Tag Archives: fitness

Should I Work Out Through Soreness?

Last night, I walked over to Equinox to reserve my bike for the spin class. I had hoped to do a Vipr class, but I somehow read the schedule wrong. I had some sharp pain in my lower back as I walked over, but I really wanted to work out.

Some people say I’m good at “listening to my body,” but I say I’m just lazy at heart when it comes to working out and will seize any opportunity to not work out, if possible. I enjoy working out once I do it, but it’s still a fight to make myself work out. I reserved my bike, and then I had a little time so I walked over to Duane Reade to look at vitamins. (I’m cool like that.)

I had talked about multi-vitamins with a pharmacist a few weeks ago, then Tina told me she’d consistently taken a multi-vitamin every day for a month and she had a lot more energy. Then I read Janeetha’s post on vitamins. Okay. I need to take multivitamins–or at least give them a try. The pharmacist said with my healthy diet, I was probably okay without a multi-vitamin, but it couldn’t hurt.

She did say that as a runner and a young woman (who limits her dairy) that calcium was incredibly important. I know that I feel great when I take B-vitamins, so I looked for a vitamin that had high levels of B and calcium. I ended up buying Alive! women’s multi-vitamins. They had decent levels of B and calcium and were made of fruits and veggies. I took one this morning, and maybe it’s a placebo, but I have a decent amount of energy. It was also really easy on my sensitive tummy to digest.

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But back to the spin class. I decided to give it a try, and if my back hurt, I’d stop. It didn’t, and so I finished the class and my back feels better now. It can be hard to tell when to work through soreness and when to give it a rest, but I think that in general, active recovery can be helpful, and your body will tell you when it really needs rest.

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It will also tell you when it really needs a spinach feta wrap, and that’s what my body told me this morning.

Sexy Spring Strength Challenge

Once upon a time, I lifted a ton. (Not literally.) I was working out with a trainer, and he pushed me really hard–harder than I could ever push myself.

I learned that strength training is incredibly important to weight loss and weight maintenance, and I felt ridiculously strong.

Then, I got addicted to running and my strength training fell by the wayside. I can still run far, and I’ve certainly gotten faster, but I definitely don’t feel as strong as I used to and my body feels a little mushier.

Since I won’t be training for another long race until I start marathon training (around July), now’s a good time for me to make a non-running goal and to involve you.

I’m going to the Outer Banks again for Memorial Day this year, so this challenge will run from today until that weekend.

I’m still trying to figure out the details, but I’m thinking this:

  • I’ll aim to strength train at least 120 minutes a week (this way I can either do two 60-minute sessions or some other mix)
  • I’ll share my workouts here–whether they are classes, my own workouts I come up with or other bloggers’ workouts that I try
  • I’ll recap my progress every Monday and you can weigh (ha!) in in the comments with how you’re doing, too.
  • I’ll try to get some prizes like I did last time around.

My goals:

  • to strength train more (duh)
  • to increase the weight I can lift
  • to get my waist/abs in better shape (I’m not sure yet if I’m going to do measurements or just before-and-afters. This isn’t so much about a dramatic reinvention, but rather just refining things. With that said, I know goals need to be measurable in order to make them work.)
  • to get back and stay under 140 pounds. I’ve gained a few pounds since the marathon that I wouldn’t mind dropping. I was about 135 pounds on marathon day and now I fluctuate between 140-144. Nothing dramatic, but I wouldn’t mind losing those few vanity pounds.

Semi-relatedly, I’m also considering either gluten-free or cutting back on gluten/wheat products and following Heather’s challenge. I ate a lot less wheat when I was trying to lose weight, and my stomach felt better and I felt leaner.

What do you think? Are you in?