Committing to exercise has been a "process" for me. I start in one place, and end up in another, with lots of adjustments in between. And really, nothing "ends;" it only changes, and then keeps changing again. With each experience, my attitude or perspective also changes, evolving in big ways, or as minute, small, adjustments, sometimes even set-backs. At times, I'm flabbergasted by my accomplishments, other times lead to disappointment, and some times I just don't know what to feel? Everything that happens along the way influences my commitment, though I cannot predict the outcomes at the start! Enough of the esoteric!
After getting through the fear of signing up for class, showing up that first day, I still had to exercise from 6:15-7:00 pm every Monday and Wednesday for three months. Stepping on the scale that first Monday, was shocking, disgusting and motivating. YIKES, I "weighed in" at the highest weight of my life! And being used to a sedentary lifestyle, I soon learned that moving this huge body was extremely painful. The instructor would individualize the exercise, pushing us to reach our own personal goals. And that is what ultimately became my biggest challenge - pushing myself.
Every workout, the instructor would challenge us to "raise the bar" on what we each were able to accomplish through exercise. This "pushing" was done with respect...and I never felt "forced" or "coerced" to follow through. Indeed, I had a schizophrenic response to the "pushing," often expressing my complete displeasure while equally making full-fledged, mostly failing, attempts to reach the goal. Each workout, I could feel my face getting red, the sweat dripping around my face and off the tip of my chin. The neckline and sleeves of my workout clothes became soaked with sweat, and my hair was drenched... curling up and under into it's own new "shape." Beads of my sweat dripped from one end of the gymnasium to the other, just like the crumb path left by Hansel and Gretel to find their way home. I would hobble out to my car, leaving the exercise session with leg and torso pain. I would collapse at home...immobilized...and yet wanting to move so that it wasn't even more painful when I stood up.
Each day was different and my learning curve slow. In these early days, most of my learning centered on "pain." Some days I would return home with a pounding headache that would last for days. On occasion, I did not attend class because of "pain avoidance." I also learned to ignore other class members who joked "stop trying so hard - you're ruining it for the rest of us. He'll [the instructor] just work us harder!" I have always tried to do my best, whatever new "project" I take on. Why would I approach exercise any differently than other aspects of my life?
One day, after returning home from a particularly difficult workout session, we had a poignant family conversation around the dinner table.* I hadn't shared much about the exercise class with my family, but today my husband said "You look wiped out!" This opened the door, and for the first time I began to whine about the "severity" of my fitness class, the difficulty being a large person in a "workout" class, and complained that the instructor was "killing me." (Was I making excuses for missing classes? Who knows?) I'm usually not one to complain, but my husband, Dave, cut me off with his usual quick response "He's not killing you, he's saving your life!"
Several seconds passed before I fully grasped, comprehended his statement. That is when I experienced one very large perspective adjustment, probably the biggest perspective hiccup in my life. That is when I both lost and caught my breath.
Submitted on Monday, September 27, 2010.
* I have learned not to eat before exercise. No matter how small or big the meal, I always experience some sort of discomfort, ill feeling, dizzyness, exercise fatigue, or slowness.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
It's Like Cheers!
Earlier that day, I had grabbed purse, keys, cell phone and work bags, peeked into my boss's office to say I was leaving for the day, heading out immediately. He wanted to chat, but I really had to go. I'd left a grant unfinished, in a "messy" state on my desk. (Everything on my desk is unfinished and messy...it's how I work.) All of it would just have to wait. My daughter was expecting me to pick her up in 15 minutes, and then I had to race home to change into workout clothes, before driving south toward Lifepointe to make it on time for my fitness class.
As I got into my car and left the parking lot, I began to feel the pressures of the present peel back or fall away. I slowly forgot about the grant, forgot about my job, and shifted focus forward. My daughter, Catherine, and I got caught up, as we drove home. She asked about a possible sleep over with her best friends Caroline and Leslie, and began to list all the activities they might engage in - swimming, horseback riding, making Eggkaka (a unique Scandinavian egg breakfast), just as we entered our driveway.
Once home, Catherine and her dad continued the overnight planning, as I "raced up the stairs" to change into workout clothes for a record-breaking 5-minute costume change! (My "race up the stairs" is more like a "hobble.") Back in the car and heading south again, I began to anticipate the workout, and to prepare myself for the "good" pain and a little "limit-pushing." (A preparation routine that involves taking Ibuprofen.) And then I started to think about all the "greetings" that were to come....
