Time At The Gym

I was thinking that I haven't really been talking about the other aspects of life since WLS.  Specifically, exercise. I recently went to one of the post-surgical support groups at the Weight Center and listened to an hour "lesson" on the importance of exercise. But they didn't like that word and made a big deal about how we shouldn't look at it as "exercise," but instead should focus on adding more "activity" and "movement" to our days in lots of little ways. We were also encouraged to look for "non-exercise" ways of getting exercise - things we enjoy, like dancing, so that we are more likely to do them regularly. While I agree with the general premise of all this, it wasn't the most stimulating hour of my life. ;)

My gym routine has changed a little from when I started. When I was cleared for full activity, about a month after surgery, I was doing 30 minutes on the dreadmill (I mean, treadmill) and 15-20 minutes on the recumbent bike and calling it good. The thing is...as you can probably tell, I don't really enjoy the treadmill. The bike is okay, but I don't love it, either. Listening to audio books or good music helped make it less painful (and they have TVs and radio at the gym you can listen to on headphones), but it didn't really help with the enjoyment factor.

More recently, however, I've been at the gym a few times with my friend, D, and her system (designed by a friend of hers w/a degree in exercise science) is to do 10 minutes cardio, 3 sets of 12 of 3 different weight training machines, another 10 minutes of cardio, another group of weight machines, and end with a last 10 minutes of cardio. I tried it one day and found it much more pleasant. I've elongated the cardio time by 5 minutes each round, to make a total of 45 minutes of cardio interspersed with a full routine of either arms/chest & back or legs & abs. It means that my full routine takes about 90 minutes, but it doesn't feel like it because it's all broken up. By the time I get to 12 minutes of cardio and I'm starting to want to stab my eyes out with boredom, I realize I only have 3 minutes left until I get to do something else. Not bad, not bad at all.

As far as the weights go, I won't get into loads of detail (unless someone comments and tells me they want loads of detail), but for legs & abs days I do leg press, curl, extension, hip ab/adductors, calf raises and crunches. On the arms/chest & back days I do bicep curls, tricep extensions, overhead press, row machine, lat pull down, chest press, and back extension. And I stretch every time.

I still can't say that I enjoy going to the gym, but breaking things up has really helped me to handle the tedium. And I admit, I'm starting to like having gone to the gym.

Sweat, Pain, and The Morning Hobble

I went to the gym a few times about a month after surgery and it was truly agony. I just felt like I had no energy, eventhough I had been given the all-clear by the surgeon and told that the anesthesia fog and surgical fatigue should have been wearing off. I admit that I kind of gave up on the idea of exercising in any structured fashion for a while after that.

That is, until this week. This week I realized that if I want to keep this weight loss going (and not end up a weakling in the process from the musscle loss associated with quick weight loss), I would need to get up off my rear end end get moving. It helps that I'm starting to feel like a normal human being as far as energy and enthusiasm. I went to the gym on Saturday and Sunday with the wife and did 20 minutes each day on both the treadmill (or the dreadmill as a friend of mine likes to call it) and the recumbent stationary bike. That was a pretty good start, but I definitely noticed a difference in my energy level and my muscle strength on the second day so I decided to take a day off to recover. No big deal, right? Just a little tired...been a while since I exercised regularly....I'll bounce back in a day or so and then return to the gym to make my 2 day trend into a Life Long Habit. (Why no, I don't set huge goals for myself, why do you ask?)

Then Monday rolled around and I quickly realized that my normal hop out of bed and shuffle to the coffee pot was going to be more like a Morning Hobble. I. Was. Stiff. And sore. What did I forget guys and gals? Yes! I forgot to stretch. Yowch. Sweet fancy Moses, my legs hurt! Mostly in the adductor muscles (the outside of the hip/top of the thigh) and my knees, but with a fair amount of soreness scattered everywhere else, too. So, taking the day off turned out to be a good plan and I gently stretched a few times throughout the day and felt better able to fathom the idea of returning to the gym yesterday, which I did with a bang. I did 40 minutes of combined treadmill and bike again, but added in a lower body strength training workout. Today I trundled on in there again and did the same cardio, but this time a complete upper body strength training work out. I really busted by  tail today, I tell you. I alternated 10-15 minutes cardio with 2-3 strength training exercises and I was at the gym for about 90 minutes all told. I left there tired all over and very sweaty. Like-please-get-me-to-a-hot-shower-ASAP sweaty. (Yick.)

...and now I'm realizing that even with the stretching I've been doing this evening, that the odds of The Morning Hobble returning tomorrow are very high. Very high. And I'm back at the gym for another leg workout tomorrow. It's ok, though, since I'll be taking Friday and maybe Saturday off. And not just off, I mean couch potato off. I need to exercise my movie watching muscles at least some of the time, right? ;-)