Exercise log - all welcome - any fitness activity, please post it here

Cycling is very good for strengthening legs, granb. I'm sure it will stand you in good stead for skiing. Well done.

I'm just taking a wee break from moving a bookcase.....

Granb Have just read about your loss and feel so sad for you. DH and I lost our first babies many years ago now, and my heart goes out to you and your family. You should be very proud of your charity efforts - fantastic

I didn't feel like going to Pilates today because I've had an eye infection and feel very tired, but the Dr said it was OK so I hauled myself to the class and I'm so glad I did. As usual it was fantastic. We have 'machines' and loads of apparatus and every week is different. Our instructor is a physio - very good looking - who makes you do that little bit extra and even today I came out feeling energised.

Well done golden
Did anyone see the documentary on the science of exercise last night?
I have been out for a rather half hearted jog but after seeing the programme i did throw in a few short sprints. Couldn't have done that a year ago.

Yes I watched it. I think I'm a non responder on all counts!

I am definitely not one of those high responders!

This came through to me on an email yesterday and made me laugh...
Anyone else heard of Fartlek running?

www.keepcalmandrun.com/2012/03/08/what-the-fk-is-a-fartlek-and-other-running-terminolgy/

Has anyone tried a mini-trampoline? Don't laugh...they're not the sort you buy for the grandkids but proper excercise equipment for real grown-ups of any age.

They cost about £30 from Decathalon and I can honestly say it's money well spent. I have been using mine for the past 2 months. I do half an hour a day before work each morning (I 'jog' on it, rather than jump though - jumping makes my bones rattle these days).

The beauty of them is you don't suffer from the impact injuries you get with some types of excercise and you can watch TV while you're doing it. I usually resort to 1 or 2 pre-recorded episodes of 'Come Dine With Me' and drool at the (sometimes) lovely food whilst I'm getting rid of the unwanted spare tyre.

I thought it would be really difficult but it's really not - and believe me I am the original couch potato - consuming a nice glass of wine, a slice of pizza and a large cream cake is the most excercise i usually get but i really enjoy it as it's so do-able.

Up to now I have lost just over a stone and am now down to 9st 7lb. I'm, only 5' 2" so need to lose at least another half stone.

Oh and they're good for improving your balance too!

I enjoy walking. Since I retired I've taken up Zumba classes and yoga. I love the company and both classes are attended by all ages.

For a long time I used to swim 1–2 km every day, but for well over a year I haven't been doing so – too busy in a variety of ways and other bits of life taking priority. Recently I have noticed that the jeans I always wear and which I used to pull up and down without bothering to undo the fly are feeling a bit tight. I seem to have acquired something of a spare tyre, partly, I would guess, through not going swimming regularly and partly, perhaps, from giving up smoking at the end of last year. (There was an article in one of the papers recently that said scientists have worked out that the average weight gain when smokers give up is quite a lot more than previously thought.) I am also feeling flabby, saggy and generally unfit so when a friend suggested I should come to her health club for a swim, I trotted along. I have now joined and am using both the pool and the gym every day. The gym is a bit new to me and I am taking it slowly until I am really at ease with the machines. I do half an hour in total, using the treadmill, reclining bicycle and the elliptical thingy with the two foot pieces and the handles. I haven't quite got to grips with this last thingy as you need to keep your rhythm regular – but then I've only been doing it since the end of last week. After my session in the gym, I swim my kilometre and then relax with a session in the steam room followed by the jacuzzi. I already feel better for this and intend to keep up the regime, gradually intensifying it. Apart from anything else, having paid my membership fee and bought new trainers and socks, I am far too mean not to make full use of them.

I agree absent. I think the jeans test is the best!I belong to a a local health club too and it's quite reasonable if over 60.I swim quite regularly, hate the gym but make use of the free Pilates classes.FInd that when the weather is so wet it always gives you an opportunity to get out of the house.Well done you!

It sounds wonderful, absent!


.... but I have been to Zumba, and am swimming in a friend's pool this afternoon. Perfect to get that endorphin kick which I badly needed this morning.

absent i will be interested to hear how you get on. I used to go to a gym but got really bored and didn't like the music blaring out all the time. I couldn't read when on the bike as some did becuase I need my glasses. My swimming is so poor I don't think it would help my fitness!

