Topic: The Health, Fitness and Exercise Thread

@zupertramp I didn't know this until I experienced it in the last couple of weeks and looked it up but i think it's the pain and limited movement you experience in your muscles after working them out. I'm not sure if it only refers to when it's severe because you've never worked out or haven't worked out for at least a couple of months.

I think it stands for delayed onset muscle something, strain maybe. I was freaking out both times because Google searches were throwing up other options like rabdomyolosis which is extensive muscle breakdown that your kidneys can't filter out and results in kidney failure and also tendonitis which I think is like golfers and tennis elbow where the tendons (made of cartilage I think) that attach your muscles to your joints become inflamed which doesn't sound too easily fixable.

Luckily it subsided after a few days and I didn't get any other symptoms so I've settled on DOMS which is aparently totally normal so I'm glad about that 😅

Edit: Arugula got it ^ the S stands for soreness

@Arugula @ralphdibny ah, thanks to you both. one of those things I'm aware of, just didn't know it had a name and accompanying acronym.

@ralphdibny lol sorry, I read earlier in the week you did that and thought at the time “you’ll pay for that tomorrow” 😂

Do it again soon, it won’t be nearly as bad next time.

I’m meant to be out on the bike tomorrow, but I’ll need to be up in 5 hours 50 if it’s going to happen and I still kind of want to play some more Bravely Default 2 - wicked game by the way - so we’ll see. It’s going to be like 1 degree which doesn’t help.

I think I will.

@kyleforrester87 haha I guess it makes sense that it's going to happen every time I work out a new muscle group for the first time. I'm hoping to get in some ring pull ups tomorrow if I haven't fluffed up my muscle recovery by yoga-ing and wall push ups today. Ideally I suppose I'd like to get to the point where I can do the pushups and pull ups on alternate days but we will see how that goes!

Weirdly despite almost week long setbacks, I am feeling a lot more motivated than I have been lately. I think I had just been dragging my feet a bit for the first 6-7 weeks of yoga but doing something every day whether it be a walk or yoga with some of these arm exercises peppered on top has made me feel a bit more optimistic/enthusiastic.

Let us know how you get on with your ride tomorrow! Hopefully it pans out. I've been playing the first Borderlands game and it's taking ages to finish. I can't be more than a few days away from it now though. I really enjoyed Tales from the Borderlands so I thought I'd give the main series a try - I like the setting and the characters but I really don't think the gameplay has clicked with me. I'm finding it really tedious to compare all the weapons and items I pick up and sell them.

@ralphdibny you’ll easily be able to do those on alternating days, it might not necessarily be best for muscle growth (I don’t really know) but doing push ups etc daily is no drama once you have a small foundation. It won’t take you long at all, in fact now is when you’ll make easy gains, enjoy how quickly they come but just go easy with new exercises the first time even if it feels okay while you’re doing it!

I managed a ride to Windsor and back this morning on 4 hours sleep - it was quick, too, with only 600 feet of elevation (versus the usual 3000-4000 I have been doing in Surrey recently). We managed an average speed of 19mph over 50 miles which I am pretty happy with, there were various sections where we were rocketing along at 24-25 for several miles at a time. Loads of fun and nice to try out my new bike on some flat roads. It’s such a good machine!

@kyleforrester87
I've not been to Windsor for a while, must be nice to cycle around. I managed 65 kilometres over the weekend but crikey it was cold yesterday, couldn't warm up at all. Glad to hear the new bicycle is working well.

@LieutenantFatman to be honest we didn’t really see it unfortunately, we came in on an A road and went back the way we came on a roundabout just before getting into town. It’s been a while since I’ve had a walk around there myself, must do so in the summer!

It was chilly getting out, about 1 degree I think. Fortunately it sort of stayed cold so you could dress appropriately. It’s a bit of a mare when it heats up substantially by around 10am and you’re overdressed.

@kyleforrester87
Yes, hopefully the town will be well worth visiting in the summer, fingers crossed. I know what you mean about sudden temperature changes, had that a few times, nice cosy fleece on with neck warmer, thick gloves and jacket and before you know it the blazing hot sunshine is out and I'm sweating buckets, lol.