Walking in through Lifepointe's huge front doors, Kris, who works at the reception desk smiles and asks "Hi Nancy! How are you doing? How's your family?" Paul, (my first trainer) smiles wide, and jokes about my tardiness while motioning to "get to work now!" He's very serious. My next trainer, Rob, casually shouts my name putting an emphasis on the opposite syllable - NAN-SEE - just like I was Norm walking into Cheers for the 105th time! The fitness session, while grueling, emphasizes my personal capacity or needs, not in competition with anyone else. The staff person who registered me waves and smiles as she casually walks by our class. A fellow class member encourages, no pushes, me to reach a goal in a weight-lifting exercise. My colleague Deb, a good friend battling some of the same health issues, welcomes me with a smile and a special "treat" such as water, or some new medical report or remedy. And every time our paths cross, the Governor's wife gives "two thumbs up" and a smile as I sweat, huff and puff on the rowing machine. I wonder what she sees? How hard I push myself? My drippy, sweaty effort or the pile of sweat water on the floor?
This is corny but the catchy High School Musical theme song is going to roll out anyway.... We're all in this together I hum to myself, and continue driving south toward Lifepointe. I can't wait to walk through the front doors of Lifepointe, a place where everyone knows your name and they're always glad you came!
Click to hear Cheer's Theme Song on You Tube!
Submitted on Sunday, September 19, 2010.
Complete lyrics to the Cheers Theme Song
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got,
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
All those nights when you got no lights,
The check is in the mail.
And your little angel hung the cat up by it's tail,
And your third fiance didn't show.
Sometimes you wanna go. Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same,
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead,
The morning's looking bright, (echo: looking bright)
And your shrink ran of to Europe and didn't even write.
And your husband wants to be a girl!
Be glad there's one place in the world,
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
You wanna go where people know,
People are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name. (piano solo)
Where everybody knows your name, where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
Where everybody knows your name, where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
Where everybody knows your name,where every body knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
As I got into my car and left the parking lot, I began to feel the pressures of the present peel back or fall away. I slowly forgot about the grant, forgot about my job, and shifted focus forward. My daughter, Catherine, and I got caught up, as we drove home. She asked about a possible sleep over with her best friends Caroline and Leslie, and began to list all the activities they might engage in - swimming, horseback riding, making Eggkaka (a unique Scandinavian egg breakfast), just as we entered our driveway.
Once home, Catherine and her dad continued the overnight planning, as I "raced up the stairs" to change into workout clothes for a record-breaking 5-minute costume change! (My "race up the stairs" is more like a "hobble.") Back in the car and heading south again, I began to anticipate the workout, and to prepare myself for the "good" pain and a little "limit-pushing." (A preparation routine that involves taking Ibuprofen.) And then I started to think about all the "greetings" that were to come....
Walking in through Lifepointe's huge front doors, Kris, who works at the reception desk smiles and asks "Hi Nancy! How are you doing? How's your family?" Paul, (my first trainer) smiles wide, and jokes about my tardiness while motioning to "get to work now!" He's very serious. My next trainer, Rob, casually shouts my name putting an emphasis on the opposite syllable - NAN-SEE - just like I was Norm walking into Cheers for the 105th time! The fitness session, while grueling, emphasizes my personal capacity or needs, not in competition with anyone else. The staff person who registered me waves and smiles as she casually walks by our class. A fellow class member encourages, no pushes, me to reach a goal in a weight-lifting exercise. My colleague Deb, a good friend battling some of the same health issues, welcomes me with a smile and a special "treat" such as water, or some new medical report or remedy. And every time our paths cross, the Governor's wife gives "two thumbs up" and a smile as I sweat, huff and puff on the rowing machine. I wonder what she sees? How hard I push myself? My drippy, sweaty effort or the pile of sweat water on the floor?
This is corny but the catchy High School Musical theme song is going to roll out anyway.... We're all in this together I hum to myself, and continue driving south toward Lifepointe. I can't wait to walk through the front doors of Lifepointe, a place where everyone knows your name and they're always glad you came!
Click to hear Cheer's Theme Song on You Tube!
