This whole business of trying to find your limits/push your boundaries is quite tricky. I mean, there is always the risk that taking it up a notch may be taking it too far ... but then, you won't know what/how much you can accomplish unless you try. For me, it's about not only about measuring how difficult or painful the exercise is, but it's also about how I feel afterwards ... and that's even trickier to judge because, well, you won't know until afterwards! Anyway. My basic goal for now is to keep trying to push myself so that I make the most of my workouts -- but not to the point where I need to take a painkiller to help me through the rest of the day/night.
So for today's cardio, I walked for 45 minutes (10 min more than last time). My average speed was 4.7 km/hr (compared to 4.3), and I walked at 5.0 km/hr for a total of 9 minutes within that 45. I was happy with my progress. I definitely felt tired at the 5 km/hr, but I did two 2 minute chunks and then a 5 minute chunk. It was fine. I think this is definitely the minimum that I can do. I will for sure keep 45 as the minimum in terms of cardio ...
I did feel a bit achy afterwards. I've got some discomfort in the right side of my abdomen. I think one of the problems is that I'm not ready to do deep stretches yet. I definitely can't stretch out my torso yet, so I feel like my muscles are a bit cramped up ... I spoke to one of the trainers today and she said she'd work on a few stretches with me from next week.
So far, so good :)
Sounds like you're progressing well. It's good that you're being aware of your body, and paying attention to the aches and pains. You'd wind up way further behind if you pushed yourself too hard and hurt yourself!
ReplyDeleteFinally catching up on things...how are you doing now? It's a week after you wrote this. Is the pain getting better? I agree with Kris, it's so good that you're really paying attention to your body! Don't push too hard.
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