Spring fitness update

This Spring fitness update comes to you fresh from a lunchtime gym class which I did not enjoy AT ALL. When you go to an abs class you can normally expect a bit of a lie down, but this somehow involved lots of sweaty cardio and balancing on your wrists. Remind me not to do that one again.

This is the first time in a couple of years that the gyms are open all the time and not put on pause by The Great Unplesantness. I still aimed to keep to my usual yearly fitness challenge of 150 gym sessions per year, but when they weren’t open for a big chunk of the time it was kind of an extra hard challenge. It was either nothing or too much.

So this year it actually feels like I’m exercising less. Though really I’m doing the same but just spreading it out over a longer time.

I think you have to keep tweaking your fitness routine to keep it interesting and effective. Hence today’s lunchtime class which wasn’t for me, but I’m glad I gave it a go. Apart from that, this is where I’m at right now:

Over all fitness goals

I don’t have a traditional goal in terms of a place I’m trying to get to with my fitness. I’m just trying to stay healthy enough to keep enjoying life for as long as possible. I feel like life in my 50s is substantially improved by the fact that I exercised a lot in my 40s. Your 50s is definitely a ‘use it or lose it’ decade so whilst I can, I’m choosing to use it.

So instead of goals, what I have instead is a focus on two things: core and balance.

Core (abdominals and back) because it supports everything else, but also because I don’t fancy giving in to middle aged spread just yet.

And balance because that tends to drop off a bit as we age so you’ve got to work at it to avoid too many falls in later life. I figure old age will come around soon enough and when it does I’ll be glad I stood one one leg for a bit when I still could.

Still yoga-ing

Yoga is great for mental focus, which I don’t have all that much of at the moment. Very fizzy headed right now; maybe it’s a menopause thing. So I start my day with 20 minutes or so of yoga with the aim to go into the rest of the day from a calmer place. I do whatever Yoga With Adriene video that pops up on YouTune and usually add in a bit of Tree pose for balance at the end.

Still on the weights

The thing about weights is, every workout is different so you never run out of things to do and it doesn’t get boring. OK, occasionally it gets a tiny bit boring doing it on your own, so I have joined a new women’s weightlifting group class and am enjoying that a lot.

I’ve invested in wrist wraps to help with deadlifts and once I work out how to use them I’ll be hauling up all sorts. Hoping to have the bone density of a dinosaur by the end of the year.

Most of my gym workouts consist of an hour of weights. I often start with a little bit of treadmill running, but I’m not really interested in cardio. Lifting up big heavy lumps of metal is so much more satisfying.

Speaking of weights, I really want to recommend the book Stronger by Poorna Bell, which is my bedtime reading right now.

If you think that exercise is not for you, or you haven’t found a way to move your body that you enjoy, give this a read. It’s really inspirational.

Keep on moving…

Just for funsies, I’ve started going to a local hula fit class, and have even bought a hula hoop with which to practice at home. I never hula-ed as a kid so this is a brand new skill for me. I tend to do a little blast of hooping to music every morning. It’s really calm and fun at the same time. If you know any good hooping songs my playlist is open.