Sport results (and side-effects)

[akk]

Completing your doctorate is good for your career, but sadly not so much for your shape. To correct the physical result of my degree, I started doing body weight exercises regularly since last summer (thirty minutes on four days a week). By now I can sum up the results:

on the plus side:

1. my scale shows approx. 10 kg less (yay!)
2. I can run up the stairs up to the 3rd floor without getting out of breath (never could that before, so - wow!)
3. I actually manage pull-ups instead of "hanging limp like a dead pig"s (double-wow!)
4. my back aches are gone
5. my knee aches are gone (and I haven't stumbled or lost my balance anytime since last Autumn)
6. I've got a posture that (a) tempted my physician to compliments and (b) gets people in the supermarket to stay the step back required not to bump into me, my bags, or the produce I'm examining without me having to growl (wow-yay-finally!)

on the down side:

1. I learned that sore muscles can hurt like hell even when you don't move!
2. because my upper body circumference changed, I have to replace my blouses a size larger (whine for the money)
3. because waist and thigh circumferences changed, I have to replace my trousers a size smaller (whine for the money)
4. I have yet to find the courage to try on the (expensive) graduation suit and see if a good tailor can salvage it!

Overall, a thumbs up. I've finally found exercises that (a) work, (b) require a manageable amount of time, and (c) don't bore me to death. I'm going to continue them. Next target: consecutive pull-ups instead of single ones.

Comments

[akk]

:) Just expect to be sore in places you never thought you had in the beginning. Good luck!

[solo]

Okay, the book arrived today. And I did half an hour and OMG am I not fit! But you're right, it's not boring.

Question: what do you use for the dips? I have nothing really in the house between knee and hip height - I ended up using two chairs (roughly knee height) but they were kind of wobbly.

I love the door thing! (Eh... let me ins)

[akk]

:) I started with push-ups standing against a wall and I didn't make a ladder to five and back, so I know how you feel. After 3 months I started doing the push-ups from a windowsill (approx. my hip height), but I'm still far from going down to knee or even the floor. One of the targets for 2013!

I do the seated dips with our kitchen / dining room table. It's pretty heavy and reaches up to my mid-thighs. It's the same place I use for the let-me-ups (though for almost 5 months those were more like "lying under the table for the last set", because I barely got a hand's width upwards. It changed rather abruptly just before XMas, so I assume there's some "critical mass" to be reached to actually get off the ground there.) I don't recall your furniture enough to give suggestions for you, sorry.

Let me in's are fun, my favs are the RDLs (from the 2nd and 4th day sets).