@ralphdibny For myself, I've had a few runs over the last couple of weeks post injury.

I did a PB 10k last weekend (51:48) and got a PB for my hilly 10k route this weekend (230m climbing over that distance). It feels great to be back out!

I hope your workout pains are getting better

Managed to get out for another 5 mile walk today which I am quite happy with. Stopped mid way to use the pull up bar and managed 3 sets of 15 ring pull ups. All good except for a gang of kids on their bikes, they mainly left me alone but a couple did shout at me, not really bothered as they all kept over 2 meters away from me which is my main concern lol

@kyleforrester87 cheers for the heads up! Yeah I'm not looking forward to the next pull up variant with the rings at waist height. I won't be far off being completely horizontal hanging off them!

Glad you managed to get out for a ride, up to Windsor no less! I've been wondering recently about how possible/legal it is to ride on A roads. Some look OK around your area and further south as they are just normal roads but the A roads near me are mostly fast roads, basically motorways in every way except the letter M. I imagine even riding in the hard shoulder on them would be rough because they even have the usual motorway detritus pushed out to the side (rocks, litter, hubcaps etc.)

@LieutenantFatman nice one on the 65k! It has been a chilly weekend, even I'm wearing trackies and a hoody and I'm usually a shorts and t shirt guy until the very last moment that the weather forces me to change! I actually have a ridiculous system if I'm going out for more than a few hours, I always take a backpack of essentials - battery charger, hoody and/or coat, extra vape stuff, loo roll and an umbrella. Also as many drinks as I can fit in the bag after all that. Most of the time I don't use it all but I feel a lot better knowing I got it! It's normally the activity that gets me sweating more than the weather (except on super hot days), some times I'll need to walk briskly to from the station to work if the train comes in a bit late. All fine until I get there but as soon as I stop moving, I start sweating until I've cooled down.

@Thrillho nice one on the PBs, good to hear from you again in this thread! I'm glad you are getting there with/over your injury, it's so frustrating when it puts you out like that. I think/hope I'm there with the arm DOMS now, should be ok to keep going uninterrupted 🤞. I am curious as to whether I'll experience it if I start doing squat and leg lift reps. I'm a bit on the fence about whether to go there or not as the yoga is quite heavy on the lower body anyway, lots of lunges, squats and leg raises. I've never had DOMS from doing yoga so either my lower body strength is already quite reasonable or the yoga isn't pushing me as much as it could. I suspect a bit of both, my legs would have to be quite strong to carry my massive gut around 😂

@ralphdibny It’s like anything though; the first time you go out for a long ride on a bike it hurts afterwards/the next day. Rock climbing was the worst for muscle pains though if you haven’t been for a long time, I once found opening the fridge a real challenge the day after I’d been one time

And the hamstring is feeling fine for me. It was still feeling stiff but when we had the first bit of nice weather a couple of weeks ago I felt I HAD to get out. Went slowly and almost gave up after a couple of hundred metres but pushed on and it’s felt great since.

I gave the big hills a miss for a couple of weeks but decided to hit them this week. It’s a knackering route but a beautiful one. It also makes running on the flat feel like a breeze!

@Thrillho haha nice! I don't think I'm brave enough for rock climbing, I'm scared of heights 😂. Well I'm ok if I feel safe, like it's an enclosed area or I'm strapped into something but I don't think I'd get very far off the ground on a climbing wall! I have a few different friends that do that and bouldering

I think warming up an injury without exerting the injured part too much can help. Makes it feel a bit more flexible and less painful. It can be difficult to do though when warming up often requires using the injured part. Let us know if you get out for any more runs this week!

I decided to walk to the local comic shop today (click and collect) - 10 mile round trip! Feet are shattered but I had a couple of bananas en route and managed to get in 3 sets of ten ring pull ups when I got back to the park near my house.

