A GOOD YEAR - Let's get moving

This is Cathy's initial plan post!  My preamble contains a few thoughts on physically getting started from a trainer's perspective

Regardless of research, known guidelines, and fancy book learning, as a brand new athlete, you have to start from the beginning.  And the beginning for each individual is different depending on lifestyle, time and family commitments, past medical history, etc., all the various components of life.  A good starting point is to gradually work towards getting in 30 minutes of activity (walking, swimming, biking) 5-7 days a week.  This life style change alone decreases the risk of all the gnarly diseases (cancer, heart disease, stroke...etc.) out there and promotes a healthier body.  

When Cathy asked me about a program, I asked questions....what has worked for you in the past?  How many days do you want to work out a week? How much time do you want to commit? What is your initial goal? Do you have any current aches and pains?

Cathy voiced that starting with three days a week sounded doable, and that walking was a good option. I wanted to take into account that she had not been in the practice of working out, and I wanted to gradually introduce stress to muscles, ligaments, and joints to avoid injury and build success.   When Cathy is ready, resistance training and balance will become part of Cathy's program too.  Cathy is working on diet a bit too, but really focusing on this new habit of walking right now.

This program is the starting point we chose because it is what Cathy felt she could roll into her life for right now.  This program requires no equipment, no prep, and no financial investment.  It also won't overwhelm Cathy's body so she is so sore she gets discouraged.  Most importantly, this plan will significantly decrease Cathy's risk of disease and seriously promote good things for her heart!

I love Cathy's insights below.  I too have had to start a weight loss and health journey and have wanted to just immediately jettison right back to my peak fitness. 

Cathy has made the first big step.  The "I am going to change" moment has come and it takes a lot of patience, faith, and self talk to stay in each successive moment.  Cathy deserves to revel in the small and big successes on the way.  She shares some amazing insight on finding how to support herself with positive internal dialogue below.

When you are getting started with a trainer, make sure you agree upon and start with a reasonable, doable plan.  Here is the questionnaire I use with my clients, and I feel this is a pretty good history and goal outline.  The trainer and athlete relationship really benefits from communicating needs and concerns frequently. Sometimes things need to shift into a higher or lower gear depending on how your body is responding.   I sometimes have individuals see their doctor if there are any medical or orthopedic issues that need addressing prior to getting started with me.  I check flexibility and strength, and balance prior to at my clients first session. 

The effort scale I introduced to Cathy is the Modified Borg Rate of Perceived Exertions scale.   It is a dramatic interpretation of the effort based scale you can see in the link above.  The goal is for the individual exercising to base effort on how they feel.  This scale has good correlation to heart rate and VO2 max.  More on this in future blogs.

Not sure if you are good to start exercising?  Check out this Par-Q.  IF you say yes to any of these questions, you need to talk to a physician prior to getting started. 

A couple resources for getting more "getting started"info:
The American Heart Association  (AHA) and American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommend adults get minimally 150 minutes of activity, and perform resistance exercise every week.  The ACSM goes on to say flexibility and balance work are key weekly parts of exercise.  If you are feeling unsure where to start, gradually increasing time and effort on one aspect of fitness is a good first step.  Then, once this habit is established pull in other recommendations.  The AHA and ASCM websites both have step by step guides for getting started!  OR feel free to contact GO Training for online or in-home training.  With or without guidance, you can change your body!

From Cathy:

It’s pretty hard to know where to start with a workout program when physical fitness has been the furthest thing from your mind for a while.  Where do you begin when you get winded walking up the stairs?  What do you do when you don't feel like your body is moving well?  How do you start when you feel so weak?

At my weight, getting professional advice on where to start was important to me.  I went from a pretty intense workout regimen three years ago to doing absolutely nothing.  That means that working my body at a high level of intensity is all I really know. After talking to Beth at GO Training and discussing my goals, we outlined a fitness plan tailored to my needs. It’s a walking program that will get me comfortable working out, buildup my endurance, and help make exercise a normal part of my routine.  In addition to walking,  I have also committed to go to one beginner yoga class this month - so if you have a recommendation of a good yoga studio in the Detroit area please add it to the comments section below or email Beth at beth@gotrainingwithbeth.com.

 

The day-by-day action plan is outlined in the calendar and levels of exertion below:

• Level 1: I'm watching TV 
• Level 2: I'm comfortable and can maintain this pace all day long
• Level 3: I'm still comfortable, but am breathing a bit harder
• Level 4: I'm sweating a little, but feel good and can carry on a conversation effortlessly
• Level 5: I'm just above comfortable, am sweating more and can still talk easily
• Level 6: I can still talk, but am slightly breathless
• Level 7: I can still talk, but I don't really want to. I'm sweating like a pig
• Level 8: I can grunt in response to your questions and can only keep this pace for a short time period
• Level 9: I am probably going to die
• Level 10: I am dead

Easy Pace means: walking at a 3-4, just move your body and enjoy.  You can easily converse!

On Interval Days: intervals at a 4-6, recovery 3.  It's OK if you are slightly breathless during an interval.

Long Walk: 3-5, make sure your conversational and able to talk the whole time.

