Tuesday, August 16, 2011

new exercise

I've been walking 6 or 7 days a week for 20-40 minutes for a while now, and it has become a pleasant part of my routine.  I don't think I would go so far as to say that I love it, but I do enjoy it.  I think it's a good stress reliever.  My son, the fitness buff, mentioned that I should do something more challenging.  My knee jerk reaction is that I'm content with the status quo.  He hates when I use the "content" word.  It is his opinion that we should never be content; we should always be challenging our fitness level and looking for ways to eat healthier.

Quite a number of years back, I did Tae-bo DVD's with a fair amount of frequency.  I'm not very coordinated, so the first challenge was to figure out how to do all of the steps!  I found one of my old DVD's and I did that last night.  I did better than I thought!  Even though I've lost quite a bit of weight, I'm still much heavier than I was when I was using the DVD on a regular basis.  I remembered how to do most of it, and I was able to complete most of the DVD.  I still don't know that I'm ready for it yet.  I had to modify some of it, and (warning....too much information ahead.......)  if I want to start doing this on a regular basis I would need to purchase a good sports bra because everything is far too jiggly!!!

I know....excuses, excuses.  I haven't decided yet if I will continue walking but increase the intensity and/or time  or if I will incorporate Tae-bo into my routine.

Any suggestions?

2 comments:

  1. Is there a place you could walk with hills or steps? That would increase the intensity. Another way you can bump it up is timing yourself, like trying to walk a mile in under 15 minutes, (or whatever).

    I haven't really tried Tae Bo, but years ago I had a step bench and did some step aerobics videos. They're pretty good because you can adjust your intensity so easily by doing just the legs, or adding arm movements when you're ready. And, you can just leave the bench in front of the tv and step on and off it during commercials if you're watching a show.

    Do you have a pedometer? I've worn one and tried to just get more steps in every day.

    Have you worked with weights at all? It's amazing how much that gets my heart rate up even from just using dumbbells.

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  2. Thanks so much for your feedback!! I do have a place that i can walk that has a rather steep hill. Many days, I will that hill about 3 times. It takes a lot of effort, and it takes about 30 minutes.

    I haven't tried a pedometer...I have a cheap one that doesn't work really well so I've been considering investing in a decent one. That would give me some goals as you mentioned.

    I also haven't tried weights yet. I plan to add that at some point.

    Thanks again for your suggestions!

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