The pull ups/push ups have been a bit hit and miss in terms of how many I've been able to do. Originally I thought it best to do the pushups straight after yoga while I'm still warmed up but I was struggling to make 3 sets of 25 (normally 1 set of 25 and 2 sets of up to 20. Same with pull ups, I'd try to time them so I'd do it about 2 and a half miles into my walk so I'm warmed up a bit and I was struggling to hit 3 sets of 15 (one set of 15 and then two sets of maybe 8?)

So yeah, I am kind of experimenting with a couple of options, I've dropped the reps on the pull up sets to 10 for now. It seems manageable to do 3 even sets of 10 and I can't really make a difference to how warmed up I am or not as I will be out walking. For the Push ups, I am trying to do them much later after yoga (and dinner). I may not be as warmed up but I am also am not knackered straight after a yoga tape. I managed to do 3 sets of 30 like this last night.

I am stretching the muscles between sets and after - straightening my arm completely and using my hand to hold the opposite forearm against my bicep. I do a bit of shoulder rotations but I'm not keen on stretching my shoulders fully unless I am properly warmed up (like in yoga) because it can do something weird to my neck that's really painful and not in a good way.

But yeah, just going to keep on trucking - yoga 3 or 4 days a week and minimum 5 mile walks on my non-yoga days. Still working out the best way to do the calisthenics. This might change, I may start doing the easier yoga tape daily (it's a really good stretch and a decent workout) as well as walks but it may be some time before I start doing that, I'll need more daylight for it too - currently I am waking up about 2pm on a good day.

I've got yoga tomorrow and Saturday. Not sure if I will get in any walks on Sunday as I plan to cut my hair then and that normally takes a few hours so I'll see how I get on!

@ralphdibny
Mate, sounds like you're smashing it, that's a solid number of reps there. Keep it going, sounds like you're making great progress.

@LieutenantFatman cheers 👍, appreciate it! I am still doing the easy variants - ring pull ups and wall push ups but yeah, hopefully I'll be able to move on to the variants with steeper inclines soon(ish)

@ralphdibny well done, you’ll be ready for some knee push ups soon?!

@kyleforrester87 cheers! I can do knee push ups but I suspect not many (I've not really had to try to do more than a few). Also my belly sort of cushions my descent anyway so I feel like it's a bit of a cheat 😂. I'll probably stick to that Hybrid calisthenics guide though and just move to a steeper incline first, push ups off the window ledge. I've gotta hit 3 sets of 50 wall push ups comfortably before I can move on to that!

It is a bit weird, I am trying to keep my arms close to my side when I'm doing them to work the tricep but it can be painful so my arms do go out a bit on a lot of reps. I've also started doing them a bit quicker but still trying to maintain form. It's obviously easier to do it that way over the slow burn push ups but I am just kind of still working it out at the moment!

I had a new DDP yoga tape today called below the belt. It didn't go very well unfortunately, it's a lot of up and down movements and it made me feel really lightheaded so I don't think I got a good workout with it. It almost convinced me to stop progressing with the schedule and just do the easier tapes along with walking and the push/pull ups from now on but I think I will carry on with it anyway for now. I managed to get used to the last tape that made me feel lightheaded so maybe I will with this one too. There's only 5 weeks left of the schedule anyway so I may gain some sense of achievement from completing it, I guess this was sort of around the time I stopped doing it last year.

@ralphdibny tricep dips might be good for you to try too, there are ways to make them easier and harder.

I did 70 miles in Surrey today, it was so windy, I’m exhausted. I don’t think I’ve been this tired from cycling before actually, got home and had to go to bed for 2 hours. I beat my friend up one of the toughest hills though, for the first time, which I’m quite proud of. It wasn’t so long ago I tried it for the first time and had to stop half way while he waited for me at the top! 💪🏻

Now I’m sitting in the bath eating a 4 pack of jam donuts.

@kyleforrester87 nice one on beating your mate up the hill! I miss donuts, first place I'm visiting after I get my vaccine is Gregg's for their triple chocolate!

@ralphdibny mine are from Wenzles.

Given the nature of this topic I must advise against you eating donuts!