3 Month Walking Program
Month 1
M	T	W	TH	F	Sat	Sun
	20 - easy pace		20 - warm up for 5 min, alternate 1 min easy, 1 minute effort pace for 10 min, cool down for 5 min		30 - Long walk - 5 min warm up, keep a nice clip in the middle, 5 min cool down
	25 - easy pace		25 – warm up for 5 min, alternate  2 minutes effort pace, 1 min easy pace for 5 rounds, 5 min cool down		30 Long walk -  5 min warm up, keep a nice clip in the middle, 5 min cool down
	30 - easy pace		30 – warm up for 5 min, alternate 1 minute effort pace, 1 min easy pace for 20 min, 5 min cool down		35 long walk-
	30 - easy		30 - 5 min warm up, 2 minutes effort pace, 30 easy pace for 4 rounds, 5 min cool down		40 long walk

So this is great.  I have a plan.  Fantastic!  Well it was fantastic until I got nervous about the commitment.  Well, not so much the commitment.  If I’m being totally honest, I was afraid I would fail.  I was worried I would get started and it would be too hard and the depression would come crumbling back down around me and I would give up.  This workout program is the first big thing I’ve tried to do for myself since the abrupt separation six months ago.   My focus since January has been on putting one foot in front of the other every day. I finally feel mentally in a place where I can do more than just subsist and to fail at something I want this much would be soul crushing.  So I let some unhealthy thinking take the reigns and decided to take matters into my own hands. 

Let me give you some background on that unhealthy thinking.  My memories of the way things used to be are seen through the rosiest of colored glasses. 

I like to think back to 2010 and remember all the things my body used to be able to do.  There was a lot of pride and good endorphins that came with being physically active and I was able to do a lot more.  My greatest fitness accomplishment was being in such good shape that I was able to climb the Great Wall in China.  I was and remain so proud of being able to make that climb.

But in spite of the positive aspects, there was an obsessive side of me driving things behind the scenes.  I like to forget the guilt that set in if I didn’t work out “enough.”  I choose to ignore the overwhelming self loathing that came with missing a workout or not pushing hard enough.  I pretend that I didn’t have a voice in my head that criticized me constantly for not doing or being enough. 

Well here we are three years later and it is apparent that old habits die hard.  Before kicking off the Go Training plan, I thought it would be good to go on a 20 minute walk to see how it felt and test the waters on this whole thing.  Well, it was hard.  It was really hard.  I was winded, but at the same time felt like I wasn’t walking fast enough. And I wasn't able to go at full speed the full 20 minutes.

Now if you read that last paragraph you’ll see that the reason my first 20 minute walk was hard wasn’t because I can’t walk at a casual pace for 20 minutes as instructed in Beth’splan.  The reason it was hard is because I let the memories of what I used to be able to do (run, spin, kick box) drive the workout I am doing now.  So I charged out the door, headed down the driveway and walked as fast as I could for 20 minutes.  I didn’t warm up, I didn’t cool down, and I didn’t stretch.

Based on that experience, I decided I would never be able successfully accomplish my new, carefully crafted fitness program if I didn’t start training for the training program (which as I re-read that sentence sounds insane).  Instead, I decided to go walking for 20 minutes, every other day, as fast as I could, for two weeks prior to starting the Go Training plan. Again, I didn’t warm up, I didn’t cool down, and I didn’t stretch. 

Surprisingly, it wasn’t hard to motivate to go walking.  I enjoyed getting a break from work and getting out in the fresh air.  But the walks were hard and frustrating.  And really, instead of feeling good about what I accomplished, I felt crummy for not doing more. So as the second week of this “pre-training, training” rolled around, I began experiencing pain in my feet, pain in my left shin, and pain in my lower back.  My last walk before I started the Go Training program was bad. The shin splint in my left leg hurt so much that it hindered my movement and made it hard to keep pace.  At the same time my lower back hurt a lot, forcing me to slow way down for the second half of the walk. 

Pain led to frustration and frustration led to self doubt. Self doubt sent my mind tumbling in a downward spiral.  Some actual thoughts I had in the final five minutes of that walk (I wrote them down when I got home so I could share them) included:

• “I’m too fat to start an exercise program.” 
• “Why even bother, this isn’t going to work.” 
• “Why did I think I could do this?”

Fortunately, I wasn’t ready to give up yet and the time came to start the Go Training walking program. After the two weeks I had just put myself through, it looked too easy.  I mean only three days a week?  Walking at a casual pace for the first and last five minutes of each workout? Well, it turns out that the program is more challenging than I expected.  I was surprised to find that I got the workout that I wanted but my body felt better because I gave myself more time to recover between walks.  Also, alternating between a casual and more vigorous pace pushed me but wasn’t painful.  My shin splint isn’t bothering me and my back doesn’t hurt.

I’ve read so many articles that tell you to take it slow when you first start a workout program. Honestly, I didn’t think that applied to me. I thought that was just supposed to keep you from burning out by setting expectations too high.  I never thought about injuries or pain.  I mean I’m not that old!  And did I mention that I used to be in good shape?  It turns out that by focusing on what I used to be able to do and by falling back into my pattern of all or nothing, no pain, no gain, workout until it hurts, I was setting myself up for failure. 

I’m starting from scratch on getting back into shape and if I push myself too hard I’m going to hurt myself.  Thankfully, I have Beth to sanity check me and keep me thinking realistically about what is doable and what is too much.  She also is very kind and understanding about the unhealthy thoughts that creep in and cause you to ignore the trained professional who is helping you. 

Based on these last couple of weeks, the biggest lesson I’ve learned, besides trusting your trainer, is to start slow.  If you’re anything like me it will probably feel like you will never reach your goals if you aren’t pushing yourself as hard as you can.  But seriously, take it slow.  

I will get stronger, I will build endurance, and I will be able to do more. 

If anything, this experience has taught me a lot about letting go of the past.  I’m trying to look at my life more honestly and think through what really worked and what really didn’t.  I’m recognizing that my rose colored view of things doesn’t allow me to move forward in the ways I need to if I want to do things better in the future. That’s true in my relationships with others and my relationship with myself. A big piece of that is learning how to be mentally healthy while working to be physically healthy.  And as part of the process I’m letting go of how things used to be to make room for where I am at right now.  

Cathy climbing the Great Wall in China (2009) - Her greatest fitness accomplishment...so far:).