blackbelt test. There is a crossfit place near me, but my list of things I can't do because of my knees and shoulder made them say that I likely can't get enough out of the classes.

I'm having trouble finding alternatives near me, so I'm considering asking to come in and talk about more in depth about what I can and cannot do.

I find it disappointing that exercise classes are so morning-centric. Sometimes it drives me batty just how much our society assumes that you get up at 8am, go to work at 9am and get home at 5pm. But I guess I should just feel lucky that stores are open at times that I use them.

The weight machine is gone (after a comically tough time getting it out because we were trying to avoid disasembling it entirely. Hind site, disassembling it would have been easier.) (I have also polised the gash out of the floor. it's still visitble, but not as glaring.)

The elliptical is down stairs!

The new machines are ordered!

At my Taekwondo place, there is a visiting master who, when ever she led class, I would feel horribly sick and not be able to make it through the whole class. This left me crying, feeling horrible physically and hating myself mentally. I hated it.

Last time I got the theory that I was over heating, because when I had to quit I felt immediately better when I put a wet towel on the back of my neck.

So I went and found a special cloth my mother bought me for hot taiko days which contains the chemical that holds on to water. The idea is that you soak it, and then tie it around your neck to feel cooler.

AND IT WORKED!

I did the whole class and didn't feel remotely nauseous!

She said, "well maybe you are just stronger." I said, "no, it was like a switch!"

So apparently my body has a heat dump problem and I seem to have foudn a workaround.

I wonder if this is why exercise so often makes me feel just horrible.

(BTW, except for the classes where I did feel queasy, TKD makes me feel pretty good. Every now and then I'll twig my knee or shoulder, but other than that it is really making me feel better physically. Mentally I'm in a good state where I've stopped caring about how fast I progress, which for me is important. I'm enjoying the doing, not the goal.)

I've had bad knees since college. I think it was a combination of fencing in high school, bouncing down Mt. Washington and a midnight bike ride and just, generally my father's side of the family has bad knees and extra weight, which is a horrible combination.

On one hand, I'm glad I can still walk mostly pain free. I was afraid I would be using a cane at this point in my life. I'm also thankful that I can do taiko with only a little bit of restrictions. But time and again my knees have been one of the major hurdles in me getting regular exercise.

Rock climbing? can't, bad knees. Ariel silks? can't, bad knees. Lap swimming? Can't bad knees. Biking? I might be able to now, but before, couldn't, bad knees. Most workout videos, squats? burpies? lunges?

Well it struck again. While running my knee went out. So I can't run regularly at least at the weight I currently am. I might see if I can't do it once a week or something and build up some of the protective muscles around my knee, but I think this pretty much kills running on the program schedule.

I was really liking to be out doors too, so I might try a walking program or something. Get biking (gently) too. Maybe figure out how to make the elliptical not horribly boring.

It really annoys me.

My pace was better today walking half of it but that's because the GPS went berserk and shows me running in the pond. http://www.rundouble.com/run/5888587497209856/4b95nV7rw4

I'm tired of being fat (though this is nothing new.)

I realize this is a poor motivation for exercise since weight loss is a lost cause but good health is not, but I'll take what I can get.

I've been using the Zumba kinect games (not the first one because it's horrible) and they seem to be good for improving my general well being (getting the kinks out, getting some good circulation) but not really for weight loss or high cardio.

A lot of my friends are running now. ( blah blah running blah )

I have my replacement up for the last few days. It actually works. Things I've learned about myself and the band.

Wearing something 24/7 that I know is recording things about me makes me feel like a tagged animal. I also have to switch wrists because I start to get itchy.

The sleep tracker is, not unexpectedly, not that great. I woke up for a phone call this morning and it didn't notice it as a wake up. What it does tell me is approximately how long it takes me to fall asleep and about how little sleep I get that is relatively restful. I seem to move a lot when I sleep in general.

Taiko I've decided it would be unfair and mean to the device to wear it on my wrist, so I've been wearing it on my shirt. Not sure how much that's throwing it off.

The big win, however, is the inactivity alarm. This is why I went with an Up and not a withings (or anything else.) If I've been sitting too long, it vibrates and I've been actually getting up and getting my circulation and heart rate up.

I'm not sure how long term this device might be for me. The feeling of having it on all the time might drive me batty such that if it does fail in 3 months, I might just give up on at that point. We'll see. I'd give you a link to all my graphs, but one of the down sides of the up is a poor web service.

As a side note, I'm really glad I got the wifi scale. I like seeing the actual graph of my weight and I hope the data will help me when I see more of it.

I bought a treadmill a while ago in hopes that I could game and walk at the same time. I quickly found that the body movement made pressing keys difficult and playing games was just not fun. We kept the treadmill because I would often just want a sprint to get circulation and the kinks out of my legs, especially during winter. But it was loud. I also bought a TV to try to watch while using it in the new house, but again the fact it was so loud made watching TV annoying.

Recently G started to want to get more cardio into his routine, so he started using the treadmill and ran into the same issue, that he'd like to watch things on his latop, but the machine was so very loud.

