to Injury
Goal Post #17 follow up
When I chose titles for these two goal posts I had a completely different intention in mind for the month of March (to eat more veggies) and it wasn't clear how the alliterative idiom would relate. When I changed the intention to a workout I hoped the injury part wouldn't happen. Oh well.
Ten days into the new HIIT workout routine my right hip started giving me trouble. Aching, popping, generally feeling old, etc., but I kept at it. After all, a slight ache shouldn't block the goal. However, I did start paying better attention to form and slowing down with things like squats to avoid really hurting myself.
Seventeen days in it was time to change things up a bit. First, I removed the bent over delt-raises and replaced it with a bear crawl shoulder tap and moved triceps extension to just after squats. At the literal half-way mark in this five week experiment some results were already apparent.
First, my yoga poses felt more stable and I could hold them longer with less effort. Second, without loosing any weight or inches off my hips, my waist slimmed down another half an inch. (.75 waist to hip ratio WOOT!) Third, just like with biking, I found myself looking forward to workouts. They were so quick it was easy to fit them into my schedule. Considering that fact, I started wondering if I could manage longer active parts of the workout. Maybe 45 seconds work with 15 seconds resting wouldn't be so bad?
The first time I tried implementing a HIIT workout back in 2012 I saw virtually zero results and was super discouraged. Sometime in 2014 - maybe early fall- I also tried a HIIT workout for a month with similar results. Because of that, I was a little concerned this month would be more of the same. Amazingly, my body responded well to this challenge.
About halfway through, when it was obviously working, I thought it might have been cool to post before and after photos. Truthfully, just typing that thought makes my throat constrict a bit, so clearly I'm not ready to post pictures of myself in a sports bra and leggings just yet. (And yes, for all of my excitement, that really is the level of improvement- I look the same fully clothed)
The third week was tricky timing-wise. My work schedule can fluctuate and that week I only had workout time on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Piling HIIT workouts together like that taught me a couple things. First, while it is possible to do this workout three consecutive days in a row, my body reeeeally resisted. Second, it was more difficult missing Friday and Saturday than pushing myself to pick up Tuesday. Even though I didn't have time, I missed working out on the days I was too busy. Lesson learned, keep HIIT workouts spread throughout the week.
Near the end of that third week, my hip and shoulder stopped hurting- YAY - just in time for my back to start acting up. Going into the last two weeks of this challenge I resolved to take better care of my body as whole. First by making sure I was doing enough yoga on non-HIIT days and second, by being more preventative with anti-inflammatory herbs and ibuprofen.
In the middle of week four I had two epiphanies in twenty-four hours and felt like I might be on a roll. The first was about meditation, and the second was about why HIIT workouts didn't work for me back in the summer of 2012 or fall of 2014. While doing lumberjacks, I realized that no matter how carefully that undergrad trainer had coached me, my body simply wasn't capable of preforming those moves in an effective way. My form is better this time because I was stronger before starting the workout in the first place.
Yes, this is going full force in the face of established "you can do more than you think you can" exercise wisdom. What if we can't? What if that's okay? While I was physically capable of completing those exercises at the time, doing them regularly had no measurable effect on my body. It simply wasn't ready for this particular workout, and pushing my body too hard resulted in a shutdown. That shutdown discouraged me to the point I avoided exercise for most of the next five years.
Our bodies thrive on stability. It has been observed that one of the reasons drastic diets with rapid weight loss don't work long term is our bodies resist change. The body wants to maintain a stable weight, even if that number is less than healthy. What if the same is true for exercise? What if gradually increasing difficulty is just as important as gradually decreasing the number on our scales?
This got me thinking about the diet and exercise community/industry. My guess is many medical professionals would probably roll their eyes at the previous paragraph like "That's what we've been trying to tell you." So why does the "no pain, no gain" "push yourself until you puke then keep pushing" biggest-looser approach to weight loss persist?
The answer is probably us. Our culture is impatient. We want to win yesterday. There's this belief our whole lives can change in a matter of weeks if we just go-go-go, fast-fast-fast, hard-hard-hard. The diet industry reflects and exploits this attitude to the detriment of our overall health.
Even possible bright spots - lifestyle approaches to dieting like Weight Watchers and Noom or increased participation in athletic achievements that require intentional, gradual training like running a marathon or thru hiking Appalachian Trail - have participants who refuse to embrace a slow but steady approach and think they've failed if they didn't reach their goal before someone else. Competition isn't inherently unhealthy, but when we make it about numbers on a scale or how quickly we can change our bodies, it gets toxic fast.
This evening was my fourth Friday in this challenge. Despite sore muscles and being extra sleepy lately, this past month has been a win and I'm going into week five feeling great. I absolutely love this workout and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I'm also treating myself to my first reward that isn't new clothes- a deep tissue massage.
