Last night, I was talking to a good friend of mine. He's 3 years older than me, and last year, he had a major medical issue that resulted in emergency surgery, 18 days in the hospital, 4 of them in ICU. When he got out, he'd lost 40 pounds, most of it muscle. He's slowly getting back into exercise, but he offered me his sage advice. He said he wished he could go back to himself three years ago, and tell himself how much harder it was to get in shape, even after just those three years from my age to his. He can't recover as fast, it takes a lot longer to build up the strength and flexibility. It made me think.
So today, I got my lazy, fat ass to the gym for the first time in three years. *sigh* Yes, it's been three years. Last time I was in there was when I was pregnant with the Grokster, and that was only up to about the 5th or 6th month.
I told myself I'd go easy. I've had too many times where I started lifting hard, and then was in misery the next three days. A quick warmup on the elliptical, then on to the squat rack. It felt comforting that even after a three year absence, I still knew just how to get into the rack, get the bar and drop into a squat. My form is still good, although a little stiff.
But I was shocked, in a bad way, at how hard it was. I did a set of 10 empty bar squats, then upped the weight to 95 pounds. That should have been an easy warm up weight for me. Instead, it was almost a workout. I used to go 95 - 135 - 165 and then start my working sets. Today, I did three sets of 95, and on the third set, I could really feel the fatigue setting in in my thighs.
I moved on to some deadlift stretches and back exercises, since I have to be careful about my back. It was a quick workout, probably 20 minutes or less. But walking back into my office was difficult. I could feel the exhaustion in my leg muscles. hopefully I won't be in too much pain tomorrow. I've got to get more serious about working out. Time to pull out Mark's PB workout plan and reread it.
Breakfast: 3 strips of bacon and 2 grocery store eggs fried in bacon grease. (couldn't get to the farmer's market this weekend for good eggs.)
Lunch: leftover turkey chili with beans and a sprinkle of cheese. A handful of pistachios. (still hungry)
Dinner: 8 ounce T-bone steak on the grill and broccoli.
Abdominal exercise three to five times a week. Initially a person really should start with exercises and repeat them so long as they're comfortable performing it. Using the increase within the fitness level the quantity of exercises could be increased along using the repetitions.
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