What's Your Workout Today VSGers? - Tuesday! Is anyone still interested in this thread?

I like your posts, i dont usually reply simply because my 'exercise' is pretty boring!  I do 60+mins a day walking on treadmill with as mu*****line as my back can handle that day.  every day it's the same routine.  lol

I love your posts!  Don't stop, please.  I'm going to kettlebells this evening. 

I do read your posts, but sometimes they're a little intimidating - you're way further along in the fitness journey than I am, and most of the time I can't even imagine doing something as simple as a burpee (my knees are swollen, my hip is sore, yada, yada, yada).  For now, I've been sticking with walking and running, although I know I need to change it up a bit (did I mention that my knees are swollen and my hip hurts?).  

Maybe more posts for beginners?

You are one of the posters I always read - your insight and advice is spot on, so keep it up!

So I had to think about the best way to respond to your post here because I want to make sure you walk away feeling very good about what you are doing. First the fact that you do this at all is a huge step over your former self. Second, do not think about it like I am farther along my fitness journey. You will get there but you do have to push yourself. I want to be very clear that my knees are swollen and my hip is sore every day. I spend a lot of time stretching and massaging at night.

A year ago I couldn't run a 5k or do a burpee or 10 pushups or plank for 2 minutes or run a sprint or a do apull-up or run 15% incline at 7mph like I did today. Every day of your exercise you should try to be better than you were the day before. So stick to it, focus on the things you struggle with and make it your mission to get to where you can do it.

Do not be afraid of the exercises you see here or in the challenges, you will be surprised what you can do and the things you can't do if you just slow the parts down and do them you will get there. Take a burpee for example. You don't have to jump down, depending on your weight you might break your wrists. But you can put both hands on the ground, put one foot back at a time then bring them forward one at a time. If you can do a pushup do a pushup, if you can't but your knees down and do an easier push up and then get back up. The first time you do one you will be dizzy and feel like you are going to pass out, but you will feel good, you will feel proud and you will feel stronger and the very weird thing about burpees is that you will want to do more and more. My wife weighs 250lbs and she is obsessed with doing them. She wants to improve. Its a very weird phenomenon. The point is that she is doing them and improving daily.

In fact I would go as far as to say spend a certain amount of time each day on the exercises you can't do or are intimidated by, you will improve exponentially.

I will start posting beginner challenges as well as advanced challenges and when I come across good things I think work well for those just starting out I will start posting them. 

It doesn't have to be fancy though, pushups, situps, walking, jogging, squats, lunges, stretching are very simple exercises that are very very effective.

Also, please feel free to ask questions. If there is an exercise you want to do but think you can't let me know and I will give you and alternative that will help you get there.

 

Thanks Keith - I'm gonna try a plank right now!

That's a good one. I hated them at first, now I freaking love them.

I did the plank, got bored, and went for a 4 mile walk instead.  I can always count on nature to make me forget that my knees and hip hurt!  Thanks for the encouragement!

All I can say is that I really want to try to pick up a regular workout routine. Yesterday, I walked for 1 hour & did the 30 Day Shred. Even though that workout is only 25 minutes, its supposed to be highly effective. I am going to try it again tonight.

Ok, how about we make a better use of your workout time. What if we can optimize that 60 mins to double or triple your burn? or give you the same result of that 60 mins in 20? 25 mins is a great workout time! It does not need to be 4 hours a day in the gym. You just need to move every day. A regular routine doesn't mean you have to do the same thing every day. In fact your body gets used to those and they stop being effective. Any time you want to change it up, let me know and I can give you some things to try.

I did the 30 minute "beginner" cardio workout from season one of Biggest Loser. I'm side-eying them a little bit for calling it a beginner workout because there were moves I couldn't do and places I had to stop and catch up a little, and I've been doing low impact aerobics 5 times a week for over a month. I noticed some of the Amazon reviews also questioned it being beginner level, so that's not just me being an out of shape baby (which I am).

Tonight I am doing a 30 minute toning dvd -- it's stuff like lunges, squats, curls, etc. using light hand weights. The first time I did that dvd my thighs were KILLING me the next day, but I've kept up with it (3x/wk) and it's getting easier and easier. I have been using 3 lb weights but my plan is to bump it up to 5 lb weights in a week or two.