TIME TO GET RRRIIIIIIIPPED!!!!! - the exercise thread

@chaoticArbiter krav maga sounds like it might be a good fit, but idk how common places for that are

 

@chaoticArbiter is also sounds Systema might be a good fit for you. Though I don't know how common it is to train in

 

Aikido does have the advantage of not relying on size or strength, and it’s pretty good for people with some limitations to mobility. It will eventually cover weapons. But it will not incapacitate an opponent, and I do have some reservations about how heavily it relies on joint locks given that joints are an issue.

 

I need to get more exercise, and walking around more would at least help, but I have an absolute nightmare finding shoes which fit, and when I do they always seem to break within a month or two. Also, I think my posture is fucked up, and walking a long time gives me shooting pains in my lower back; the shoe issue is certainly not helping that. I tried flip flops but they kill my back in about five minutes and won't stay on, and they're certainly no good for heavier exercise than walking. Should I ask the doc to refer me to a foot or posture specialist or something?

 

When you refer to shoes for walking, you mean gym shoes, right?

 

Any shoes are a problem, to be honest.

 

personally I'd suggest a foot specialist.

ALSO.

I have a question.
what do y'all think of this place for krav maga?
because I've found three close-ish to me, and one is about "kung fu" and I do not trust it, and the other....kind of reads like a weight loss ad. leaving this one.

 

that place looks promising! it has a free trial class option which is always a good sign, I'd recommend that to try it out before fully committing

 

that is what I was thinking, but yay! I'm glad someone else thinks it looks promising :D

 

Doc gave me some exercises to work on my posture, I have really bad pelvic tilt that's probably at least some of the issue. If I stop getting backaches when walking I'll do it more often.

I need to start exercising pretty hard because in September my dance group is doing a sponsored six-hour dance-lesson-a-thon and I want in. It's not going to be nonstop, but I'm still not fit enough to do it now.

 

I've been getting back into walking with Zombies Run, and right now I'm doing the 5k race training prep - I'm in week 2 so far, and I'm hoping I can get good enough to take down all of the races that the app offers? Because...those have lore in them, and I've finished all of season 1, but season 2 has a little blurb at the top saying "hey, you should probably go do the races first or you're gonna be missing info on what's going on".

Right now, I...don't think I can actually run? Or at least, I can't comfortably run for very long or (I'm pretty sure) very fast; I tried running the other day, and I made it about two minutes before I started to feel like if I kept trying to push like that, I'd end up winded and sore and miserable. So the long-term goal is "get into shape Enough that I can actually fecking run the route I take for walking"; it's just under 2k from start to finish. I also don't walk very fast right now - my average pace is about 14 minutes per km. So I'd like to be able to move faster, too; I don't want to have to set aside most of a day for the longer races.

I'm also working with the MyFitnessPal app (and have been on and off for a couple years now) and I am slowly losing weight. My main focus is more "make sure I'm getting Enough calories that my body doesn't think we're in a famine and makes the weight loss thing straight-up impossible", and less "hit goal every day"; if I'm within spitting distance of goal, that's fine. I have it synched to the pedometer I'm using, too.

Does anyone have suggestions for improving my ability to Go Fast? Or is what I'm doing (a daily walk or - if I don't go outside - biking on the stationary bike, and trying to make an effort to get close to my step goal for the day) going to be enough to do that, if I just give it time and be patient with myself?

 

@turtleDove i think you're 100% on the right track!! just keep doing what you're doing, and when you hit a point where you feel you can push yourself a little more, do it
keep it up!!! it sounds like you're doing awesome :D

 

I’d absolutely say consistency and patience over anything else.

I don’t think most people show very inspiring results in week two of their training plan. Be gentle with yourself as you work up to running. As I understand, it takes a few weeks for your bones to catch up with your muscles as you build strength. It sounds like you’re doing a great job of pushing yourself, but not so hard you’re at risk of injury.

 

Even beyond bones catching up to muscles, the first bit of training is really just your nervous system adjusting. It's normal to feel like you hit a plateau a little bit after starting training, because at first you're not even building actual muscle -- you're just learning to send the right signals to the muscle you already have. After that, it can take a while to actually grow more muscle, but you will still be building endurance, especially in cardiovascular and pulmonary responses. Those should catch up and make running feel less awful. Basically, what everyone else said: keep up the good work!

 

Yeah, that's why I've been doing the longer training bits - the ones where it wants me to go for 5k or 6k - at home on the stationary bike, rather than trying to push myself to do a whole 5k right now. At least if I'm on the bike, I'm in an environment where if I need to stop and rest, it's easier to convince myself to do that; I'm not sure my brainweasels wouldn't talk me into 'just keep moving' if I tried doing it outside.

(There's also the fact that both of those bits, I forgot until it was late enough in the evening that it was Dark AF outside and I'm a 5'0" woman. I am...not comfy with going for long walks outside in the dark alone, and everyone else was starting to get ready for sleep.)

I am a little concerned that the backs of my ankles seem to get grumpy near the midpoint or end of the walks? It isn't as bad now, but they were going "u did what" when the rest of my legs were going "hm, we might want to sit down for a bit after this". And using the bike tends to make my right knee stiff, but that knee's always been Weird so idk if I should worry about that. But I am trying really hard to be gentle with myself, because the point of this is for it to be a fun sort of exercise; not something I have to force myself into doing.

 

I think my posture's already slightly better after just a couple days of trying the exercises, though I may be imagining things. I know I managed to walk further without backache.

 

Can you be more specific about the back of ankle? Knowing how many inches (or cm if you're more comfortable with cm) up from your heel would help. Also, is it stretching pain, sharp pain, grinding, popping, something else? My first thought is achilles tendinitis just based on location, but I obviously cannot give a formal diagnosis in this context.

If it is achilles tendinitis, it should be quite treatable.

 

Right at the back, parallel to the bump of my ankle. About two and a half to three inches up, measuring from the bottom of my heel? It's more of a sharp pain, increasing if I try and book it up a hill once it's started or if I try and move faster in ways that require more up-and-down movement of my feet, and it stops after I've gotten home and sat down for a while; the rest of the time, that area isn't painful at all. I suspect the cause is that there's a lot more up-and-down to the route I take than it feels like there is while I'm walking it; I have to go down a hill to get to the park, and then there's two or three different inclines along the route itself.

Once the pain starts, I try and move more carefully with the aim of getting home so that I can sit down and let my feet rest.

 

I think I managed to go a bit faster on today's walk! The program wanted a 40 minute walk, and I was a lot closer to home when the episode ended and it went into radio mode this time than I have been on previous walks of that length. :D

Also my ankles didn't hurt at any point during the walk (although I was expecting them to near the end). My heels did bug me a bit after I got home and started moving around to do stuff after I'd been sitting down for a while, but not to the point where I didn't want to be walking on them. My right knee did feel weird during the whole walk, though - not painful, just sort of stiff and like it'd make popping or clicking noises if I did a full bend of it instead of just walking normally.