Submitted on Sunday, September 19, 2010.
Complete lyrics to the Cheers Theme Song
Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got,
Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
All those nights when you got no lights,
The check is in the mail.
And your little angel hung the cat up by it's tail,
And your third fiance didn't show.
Sometimes you wanna go. Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same,
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.
Roll out of bed, Mr. Coffee's dead,
The morning's looking bright, (echo: looking bright)
And your shrink ran of to Europe and didn't even write.
And your husband wants to be a girl!
Be glad there's one place in the world,
Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
You wanna go where people know,
People are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows your name. (piano solo)
Where everybody knows your name, where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
Where everybody knows your name, where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
Where everybody knows your name,where every body knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sick As a Dog - A Side Note
While most other posts have noted past "Aha's" involving exercise, this side note is current. I am still recovering from this cold as I feebly write.....
This week I have been so sick. I can't imagine putting my body to any type of exercise test, except for the "laying prone" kind. Indeed, by the end of the week, I couldn't think, work, or move, EXCEPT to lay prone! What started out as escalating fall allergies in one week morphed into one big bad cold and ultimately crushing sinus infection the next.
Last weekend I had started to feel these interacting effects. Even with the dull tiredness and nasal congestion of seasonal allergies, I pushed myself over the holiday weekend, working out on my own on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday afternoon I felt some very deep muscle aches in new places - my biceps and triceps, knees and wrists, near my thumbs. (Nothing to be proud of..but even a couple of months into this exercise adventure, I still was unsure which muscle groups were biceps and which were triceps?) I didn't attribute these odd aches to an oncoming cold, but felt they were regular aches and pains that come with hard, repeated exercise, most-likely fall-out from the 20-minute "interval" treadmill workout that my trainer, Rob, prepared, an exercise protocol designed to move me to the next level.
After the weekend, on Monday, I was dizzy all day. Couldn't stand up or sit down without the world swirling around me. This clearly was not fall-out from a treadmill workout! In the meantime while I had excellent results on my blood-work (cholesterol, A1C, blood sugars), my blood pressure had increased uncharacteristically, and my doctor had taken me off the 24-hour Allegra D because she suspected the decongestant, that I was taking to clear nasal passages and allergy symptoms, was also raising my blood pressure beyond the safe zone. (She had told me that it was not good for a person with "heart" issues to take decongestants.)
By Tuesday and Wednesday, the cold was in full force, including blinding headaches (the kind that Vitamin I - Ibuprofen - doesn't cure), facial and neck pain, body aches, cough and multiplied drainage/mucus from the newly forming sinus infection. I stayed home from work for two straight days - and attempted to sleep it off. There is only one thing that will bring me down for two days at work, and that is a raging bull sinus infection. By Friday morning I was back visiting my doctor again, seven days after the initial muscle aches. She prescribed an antibiotic that took immediate effect. I have now gone without exercise for seven days. Even though I mentally missed the exercise, I must admit that this illness - this sinus condition - "arrested" me both physically and mentally. I also realize that exercise and illness (especially of the sinus variety) don't mix well for me.
My primary concern now is that I will actually miss two weeks of exercise; this past week of sinus arrest, and the upcoming week when I travel to Indianapolis for work. For the first time in my life, I may have to try the fitness room at my hotel? Another potential story for a future blog post?
Submitted on Saturday, September 11, 2010
This week I have been so sick. I can't imagine putting my body to any type of exercise test, except for the "laying prone" kind. Indeed, by the end of the week, I couldn't think, work, or move, EXCEPT to lay prone! What started out as escalating fall allergies in one week morphed into one big bad cold and ultimately crushing sinus infection the next.
Last weekend I had started to feel these interacting effects. Even with the dull tiredness and nasal congestion of seasonal allergies, I pushed myself over the holiday weekend, working out on my own on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By Sunday afternoon I felt some very deep muscle aches in new places - my biceps and triceps, knees and wrists, near my thumbs. (Nothing to be proud of..but even a couple of months into this exercise adventure, I still was unsure which muscle groups were biceps and which were triceps?) I didn't attribute these odd aches to an oncoming cold, but felt they were regular aches and pains that come with hard, repeated exercise, most-likely fall-out from the 20-minute "interval" treadmill workout that my trainer, Rob, prepared, an exercise protocol designed to move me to the next level.
