Fit Communications

Today had it all: late breakfast with two of my best friends in the world; a nice, moderate workout; time on the patio with my dogs, the laptop, and a book; and a nap.

Just about anytime on Saturday or Sunday is a great time to visit my gym. Very few people are there–predominantly the serious muscle-heads–so you can get time on any bench or machine you desire. I don’t know any of the other clients I saw today, but I felt at home, just quietly going about my business while they went about theirs.

Today was leg day, so I concentrated on leg presses and also did some ab work and back extensions. I watched a guy doing front-squats, somewhat enviously . . . I can’t squat with a barbell anymore because of disc issues. I could probably do dumbbell squats, but they couldn’t be very heavy. On the leg press I can heave some substantial weight without straining my lower back.

I won’t say my depressed mood has disappeared, but I do feel lighter today.

How strange the grieving process is. Since my mother died about five weeks ago, my primary symptom isn’t sadness but fatigue, coupled with mild depression. I’m just bone tired. When I’m off, I take a nap every day. When I’m at work, my brain doesn’t work quite normally.

I know that resuming my exercise program will help lift my spirits and my energy . . . but knowing that doesn’t always translate into driving over to the gym.

Today I succeeded in getting in a workout. It certainly wasn’t the most vigorous one I’ve ever had, but I worked chest and back with bench presses, pull-ups, dumbbell pullovers, Arnold presses, and dips, plus a few sets of ab work.

Near the end of my training session, I felt the lovely pump . . . and that was an encouragement.

Talk about push-ups . . . and pull-ups . . . these guys rule.

Shortly before my mom died July 13, I had decided to undertake the "100 push-ups" challenge that I’ve been reading about on other blogs.

Nothing is normal after a death, as you know. So although I made it to the gym a few times in the last two weeks, it was only a few times. I didn’t throw my food plan out the window entirely, but I missed a lot of meals (something that I can assure you never happens when my appetite is normal) and ate many more carbs than is usual for me.

I love carbs, and for me they’re absolutely necessary to sustain weight and cardio workouts. But typically I eat about 40 to 50 percent carbs, 30 percent protein, and 20 to 30 percent fat.

In the last couple of weeks I was probably consuming 60 to 70 percent carbs. For some reason, that’s all that appealed to me. Comfort food, maybe? Note that with a few exceptions I wasn’t eating sugar–but I couldn’t get enough bread.

In any case, yesterday I began counting calories and tracking activity again.

And then my friend Toni threw down the gauntlet on her blog, Living al Dente:

I must confess that until today I was not able to follow through with the push up challenge I wrote about a while back. Let’s just say I got distracted and we’ll leave it at that.

I decided today that I could not put it off any longer and immediately got down on the floor to see what I could accomplish. I am more than pleased to announce that I was able to do two. That is 2, people, as in more than one.

Mary, you’re on. Let’s hear how you’re doing. Can you beat that? (Yes, my body building friend, I’ll bet you can.)

And now that I’m pumped with excitement over my achievement, I will proceed to ye olde treadmill and begin my workout for the day.

When her post popped up in my RSS feed, I immediately dropped to the floor to see how many I could get. I was at work, but it was about 6 o’clock, and most people had gone home for the day. Besides, people at my workplace expect the unexpected to occur in my office.

Was it wrong of me to brag a little in my response to Toni’s post?

Probably so. Here’s some of what I said in response, in a comment on her blog:

My tally also begins with the number 2.

But it ends in zero.

Yup, I got 20. Full-length push-ups, of course–not the weenie kind.

It just about killed me, but I did it.

Toni, hope you have a nice day.

Mary

I should add that I was able to get 20 only because I’ve recently been bench-pressing in earnest. And it will take extreme effort to get to 100. But I have begun.

Now I guess I’d better read the training program and see where I need to go from here.

It’s been two weeks and two days since my mom died suddenly–two weeks and two days since I posted.

As you might expect, life has not been normal. I took a week off from work and spent most of it sleeping. Just one of many ways to deal with grief and shock.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my mom. She was 78 years old when she died, and for most of her life she was a vibrant, curious, creative, active person. When my dad died four years ago, she had already started physically to go downhill. She’d had spinal stenosis for years but was afraid to have surgery. The result was numbness and tingling in her hands and feet that made it difficult to do the cooking, needlecrafts, long walks, and stationary biking she had formerly enjoyed.

She had a knee replaced a year after my dad died, and although the surgery was necessary because the joint was causing extreme pain, she didn’t respond especially well. Once the officially prescribed regimen of physical therapy had ended, she just stopped moving. When we went out to restaurants, she insisted on using her wheelchair rather than her walker. She spent each day in her room, reading, not even coming down the hall to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

I’ve read enough about inactivity to know what bed rest does to muscles and bones. It isn’t pretty. The less you move, the more you lose, and the sad result is that even standing up and walking across the room become difficult. The falls that plague seniors are one obvious consequence of the loss of muscular strength and sense of balance.

I don’t write this to dis my mom, whom I loved and still love. I suppose I am trying to galvanize myself to make sure I don’t let this happen to myself, my husband, and others I love.

Yesterday I visited the Apple store in a local mall and on the way saw an elderly man obviously walking for exercise. His pace was somewhat slow, and his posture was bent. But he was out there, doing the necessary. Sir, whoever you are, please keep on walking.

Arnold once famously said that the pump–that lovely sensation caused when the muscles you’ve been training are engorged with blood–was better than a certain activity that begins with S and ends with X.

That was classic Arnold–hyperbole, for sure, but great publicity.

Yes, I know that achieving a pump has little or nothing to do with whether a particular workout has helped to advance one’s strength or fitness. We don’t train in order to feel a pump. But the pump is not insignificant because it is an intrinsic reward of the workout. We’re more likely to continue activities that make us feel good. This is just one of the ways that training enhances life.

But why does the pump feel so good? Does it spur the release of endorphins, maybe?

All I know, since I haven’t done the research yet, is that it feels wonderful. And when I descend the stairs at the gym and head for the bench (and the pull-up machine and the dumbbells and so on), more often than not, I have a smile on my face.

What do you think? What does the pump do for you?

I recently stumbled upon the website of Dr. Len Kravitz, an associate professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico. It offers a wealth of science-based articles on weight loss, the exercise response, athletic training, and more. This one, "The 25 Most Significant Health Benefits of Physical Activity and Exercise," originally published in 2007 in the IDEA Fitness Journal, is a must-read.

Do you find yourself saying or thinking, "I want to lose weight"? In fact, what you want to lose is fat.

But how do you know whether what you’re losing is fat or muscle? When calorie restriction (especially extreme calorie restriction) is your only weight-loss strategy, a good percentage of what you lose may be lean muscle. When that happens, you’re actually getting fatter even though the number on the scale may be going down.

If you want to learn more about strength training, check out The National Strength & Conditioning Association’s free Performance Training Journal. Download pdfs of individual articles or the entire issue. Sign up to receive e-mail notification when a new edition is available.

It looks as though this issue includes some good stuff. First thing I’ll read when I have time is “Post-Exercise Nutrition: Recommendations for Resistance and Endurance Training.”