Fitness goals

[cjsmith]

I'm missing anything to do with physical fitness in my life.

My foot problems make many activities challenging or downright not worth it. For well over a decade, I've just ignored the whole physical fitness realm. But I'm getting tired of being a complete couch potato.

I guess the first step is to decide what my goals are. Do I want to build a STRONG body? A STURDY AND RESILIENT body? A FLEXIBLE body? A body that MAY AGE WELL?

(Note the total lack of "slender" or "sculpted" in this list of possibilities. As long as I'm still carrying breasts around there's really no point making any minor optimizations to the rest of me, and besides, I think I am past the age where skin shrinks.)

Those of you who do or who consider doing physical fitness stuff: what are your goals?

Comments

[jenett]

I swim twice a week, with the basic goal "do not die as soon".

I swim because it's the one exercise I will actually sustain for long periods. (I have cranky lungs, and walking gets complicated: I worry a lot I will go too far and have trouble getting home safely, and I turn out to find treadmills really tedious. Swimming, I just have to make it to the end of the pool, and I can modulate the intensity stroke to stroke if I really want to.)

I swim twice a week because there's a certain amount of associated fussing with clothing and showering after (long hair, so even with a swim cap, the chlorine needs to come out). And because I exercise before work, and I can only get myself out of bed at 5:30 (so I can leave for the pool at 6, swim from 6:30 to 7, be at work by 7:30) so many days a week.

[nosrednayduj]

Apparently I have a goal of bicycling at least 2000 miles in a year. (More on that in a future post.) I try to "do something for at least 20 minutes" every day. Mostly this involves feet in some way (biking, walking, skating, stair stepper), but I also do yoga, which does involve feet, but there are modified yoga things that can be done on a chair or kneeling. In actual fact, I manage to "do something" for more like 45-60 minutes every day (with occasional 2.5 hour outliers like today), but partly that's because I work part-time. In fact, that one of the REASONS I work part-time! How I use my extra 2 hours a day: one hour for sleep, one hour for exercise.

Anyway, I recommend trying to find some yoga practice that can give you modifications where you're on your feet less. I went to yoga for a group outing (organized by someone else) about 12 years ago, decided to go back a few weeks later, discovered after I'd been going regularly for a month that my back had stopped hurting. Cheaper than a massage! Surprisingly, I found the mindfulness bit helpful as well. I am less frustrated by things I can't control than I used to be. I breathe through traffic.

I would say Hatha yoga would be the thing to start with. That's the kind where you hold a pose for 10-20 seconds, then do another pose. I do Power Vinyasa, which means "flow", so you're moving more quickly between poses It may be harder to get modifications figured out on the fly. When I started I had fewer injuries so I didn't need much in the way of modifications; after spraining my ankle and messing up both knees I now need mods, but I'm experienced enough to figure them out. Don't go to Bikram yoga. They are drill sergeants and averse to modifications. I found them kind of interesting as an anthropological study, but they're not my cup of tea.

So I didn't answer your question. I want a body that's more flexible and will age well. Strength is useful but not a goal.

[noelfigart]

For health, I am trying to lower my blood sugar levels, so there's the diet part. For actual physical fitness:

1. Swim a mile comfortably
   
2. Walk two miles without feeling tired afterwards
   
3. Lift a standard copier paper box of books comfortably
   
4. Wrangle a snow-blower after a two foot snowfall (I live in Northern New England)
   
5. Be able to stack a couple of cords of wood in a day (see previous)
   
6. Be able to help push a car out of a ditch (again, see previous)
   
7. Be active enough that I think driving to a grocery store is a silly waste of gas. This means being able to carry a heavy back pack full of groceries about a half a mile.
   
8. Be able to lift a suitcase over my head into the overhead compartment on a train or airplane
   
9. Be able to run from one end of an airport to another to catch a flight on too close of a connection.
   
10. Be able to give a four to six-hour lecture on my feet being physically active and animated the whole time. (I teach computer applications as well as rant about physical fitness. If you’re not active and animated, you lose your audience quick).
    
11. Be able to change a 5 gallon water jug in a water cooler without spilling water all over the floor or throwing out my back.

[amaebi]

My fitness-activity goal is to do at least 8000 steps a day on average, and that's easy at this property. My body-goal is to maintain capability and to minimize soreness.

[wcg]

I recommend the AGE WELL goal. For me that involves a lot of walking and other foot related stuff you can't do. But I think there are options, like swimming, that would work.

[excessor]

The goals change as we age. I don't know for sure, but I think I'm older than you are. The goal used to be “Get laid more often,” but these days it's that plus the following:

• Maintain range of motion.
• Pay attention to systems, not just body parts. For example, dental health is directly related to coronary health.
• Be solidly healthful so that if or when I'm hospitalized, I have enough strength to lift myself from the bed or move myself to a wheelchair or have enough endurance to handle periods of stress.
• Be able to fit into my clothes.

Strength, endurance, and flexibility are keys to feeling better, keeping depression away, and being able to move.

[zahraa]

I started doing aerial dance because I had plantar fascitis and couldn't dance on my feet anymore. I never thought that an injury would lead to better fitness, but it did. I thought I had core from belly dancing. Ha-ha-ha. NOW, I have core. And even upper body.

My goals? To do the 1-arm hang from a hand rather than an elbow. To climb an 11a so I can get a lead belay certification.