After the weekend, on Monday, I was dizzy all day. Couldn't stand up or sit down without the world swirling around me. This clearly was not fall-out from a treadmill workout! In the meantime while I had excellent results on my blood-work (cholesterol, A1C, blood sugars), my blood pressure had increased uncharacteristically, and my doctor had taken me off the 24-hour Allegra D because she suspected the decongestant, that I was taking to clear nasal passages and allergy symptoms, was also raising my blood pressure beyond the safe zone. (She had told me that it was not good for a person with "heart" issues to take decongestants.)
By Tuesday and Wednesday, the cold was in full force, including blinding headaches (the kind that Vitamin I - Ibuprofen - doesn't cure), facial and neck pain, body aches, cough and multiplied drainage/mucus from the newly forming sinus infection. I stayed home from work for two straight days - and attempted to sleep it off. There is only one thing that will bring me down for two days at work, and that is a raging bull sinus infection. By Friday morning I was back visiting my doctor again, seven days after the initial muscle aches. She prescribed an antibiotic that took immediate effect. I have now gone without exercise for seven days. Even though I mentally missed the exercise, I must admit that this illness - this sinus condition - "arrested" me both physically and mentally. I also realize that exercise and illness (especially of the sinus variety) don't mix well for me.
My primary concern now is that I will actually miss two weeks of exercise; this past week of sinus arrest, and the upcoming week when I travel to Indianapolis for work. For the first time in my life, I may have to try the fitness room at my hotel? Another potential story for a future blog post?
Submitted on Saturday, September 11, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Introducing the Circuit, Squats and Pushups
OK, so it's the first day of Trim and Fit and I've arrived ready to exercise and a little late. I get in line last, waiting for the first session with the instructor, Paul, who had just finished measuring the hip and waist circumference, flexibility and weights of class members who had arrived early. I soon discover that some participants are like me, brand new to Trim and Fit, while others have been enrolled previously. While we wait, those with the most experience, are giving the newbies advice - "be prepared to hurt," one says, "but you will be amazed at the results."
Rather than finishing the measurements of the late arrivals, the instructor signals the group to quickly follow him down a set of stairs and into a combined basketball court/weight training room. Items line the gym walls, laid out on the wood floor. We're told to start exercising immediately and to circulate through the different "stations." (In my field of education, we would call these "learning centers.") There are 2-3 floor mats for push-ups and sit ups, several small weighted balls and bars are laid out on the floor along the gym wall. As the large group begins filing down the stairs and into the gym, several large colorful bouncy balls roll out of a big closet and are placed along the gym walls by the instructor.
Paul begins demonstrating the movements required for each station. Some are directed to do sit-up movements while sitting on the large balls with toes braced against the wall. Others are directed to do sit-ups AND push-ups on mats, 15 each. Some are to throw the small weighted balls at a targeted height on the gym wall, again 15 times. Some are to lift the weighted bar from the ground to waist 15 times. Others are instructed to do 15 "squats," a move where you "first sit in the air and then stand straight up." As Paul demonstrates the proper form, some are instructed to take two trips up and down the stair case. (Seeing the stair exercise elicits a loud groan out of me. I have avoided stairs the last 15 years.) We rotate or circulate through the exercises at our own pace. Some waiting for others. I am either a slow learner, or a perfectionist, because I seem to need multiple demonstrations of the exact movement or form required at each station. I feel quite comfortable asking anyone around me for help, including the instructor.
I begin at the first station thinking that I can at least "catch my breath" when moving from one station to the next. Not true, Paul moves us rapidly through each "break." I finally have circulated to the mats/push-up and sit-up station and blurt out adamantly "There is NO WAY that I can sit or get down on that mat. It will hurt my knees!" A more experienced participant shouts "You will be sitting down and standing up on that mat before the end of class!" Meanwhile, Paul has already pointed out alternative movements simulating sit-ups and push-ups and I am on to the next station with sweat dripping down my face and eyes, and a soaked t-shirt. I check the clock to gauge if I can make it through the 45 minute period. Yes, if I ignore the pain, I can just make it. Even before I start the long huffing and puffing climb up the stairs, I'm pooped, exhausted, worn out, beat, dog-tired. (Honestly, I may as well use all the synonyms for dead-tired.)
