Friday, December 30, 2016

I am not 20 anymore

I mean obviously.  But 20 doesn't feel like 15 years ago.  At least not in my brain.

What brought on this realization?  Hubs and I joined a gym earlier this week.

At 35 I do not have the body, stamina, muscles, endurance, drive, etc. of my 20 year-old collegiate soccer player self.

I know joining a gym sounds cliché with it being (almost) a new year, but it's something that we'd been tossing around for a while, so we finally bit the bullet and did it.

I've worked out three times now.  I can barely lift my arms and I feel muscles that I forgot I had. Oddly enough, I'm loving it.

I feel 35 though.  Or maybe 85.

The soreness will be worth it once I begin to see progress.

19 comments:

  1. Wait till you're (almost) 20 years older! lol I creak and groan a bit these days, especially with my knee and ankle, and wonder what it must be like to be 85. It's good for me - I can then feel some empathy for my FIL and MIL.

    Good for you for joining the gym though! I haven't been for a month, and need to get back to it ... badly!

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    1. The soreness definitely helps me develop empathy for those who live with chronic pain, even though I'd never thought of it in this context before.

      Definitely start going back to the gym. You can be my workout partner! :)

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  2. :-) :-) :-)
    You may feel old now, but just wait a few weeks. If you continue to go to the gym, you will see progress pretty soon. Working out can make happy in some ways! I am glad you joined a gym.

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    1. If I can power through the first few weeks, the soreness will get better. One thing I know already is that while I'm still having trouble falling asleep, my sleep is much better.

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  3. You are my hero. I need to work out (period) desperately and yet the thing keeping me from doing it is knowing full well the soreness that will come initially.

    You may not be 20 yrs old, but I guarantee you're not 85 yrs old.

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    1. Ha! I don't know if this gives me hero status..... ;)

      The initial soreness is the hardest thing to overcome (both mentally and physically). If you're interested, I can give you the name of an app (free!) that I used. It for high intensity interval training and is all body weight exercises. I was doing it regularly before surgery, but then had to stop for obvious reasons. It was a great way to get back into shape, though towards the end, I'd accomplished about as much as I was going to with it and needed a gym membership anyway.

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    2. Sure! It's a free app put out by Johnson & Johnson called 7 Minute Workout It looks like it's available on both Apple and Android devices through their respective app stores. Here's the link: https://7minuteworkout.jnj.com/

      It allows you to set your personal fitness levels and motivation and gives you a "personal trainer" (who is easy on the eyes and has a cute accent!) and works you a series of exercises at your level. I wouldn't say it's perfect because there are a few features that I'd like to see added (for example, being able to remove certain exercises from a workout), but for free, I think it's awesome and so much more than I expected.

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  4. Hahaha, I am not 20 anymore either!

    Congrats on the exercise!! I joined a gym too. I'm hoping to make good use of the elliptical this month! :)

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    1. Yay! Glad to hear that I have a virtual workout partner! :)

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  5. ^^ What Mali said. ;) I think I told this story on my blog, but my sister (54) & I (almost 56) wound up sitting on the floor to giftwrap Christmas presents... my mother asked why we didnt' get out the card table to work on. Sister said, "Sitting on the floor... no problem. Getting UP -- quite a different story...!!"

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    1. LOL! Nothing like something you used to do easily making you realize how old you are (and feel)! :)

      I put the info for the app a couple of comments above.

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  6. Congrats on getting back to the gym, that's big! Oh, aging. Where your mind gets all fabulous and you realize that you don't have to put up with crap anymore...and your body gets all inversely decrepit. :) The creakiness and loud complaints amped up when I turned 40, but hopefully it's just complaining and not actual falling apart yet. Ha! I'm glad you're loving the gym and even the soreness, when I do get a great workout in I always feel like the soreness is the beauty of my muscles knitting together stronger.

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    1. I'm not looking forward to 40..... Hubs turns 40 in May so I'll use him as my personal example. :)

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  7. Good for you for joining a gym! It should get easier after awhile. I need to get back into a fitness routine myself.

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    1. You should do it, so we can all get back in shape together. :)

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  8. I'm as always late with my replies but I'm constantly playing a catch up and it's not going to change in this New year, ughh... One day I will get a new job but for now I'm stuck with overtime which makes the need of workout as important as ever!

    Last year I did P90X3 and it was wonderful. I did it for three months, every day, and I did loose wait and gained muscle definition. And then I got bored with doing the same exercise over and over so I think I will have to join something outside of the house. I considered tai chi, aikido but probably will end up in a cheapo studio with different types of classes just because it's a 5 min drive from me :) It doesn't have machines etc but it has free weights, zumba, yoga and kickboxing/mixed martial arts class taught by a young cute owner haha :) So that's my New year resolution in action :)

    Thanks for the link to 7 min workout, I will try that too!

    Happy New Year!!!

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  9. Congrats on joining a gym! I plan to, but don't want to deal with a busy gym in January when I join, as I already have gym phobia. But I can relate to not being 20 anymore. I just put all of our Christmas decorations away, and I was kneeling for a period of time on the floor to do that, and when I tried to get up, my knee was in terrible pain! And even two days later, my legs are sore in places that I guess I never use those muscles...all from undecorating for the holidays. I feel OLD!!!

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