I have been mowing my lawn regularly and trying to get out and do other things in the yard. I moved about five yards of dirt about 20 feet one shovelful at a time.

I've been using just an old-fashioned push mower for several years, but recently, some weird grass has taken over the front yard. It is very fine and feathery and it just folds under the mower, it doesn't actually cut.

Yesterday, I pulled out an old mower that a roommate left behind a decade ago. It's electric, non propelled. It does a slightly better job with the feathery grass. It has a very narrow cut -- maybe 16 inches. It's nearly as much work to mow with it than with the push mower.

This is what I've been doing for exercise.

quote:

Originally posted by Daniel:
Cindy, congrats on the Peloton!

As an aside, I didn't know you had a bone on bone spot and two surgeries. Do you care to share more?

Sure!

In 2005, and I tore my meniscus playing tennis. It was a complex tear, and they removed what they said was about 15% of the meniscus. It took almost a year before the knee felt 100% despite lots of PT.

Then in 2015, I tore the same meniscus again. This time the knee locked, meaning I couldn’t bend it or straighten it very much. I had meniscus surgery again, and the surgeon said that a little piece of meniscus had torn off and become stuck between the bones. He said it was like a rug getting stuck in a door. The range of motion was better almost the same day. But there was a small spot where you could see the bone peeking through the cartilage, which is bone on bone.

Recovery was much faster than the first time. But I noticed that sometimes I would feel stinging in the knee and the best way to make it stop was to do leg strengthening exercises, like lunges or step ups. After a while I decided to try spinning to see if that would make the leg even stronger. A friend who had a acl repair long ago told me that he has to spin because of his knee, so maybe spinning could help me too.

The result was that spinning once or twice a week makes the knee feel great. Getting lazy or stopping for a few weeks meant the stinging would come back. So I have resigned myself to having to spin regularly for good knee health forever. When I spin, I can play tennis for hours or run for an hour without any knee issues. If I ever stop spinning, I suspect my next surgery will be a knee replacement.

Cindy, wow! The knee version of "use it or lose it," I guess!

I have DVDs to watch when on an exercise bike in Colorado. My best exercise bike ride was while watching an NFL game.
Have no exercise bike or trainer. Have a trike and a bike.
Have to start riding before 7am to beat the heat. I hate that. Not riding much since the heat hit.
I drink coffee and drag myself out for a walk early some days.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

Quirt what is Mirror?

This is the mirror

Essentially, it's a full-length mirror that broadcasts exercise classes. Yoga, boxing, kickboxing, dance, stretching, etc. Live plus a huge library. There are levels of difficulty and different lengths of time for classes in each category.

The real difference is that you are pictured in the mirror, like a real mirror, but the instructor is superimposed in front of you in smaller form. So you can easily compare your movement to theirs and see what you're doing right, and what you're doing wrong.

Wow that seems very cool! A little over my budget right now but something to keep in mind for the future.

We splurged and bought an elliptical at the beginning of the lockdown. It's not super duper, but it gets the job done. We stuck it in the basement.

The biggest benefit at Chez Nina at this point is that when Mr. Nina uses it, he listens to 1970s pop music on his phone, using ear buds, and sings along loudly and somewhat atonally. I'm not sure if he realizes we can all hear it throughout the house, and I'm not telling him.

Cindy, I totally believe you about movement, musculature and knee pain. Since I'm no longer walking routinely (to-from the bus, up and down a hill, etc.) my knees are definitely acting up. Hence the elliptical, in part, but it really doesn't seem to be the same as just the daily walking around. Since I have arthritis in my knees, I think it helps more to be moving around frequently rather than intensely but only at a single time. There's no way I'm walking around as frequently from home as I do at work.

Yeah, I hear you.

I also have a bad hip. It started acting up maybe five years ago, and there was a difference of opinion about the problem. One doc said hip impingement, which surgery could address. Radiologist said arthritis.

The surgery seemed really risky with a long recovery, so I didn’t do it. The issue is that it has little inward and outward rotation, but its front to back movement is good. So I can run, do stairs, walk, bike, play tennis. I just cannot do things like yoga that require twisting.

And I am beyond tired of people telling me I “just need to stretch.” Doc says I should keep exercising it because exercise keeps it from locking up and keeps it strong.

I just wish there was a machine that could strengthen hips as directly as spinning strengthens knees.

