My Journey With Health And Fitness – Learning About Form

It has been a big week for me workout wise. I walked a total of 239,521 steps for an average of 34,217 per day. This works out to a total of 159 km (99 miles) which is an average of 22.7 km (14 miles) per day. I also attended 6 fitness classes. I’m pretty proud of what I accomplished this week but also acknowledge that I have really pushed things this past 2 weeks. As such I have decided tomorrow needs to be a recovery day. What that means is the maximum amount of steps I want to put in is about 10,000. Then, Monday I’ll be back at it.

Today was the 3rd strength class this week. One thing I am realizing is how imperative it is when you are lifting heavy is to have the perfect form. Don’t get me wrong, normally during classes if an instructor notices you are doing something incorrectly they will come over and make adjustments. However, in these classes the instructors are watching us constantly and if you are off the slightest when lifting they work with you to get it right.

For example, Thursday was chest press day. I’ve done tons of these over the past 2 years but I learned on Thursday better placement of my hands, how to lower the bar properly and how to thrust the bar upwards for the lift. Today it was dead lift day (first I learned that there are actually 2 types of dead lifts, conventional and Romanian). I have known for a long time that doing a dead lift properly means the power needs to come from you hamstrings and glutes but just making adjustments to how close together my hands were or hinging more than bending helps with that power. It also meant I was able to deadlift 110 lbs today, not bad for a nearly 60 year old woman.

But I also learned that I have to be clear on my limitations so that if the instructor needs to provide me with a modification they are ready to do so. The instructors all know I have the cranky knee and stupid ankle but I don’t think I have ever really explained how they can limit me. Today we were doing glute bridges (also known as hip thrusts where you lay on you back with knees bent and feet on the floor and you thrust your hips up towards the ceiling) which I am pretty good at. But the instructor came over and said to work the muscles the way she wanted me to I had to bring my feet closer to my butt so that my knees were bent more. I moved them closer and she said still need to bring my feet in. That’s when I told her I can’t, I don’t have proper range of motion in my right knee and it won’t ever really bend more than what it was at that point. She spun on a dime and said ok, move you feet a little further away from your butt but do the bridge with your toes pointing up so that only your heels are touching the floor. She told me that was now my permanent modification.

These strength classes are a new challenge for me and I am loving them. Well so far because Tuesday is going to be low bar squats and I really hate those things. Still I’m going to give it my best shot.