I really must try zumba, it sounds like fun. I only walk, garden and do pilates at the moment.

I've been trying to do a lot more brisk walking but today the rain is relentless!!

AlisonMA There's a [quiet] television in the gym were I go but no music and the time that I go is off-peak so I usually have the gym and, sometimes, the pool to myself. I am still fascinated by the computer bit on the machines that tells my my heart rate, the number of calories I have used and various other things that I haven't quite worked out yet. I am also experimenting with whether to "cycle" uphill or a random etc. No doubt I shall grow out of it eventually and maybe become bored then, but right now I am like a kid in a toyshop.

As far as swimming is concerned, I do ponderous middle aged lady's breast stroke at no great speed. It's still good exercise, especially as I can't do anything high impact because I have a pin in my right ankle.

Good for you absent. In my assessment when I joined the gym they told me how far I could let my heart rate go up and that I mustn't let it go any higher. It meant that I had to do everything so slowly which might be why i was so bored. A few years after I gave up I discovered that my thyroid gland had grown into my chest and it may have been that which was the reason my heart rate went up so quickly. I shall be watching your progress with interest and if you are still going in a year's time I might have another go. Now that puts pressure on you to keep it up!!

As the asthmatic kid with glasses, PE lessons were the scene of some of my worst humiliations as a young girl. Consequently, the very thought of a gym still makes me shudder.
However, I've always ridden my bike & when the kids were young they rode on a seat on the back. Recently in an attempt to whittle my middle aged waist, I've taken up the hula hoop! It's an adult sized one and is weighted but it's really fun AND it's a fantastic workout, cos it really gets your heart rate & breathing going.
It may help my waist but sadly it will never give me long legs like Grace Jones in a million years!

I play tennis twice a week -one match of singles and one match of doubles. This is great for body fitness and also for the mind - you laugh a lot on the tennis court. I also play golf when I can find another woman to play with - so many women of our age are just giving up, its very distressing. I also walk my dog once a day. So I'm quite fit, but always aching somewhere!

I have gone back to Pilates twice a week and I swim every week day morning, I try and fit a few walks in as well. I do it because I know It is good for me but I really have to force myself, I don't love it,it doesn't come naturally,I'm a sloth at heart.

I have just bought a second hand bike in an effort to get fit. I am just getting used to it at the moment so just very short rides around our village. I look after grandchildren 3 days a week so Bingo wings get a good work out. In between the dogs get about an hours exercise daily.

After signing up for gym membership 2/3 wks ago I've been 3 times at off peak times.Had to ask the nice young man for help with the various machines!!
I've also had short swims in early morning (adults only) sessions.I tried the aquarobics class but hated it.Both gym and pool are only a short drive away with easy parking so hope to keep up a gentle routine.

Maniac Yesterday I tried the aquarobics class at the health club I signed up to three weeks ago and thought it was very good and lots of fun. I have to avoid anything high impact because of a pin in one ankle (don't want the foot to drop off) so doing the exercises in water really suited me. It was much more energetic than I expected – I was not helped by the fact that I had already done 40 minutes in the gym and then swum a mile. (I usually swim 1 kilometre but had some spare time before the class began.) I think I'll try it again next week in a slightly more sensible way.

I did know that exercise alone is rarely sufficient for losing weight – you have to reduce what you eat – so I have cut out the snacks and nibbles that have crept into my days since I stopped smoking. What I hadn't registered is that you have to burn off 3,500 calories to lose 1 lb of fat. I had forgotten that it was quite such a big thing. However, to my surprise, I learn that a moderate swim for 40 minutes burns off 350 calories – I would have expected less. Consequently, I'm feeling okay with what I am doing and have invested in another pair of sort of cut-off tracksuit bottoms (no idea what they are really called– I'll have to ask absentdaughter) in a sale this afternoon.

yogagran yes we used to do fartlek when I belonged briefly to a running group years ago - it means spurts of fast running from when I can remember!

shd be from what I can remember ...