When I chose titles for these two goal posts I had a completely different intention in mind for the month of March (to eat more veggies) and it wasn't clear how the alliterative idiom would relate. When I changed the intention to a workout I hoped the injury part wouldn't happen. Oh well.
Ten days into the new HIIT workout routine my right hip started giving me trouble. Aching, popping, generally feeling old, etc., but I kept at it. After all, a slight ache shouldn't block the goal. However, I did start paying better attention to form and slowing down with things like squats to avoid really hurting myself.
Seventeen days in it was time to change things up a bit. First, I removed the bent over delt-raises and replaced it with a bear crawl shoulder tap and moved triceps extension to just after squats. At the literal half-way mark in this five week experiment some results were already apparent.
First, my yoga poses felt more stable and I could hold them longer with less effort. Second, without loosing any weight or inches off my hips, my waist slimmed down another half an inch. (.75 waist to hip ratio WOOT!) Third, just like with biking, I found myself looking forward to workouts. They were so quick it was easy to fit them into my schedule. Considering that fact, I started wondering if I could manage longer active parts of the workout. Maybe 45 seconds work with 15 seconds resting wouldn't be so bad?
The first time I tried implementing a HIIT workout back in 2012 I saw virtually zero results and was super discouraged. Sometime in 2014 - maybe early fall- I also tried a HIIT workout for a month with similar results. Because of that, I was a little concerned this month would be more of the same. Amazingly, my body responded well to this challenge.
About halfway through, when it was obviously working, I thought it might have been cool to post before and after photos. Truthfully, just typing that thought makes my throat constrict a bit, so clearly I'm not ready to post pictures of myself in a sports bra and leggings just yet. (And yes, for all of my excitement, that really is the level of improvement- I look the same fully clothed)
The third week was tricky timing-wise. My work schedule can fluctuate and that week I only had workout time on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Piling HIIT workouts together like that taught me a couple things. First, while it is possible to do this workout three consecutive days in a row, my body reeeeally resisted. Second, it was more difficult missing Friday and Saturday than pushing myself to pick up Tuesday. Even though I didn't have time, I missed working out on the days I was too busy. Lesson learned, keep HIIT workouts spread throughout the week.
Near the end of that third week, my hip and shoulder stopped hurting- YAY - just in time for my back to start acting up. Going into the last two weeks of this challenge I resolved to take better care of my body as whole. First by making sure I was doing enough yoga on non-HIIT days and second, by being more preventative with anti-inflammatory herbs and ibuprofen.
In the middle of week four I had two epiphanies in twenty-four hours and felt like I might be on a roll. The first was about meditation, and the second was about why HIIT workouts didn't work for me back in the summer of 2012 or fall of 2014. While doing lumberjacks, I realized that no matter how carefully that undergrad trainer had coached me, my body simply wasn't capable of preforming those moves in an effective way. My form is better this time because I was stronger before starting the workout in the first place.
Yes, this is going full force in the face of established "you can do more than you think you can" exercise wisdom. What if we can't? What if that's okay? While I was physically capable of completing those exercises at the time, doing them regularly had no measurable effect on my body. It simply wasn't ready for this particular workout, and pushing my body too hard resulted in a shutdown. That shutdown discouraged me to the point I avoided exercise for most of the next five years.
Our bodies thrive on stability. It has been observed that one of the reasons drastic diets with rapid weight loss don't work long term is our bodies resist change. The body wants to maintain a stable weight, even if that number is less than healthy. What if the same is true for exercise? What if gradually increasing difficulty is just as important as gradually decreasing the number on our scales?
This got me thinking about the diet and exercise community/industry. My guess is many medical professionals would probably roll their eyes at the previous paragraph like "That's what we've been trying to tell you." So why does the "no pain, no gain" "push yourself until you puke then keep pushing" biggest-looser approach to weight loss persist?
The answer is probably us. Our culture is impatient. We want to win yesterday. There's this belief our whole lives can change in a matter of weeks if we just go-go-go, fast-fast-fast, hard-hard-hard. The diet industry reflects and exploits this attitude to the detriment of our overall health.
Even possible bright spots - lifestyle approaches to dieting like Weight Watchers and Noom or increased participation in athletic achievements that require intentional, gradual training like running a marathon or thru hiking Appalachian Trail - have participants who refuse to embrace a slow but steady approach and think they've failed if they didn't reach their goal before someone else. Competition isn't inherently unhealthy, but when we make it about numbers on a scale or how quickly we can change our bodies, it gets toxic fast.
This evening was my fourth Friday in this challenge. Despite sore muscles and being extra sleepy lately, this past month has been a win and I'm going into week five feeling great. I absolutely love this workout and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I'm also treating myself to my first reward that isn't new clothes- a deep tissue massage.
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