I haven’t written anything on the blog in a while so I went back to review previous topics and works-in-progress. I discovered that I never completed the follow-up on hysterectomy recovery and the results of getting back into my fitness routine after surgery. If you need a refresher on what lead up to this, read this and this. And here where I talked about plans for recovery but didn't completely follow my own advice. Let's go all the way back to 2020. Yes, the year that lives on in infamy. On January 30th, I was given the "green light" to resume normal activities after a hysterectomy on November 26, 2019. Recovery had been more challenging than I expected; I was SO ready to get back to teaching classes, lifting weights, and doing all the things I had been restricted from doing (well, except vacuuming). I had goals in 2020 for my business and my fitness and I was ready to get to work! Of course, surprises lay ahead…and none of them were good.
0 Comments
If you have general fitness and wellness goals, you probably need some cardio in your training program. However, what you do for that cardio may vary considerably from what you are imagining. Slogging away on a treadmill or elliptical is definitely not required to improve cardiovascular fitness and all the fabulous benefits that come with it.
Putting it simply, cardio is any exercise that increases your heart rate to the point that your breathing rate increases and you start to feel warm. In order to get the desired benefits, you need to place adequate stress on the cardiovascular system to get the system to adapt and change for the better. Cardiovascular fitness allows you to perform “large muscle, repetitive moderate to high intensity exercise for an extended period of time.” The mountain hike on vacation, hours of quickly walking from ride to ride at an amusement park, raking and bagging leaves all afternoon, dancing the night away and even lifting weights will be much more manageable if you improve your cardiovascular fitness. That’s because cardio improves your body’s function in so many ways. One of the main improvements is a more efficient heart beat so your body is better able to deliver and use oxygen for metabolic purposes. It’s pretty cool how your body adapts to the (good) stress you place on it. How do you get to the point of making these adaptations happen without wanting to quit (or pass out)? Here are your five tips: I don’t run on Dunkin’. I run on sleep. And so do you. In recent years, you’ve probably heard a lot more about the importance of sleep. I know it can get annoying, even stressful, if you feel that you can’t find the time for more sleep or if your brain simply doesn’t seem to allow you to get more than few hours each night. Skimping on sleep is a necessity sometimes but it can become dangerous to pride yourself on your ability to "get by" on little sleep. That's not how the human body works. So, why is sleep so important?
While I was 12, my parents separated and my mom became a single parent to two preteens. Judy worked full-time and took care of everything at home. Now that I’m middle-aged, I have a greater appreciation for her habits and the choices she made while I was growing up. A few lessons stand out as I look back from 40-something years old.
|
Archives
June 2023
Categories
All
|