Fitter

Yesterday I went to the gym and did a “session” on the recumbent bike. I’d done it before but I found it was a bit of a struggle at times. This time, I must have been having a good day because it felt like very little effort at all. I think I also have built up a bit of muscle from doing these sessions and maybe I am just that bit stronger? Anyway, it was a good feeling to be so improved. Except I came back feeling like I hadn’t really done any exercise and it felt like I cheated. LOL

The recumbent bike is easier than the upright but I have been doing the harder workouts there too. I will feel more accomplished once I can complete a beginner workout with the beginner settings. At the moment I find it too hard to maintain for long so I decided to adjust the settings to make it do-able.

I feel like I have settled into a routine with my exercise lately. My goal is to do two weight sessions a week and that’s happening pretty regularly. I do one on the weekend and one during the week. On Tuesdays I have tai chi and fan/sword practice for 1.5 hours. On Thursday evenings I go to a pilates class. The other days I do cardio exercise, which is when I tend to use the bikes and treadmill. There are rowing machines but I haven’t used those for quite a while now.

For the weights workout I had one of the trainers update my list of exercises for a longer session. But I found it got a bit too long so that I was at the gym for nearly two hours. I’ve now managed to shift a couple of those exercises to my workout two and hopefully it will be more balanced.

On the treadmill I have mostly been doing interval work where I walk for a while and then I either walk really fast or do a bit of a jog. I was trying this fairly often and found I could manage with the breathing and heart rate. My feet and knees are a bit trickier to handle so I have cut back on that.

In addition to that I have been attempting to take the dogs for a walk much more often. One of the dogs is overweight and has arthritis so getting her walking is definitely an improvement. I can’t say I get that much exercise from walks with her. But the other dog moves quickly so I can get a good half hour in with him. So it’s good news for all of us. :)

I also started back to clinical pilates every fortnight and so every second Friday I have that class in the morning. Last week I had some tough exercises and I was so sore afterwards.

Overall I feel much fitter and balanced than I have in a while. I also have allowed for rest days when my muscles are particularly sore and that’s okay.