Nina, I was initially very worried that spinning would be a bad idea and would wear away at specific areas of knee cartilage. I do set my seat a bit higher to make sure I almost fully extend to avoid that, but the intensity actually makes it feel better. I have no explanation for why that is. But there have been days where I would spin at 9 am and play tennis at 2, and my knees feel like I’m floating on air.

quote:

just the daily walking around

I know that the sudden complete cessation of this is a huge problem for me.

But I do think there's something to Cindy's comment about intensity.... Something happens both in terms of muscles and also blood flow with that kind of fast paced repetitive movement that's qualitatively different from slower activities.

That said, either way, moving around, fast or slow, is what I need.

It's almost lunchtime in this time zone. I'm going to head downstairs for some "move time" first.


thanks Ladies!

OK, a Peloton update.

I got my bike on July 24. And . . .

This thing is exactly what I needed.

Apparently, I didn't know what a good spin class was in the past. The instructors at my gym played whatever, and I tried to get pumped up by the couple of songs I liked against all of the ones I didn't. And I worked hard when I was motivated to, but that wasn't as often as it should have been.

Well. Now I can filter classes based on the type of music I like (pop, hip hop, and R&B), and I can see the playlist in deciding what class to do. I outfitted the room with a fan that blows in my face for sweat control and a bluetooth speaker, which I blast so loud that Little Sphinx tells me to turn it down. One of my favorite rides so far is the Prince Tribute ride, where they only played Prince hits and the two instructors wore purple from head to toe. I have heard good things about the Hamilton ride, too.

And there is no more coasting in the back of a dark studio, sipping water, watching the clock, and taking breaks. Nope, the machine tells me when I am not working as hard as the instructor has asked, which holds me accountable. And there is a list of other 50 year old women who are taking the same class I am at the same time, and I can race against them.

Best of all, though, is the access. I can do a quick 30 minutes before I cook dinner. Yesterday, I had a one-hour break in a Zoom call and I did a ride, took a shower, and got right back to work.

I'm getting stronger every day, and even Mr. "ThatThingIsOverPriced" Sphinx has started riding it.

I am a very happy customer with shapely legs and a lovely resting heart rate.

quote:

I am a very happy customer with shapely legs

That is important, even I know that "Legs are for men, breast are for boys.".
Could not get one screw out of my Concept 2 rowing machine so it would not fit into my truck. Put that screw in myself but needed a different tool to get it out and it was time to roll.
So what? Since I got back to Colorado I can paddle, pedal, and walk because I am no longer in the heat of Tucson.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

quote:

I am a very happy customer with shapely legs

That is important, even I know that "Legs are for men, breast are for boys.".
Could not get one screw out of my Concept 2 rowing machine so it would not fit into my truck. Put that screw in myself but needed a different tool to get it out and it was time to roll.
So what? Since I got back to Colorado I can paddle, pedal, and walk because I am no longer in the heat of Tucson.

Drove up to look at my favorite ski area and think of future ski days.

Cindy that is awesome!!

quote:

the couple of songs I liked against all of the ones I didn't

this, omg. I tried a couple things where you can try something for free before buying, but I didn't like half of the music. So in the end, I have continued doing my own "fake Zumba" and I pick the songs, mostly using YouTube.

I don't push myself nearly as much as you do, nor nearly as much as I would if it was in a class, but I definitely do more when it's music I like!

And like you, the whole WFH thing does make it awesome to take a little break at points where, if I were working from my office at campus, I wouldn't be taking a break.

I am still half-heartedly riding the stationary bike and doing yoga. I hauled a little dirt to the garden today. This is not enough exercise to make up for my incredibly sedentary job.

The pandemic has not affected my discipline when it comes to writing and teaching. It has, however, destroyed any willpower I have ever had when it comes to exercising or avoiding comfort food.

Thanks to the half-hearted biking/yoga/gardening, my legs are firmer. The rest of me? Not so much.

quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:

That is important, even I know that "Legs are for men, breast are for boys.".

Now that IS bad news for me. My legs are strong owing to stairstepping and special machines that gets muscles the stairs don't touch.

(Have to skip the calf targeting things, as they get my knees, the left is especially bad - product of that hip being rotated outward thanks to a slip-up during my spinal surgery. One the surgeon denies but what the heck? Done is done.)

But however shapely my legs get, nothing is going to lengthen them! (Not to mention those annoying small veins that appear on the inner ankles!)

If only I could wear heels!