We had, in the old house, one of those super compact, super cheap elliptical machines and hated it. It was loud and uncomfortable. So I don't quite remember how I started to look at elliptical machines, but we discovered that they're super quiet, so I started to look into the further. Other than being huge, which is less of a problem in the new house, they seemed to be better in every way, so I started researching earnest. I tried craigslist, but had the issue that most assembled ones won't fit in my car. (that and scheduling a time to see on just wasn't happening.)

We went to Dick's in Danvers which happened to have display models of our top contenders. The place is HUGE! two stories and just immense. I'm not sure their selection was all that huge, but store was kind of awe inspiring. We tried them all out, even the more expensive ones and the one I'd picked by feel and reviews turned out to be our favourite. I bought some glittery black and purple sports wrap out of guilt that we'd come to try their devices but was going to internet order when we got home (amazon was having 20% off all sports stuff if you used amazon visa, or the price at Dick's would have been about the same as amazon.)

So we have ordered a Livestrong 10.0e and I'm super excited. I hope this excitement turns in to a new regular habit of watching TV while exercising! Wish me luck.

Oh, and now I'll have to get rid of my old treadmill.

Current Mood: excited

So I was thinking to buy a treadmill today. I went to sears to at least messure them, since there aren't and dimentions (other than the belt size.) They had a floor model on sale! So I find a guy and ask him if he can go find the key to try it. He says yes, and disappears... for about 10 minutes, so I go find someone else, who finds the key. I try it and I kind of like it. I say, "I want to buy this, but if I do, what about the key?" The guy then spends another 15 minuntes being confused that 1) the floor model is already sold 2) they have new ones, yes it's the same discount price, no wait, no it's not 3) no, I don't get a key. Yes, I can't use it with out one.

So he finds his manager, who doesn't know how much or how long a new key would be, but says "it's just a magnet." I ask if he has anything to prove it's just a magnet, so he grabs something that half turns it on. While kind of freaking out, it starts raising it's incline. It keeps raising it. Pressing stop doesn't stop it. It keeps raising it. Pressing down doesn't stop it. It keeps going until if crunches is plastic into the "crosswalker" arm exercise attachment. They finally get it to stop and lower and the plastic is now damaged. Mostly just cosmetic and the discount price is still good enough, but I'm now worried about finding a magent which is "strong enough" as the manager says.

So I go wandering the tools, looking for something magnetic. At this point my salesman goes to help someone else. I can't find anything, so I start to consider the new models, sepficially the one I came into see that they don't have a display for. While I'm waiting, the other customer asks, "how long is this treadmill" the sales man looks confused, so I hand over my tape messure which I brought with me to messure treadmills.

I ask the salesman if they actually have the other model in stock. He says, "since you're being so helpful, would you go look up the number in the compute by the cash over there (it's a customer access to the sears.com website.) I do, and give it to him, but he's still busy and forgets it. I'm getting impatient at this point (if I hadn't checked online that sears had the best prices, I would have been out of there long ago.) I finally decide no and leave. I pay $4 for parking because of the stupid holiday.

So I drive to "sport authority" in assembly square. I get greeted right away. The guy has the treamill key hanging around his neck, so without missing a beat he can show me things. He asks if I'm going to be walking or running, I say walking and he actually shows me the lowest end model first. He explains that treadmill brands are almost all the same company, your just paying for the name, and then explains why one might want a more powerful motor, which has to do with noise and vibration. He's comptent, friendly and responsive. The treadmill is $10 here more than sears. I gladly pay the extra to see better customer service than I've seen in a long while.

So that's my treadmill story. I plan to put a laptop in front of it and play world of walk-craft.

PS, I love my car.

EDIT: oh the sport authority one doesn't have the stupid arm bars for it to hurt itself with.

doing exercise used to make me feel crappy. Well it kind of still does, but lack of exercise also makes me feel crappy. This is a good thing. It drives me to exercise. My legs start to itch if I don't do SOMETHING. Now, if this could just happen more often and I could shed the exercise feeling like suck, I'd be a thinner person with better cardio.

I need exercise. My knees, however hate me.

I might try to buy a cheap treadmill of craigslist. I emailed someone selling on for $20, but not reply yet.

I did 6 songs of DDR today, which is better than nothing. I'm at least got my motablism up. too bad my knees say no more. It would be great if I could either loose enough weight or strengthen my knee protecting muscles enough to play full sets again. I'm really sad I let DDR leave my life.

I'm going to try to eat better this month with out going all calorie psycho. I might have to go all counting.

I'm thinking of buying a $250 exercise package from an infomercial. I've been doing one of the exercises and it feels good. It stretches and stegnthens at the same time. I'm really tentative, though, since that's a good chunk of money and fitness things are more often than not a loose for me. However if it is a win, it's worth a lot to me. That's why I'd take the gamble.

Darn I wish I could just fine the love of DDR again.

Anyway, I have no idea what I'll decided, but if you're interested, it's the http://fluidity.com/ system. It appears to have good reviews.

EDIT: I ordered it.