We finish two rounds of "stations" and head back up the stairs to the "cardiac" room for another 10-15 minutes of cardiovascular workout on bicycles. (We're all on different machines. I'm on one that is "easy on the knees.") I soon realize that no matter what, I can't avoid exercise, but that Paul seems to be OK with adjusting or adapting to the comfort level of each participant. I've decided to be patient with myself, after all, this is a whole new language, and I am carrying around a lot of weight! As I finish the "cardio" part of the workout and stumble down the hall to the 30-minute Nutrition Class, I think to myself "Next time, I'm taking Ibuprofen 15 minutes before the workout starts!"
P.S. To show my fitness ignorance, I didn't know that this was considered a "circuit" until the three-month class was over. And it took me nearly four months to figure out that the "instructor," Paul was also considered a "fitness" or "health" trainer, and that you utilize the skills of a "trainer" much like that of a "doctor." Obviously I still have a lot to learn! (The exercise assessment is not included in this description.)
Submitted on Saturday, September 5, 2010.
Rather than finishing the measurements of the late arrivals, the instructor signals the group to quickly follow him down a set of stairs and into a combined basketball court/weight training room. Items line the gym walls, laid out on the wood floor. We're told to start exercising immediately and to circulate through the different "stations." (In my field of education, we would call these "learning centers.") There are 2-3 floor mats for push-ups and sit ups, several small weighted balls and bars are laid out on the floor along the gym wall. As the large group begins filing down the stairs and into the gym, several large colorful bouncy balls roll out of a big closet and are placed along the gym walls by the instructor.
Paul begins demonstrating the movements required for each station. Some are directed to do sit-up movements while sitting on the large balls with toes braced against the wall. Others are directed to do sit-ups AND push-ups on mats, 15 each. Some are to throw the small weighted balls at a targeted height on the gym wall, again 15 times. Some are to lift the weighted bar from the ground to waist 15 times. Others are instructed to do 15 "squats," a move where you "first sit in the air and then stand straight up." As Paul demonstrates the proper form, some are instructed to take two trips up and down the stair case. (Seeing the stair exercise elicits a loud groan out of me. I have avoided stairs the last 15 years.) We rotate or circulate through the exercises at our own pace. Some waiting for others. I am either a slow learner, or a perfectionist, because I seem to need multiple demonstrations of the exact movement or form required at each station. I feel quite comfortable asking anyone around me for help, including the instructor.
I begin at the first station thinking that I can at least "catch my breath" when moving from one station to the next. Not true, Paul moves us rapidly through each "break." I finally have circulated to the mats/push-up and sit-up station and blurt out adamantly "There is NO WAY that I can sit or get down on that mat. It will hurt my knees!" A more experienced participant shouts "You will be sitting down and standing up on that mat before the end of class!" Meanwhile, Paul has already pointed out alternative movements simulating sit-ups and push-ups and I am on to the next station with sweat dripping down my face and eyes, and a soaked t-shirt. I check the clock to gauge if I can make it through the 45 minute period. Yes, if I ignore the pain, I can just make it. Even before I start the long huffing and puffing climb up the stairs, I'm pooped, exhausted, worn out, beat, dog-tired. (Honestly, I may as well use all the synonyms for dead-tired.)
We finish two rounds of "stations" and head back up the stairs to the "cardiac" room for another 10-15 minutes of cardiovascular workout on bicycles. (We're all on different machines. I'm on one that is "easy on the knees.") I soon realize that no matter what, I can't avoid exercise, but that Paul seems to be OK with adjusting or adapting to the comfort level of each participant. I've decided to be patient with myself, after all, this is a whole new language, and I am carrying around a lot of weight! As I finish the "cardio" part of the workout and stumble down the hall to the 30-minute Nutrition Class, I think to myself "Next time, I'm taking Ibuprofen 15 minutes before the workout starts!"
P.S. To show my fitness ignorance, I didn't know that this was considered a "circuit" until the three-month class was over. And it took me nearly four months to figure out that the "instructor," Paul was also considered a "fitness" or "health" trainer, and that you utilize the skills of a "trainer" much like that of a "doctor." Obviously I still have a lot to learn! (The exercise assessment is not included in this description.)
Submitted on Saturday, September 5, 2010.
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