Muscle Loss and Age

[Jibralta]

My quadriceps cooled off by the end of the week. By Thursday, I was able to lower myself onto a toilet without a major logistical strategy.

 

Yes.

 

Yes, it was that bad.

 

However, although I regained (almost) full use of the quad muscle groups, I discovered too late that the overwhelming burn in the front of my legs had masked muscle strain in my adductor and groin muscles. Especially on my left side.

 

I knew my situation as soon as I got on the horse again this past Saturday, for my second lesson. I hoped that I would be able to warm up and ride through, but the horse figured it out in about two seconds and started pulling on the reins like a madman. My poor inner thigh muscles just wanted to give up and die.

 

Oh, animals. They are wonderful, but they can be merciless.

 

Whenever you start taking lessons in a new place (and don't own your own horse), it's a good bet that you will be given a mild-mannered "puller" that needs a lot of leg to make him go. This is a horse that will take the bit in his teeth and pull you around the ring if you 1) don't have your hands right, and/or 2) you can't push him enough with your legs. You have to really work a horse like this.

 

Unsurprisingly, I've had this type of horse for my first two lessons (same guy--Pogo). I expected it. And last weekend, I handled it. At the end of the lesson, Pogo and I really had something going. But this weekend, my legs were completely useless. Not exaggerating. Pogo recognized my weakness almost instantaneously. After one test-pull, he jerked the reins. And then he jerked them again. And again. He almost had them out of my hands! Last weekend, when I was strong, he didn't pull that crap. But the minute he detected my weakness, Pogo was intent on domination.

 

Well, Pogo might be able to overpower me physically, but I had one advantage over him: I could communicate with other human beings. So, I didn't fight him when he decided to take me into the middle of the ring, to stand by my instructor. I told her the situation. She was actually unsurprised. She thought I'd really worked my legs last week and knew I'd be sore (this sore????). So, she put Pogo on a longe line and I went through the paces, arms out, arms up, etc. without having to worry about steering and controlling him.

 

When I got home, I sat indian style and iced my inner thighs by placing an ice pack and a four pound weight on each thigh

 

I feel a lot better now, but my inner thighs are still uncomfortably tight. I decided to postpone my next lesson until the 16th to allow for full recovery. For all I know, my inner thigh tightness is masking gluteus maximus pain. No need to kill myself.

[dias]

without a major logistical strategy.

Hahahahahahahahaha

 

I have only been on a horse once when I was a teenager. If you haven't done it before, you would think horse riding is easy-peasy. Boy, it's excruciating, it's worse than squatting. Best leg workout ever.

 

Horses are beautiful animals. What's better than watching a horse galloping in a field. Horses have something, how can I say it, hmmm, noble.

[Jibralta]

I haven't been horseback riding since just before my last post on this thread. I believe I postponed the next lesson so that my legs could FULLY recover. But then I got the flu and an upper respiratory infection and had to postpone two more times. The third time was just a precaution, but I'm glad I took it because I woke up that morning with a cough and a sore throat. I thought I was relapsing, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Now, I am totally over my illnesses (I hope) and have scheduled my next lesson for Saturday. I wonder how it will go....

 

I've decided to do a New Year's challenge at the local spin studio. It'll be 8 weeks of spin classes, beginning in January. I took a trial class on Tuesday night. I've done spin before. This place is nothing new, except that it specializes in spin and has a very streamlined system. I worried that I might have muscle soreness, but I have none. It seems I know how to pace myself on a bike better than I do on a horse! Tonight, I will push a little harder. Let's see where this can get me in 8 weeks.

[Trinity11]

I'm not sure what I'm looking for by posting here. Maybe commiseration.

 

I've lost some strength as I've gotten older. Time goes by faster now, and I don't properly sense how long my periods of inactivity are. Sometimes life gets very busy, and I have to sacrifice the gym routine to accommodate. Within a month of inactivity, I can feel my muscles disappear. Its so creepy.

 

I feel best when I am in a weight-lifting routine. But when I don't have time to plan, I just spend my time on the treadmill. That's when the muscle loss happens. Now that I am pushing 40, muscle loss actually changes the shape of my body. It's a little scary! It's only a little scary because I am still convinced that I will spring back into shape when I start lifting again next month. But what if that doesn't happen? I guess it will become full scary at that point.

 

It's been four months since I've lifted weights. It's been four years since I've ridden a horse. A lot of people I know don't consider horseback riding to be a strength-building activity, but it is! it's an awesome core workout, and it works wonder for the legs and butt. I hate to see all of that fading away.

 

I want my body back!!!!!!!!

 

 

Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

I am sure you will be ok if you start getting active again. Have you ever thought about yoga or acro yoga to compliment your weights? You can do it at home with no need for the gym and it find tunes all the smaller muscles that work with the larger ones. I actually dont like the hippiness of yoga and you can definitely find teachers that have a more down to earth approach (id start with Hatha yoga) and once you do it definitely makes a positive difference to your life. It might look easy, but believe me, its not!

[IAmFCA]

jibralta you are a rock star

 

this cumulative effect of less muscle mass, less activity is a downer to be sure and a serious mind [pick your favorite word for here, I will pick "game" but its worse than that!] game

 

Having crossed the great hormonal divide and into the great 50s as well I can offer this... it only gets worse?

 

The gift of this moment (for me was 42) is it pushes you to learn a new skill - build a habit, a support system, something that will get you into new physical territory. I ended up in better shape than I had been, because I found a more supportive training group. Turned my thinking on its head as well.

 

Carry on Rock Star

[Jibralta]

I am sure you will be ok if you start getting active again. Have you ever thought about yoga or acro yoga to compliment your weights? You can do it at home with no need for the gym and it find tunes all the smaller muscles that work with the larger ones. I actually dont like the hippiness of yoga and you can definitely find teachers that have a more down to earth approach (id start with Hatha yoga) and once you do it definitely makes a positive difference to your life. It might look easy, but believe me, its not!

 

I agree with you, yoga is an excellent form of exercise. I have a great old book here that I've had for 20 years, Richard Hittleman's 28-day Yoga Program (or something like that). I went through it in college and felt such a change that it freaked me out and I stopped practicing!

 

I'm in a bit of a bind with yoga, actually. On one hand, it's become the type of thing where if I don't have an instructor, I won't practice. But on the other hand, I find many yoga instructors annoying because they talk through my concentration ("feel your breath, feel the energy, imagine this, imagine that, etc....." Shut up!! Leave me alone! LOL). I also hate frickin sun-salutations, which every yoga instructor seems to enjoy.

 

I regret my dependence on instructors. I don't know where it came from; it's not natural for me. When I was a little kid, I'd spend hours in our living room, going through gymnastic moves and perfecting them. I loved it. I realize now that it was a lot like the practice of yoga. I think some weird perfectionist tick has gotten into me since then. I like to say I don't have time, I don't have space, I don't know how to go about it. But those are all just lies that I tell myself. I don't know why I don't just pick that book back up. I always have it handy. It was the best.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I will start thinking about it again.

[Jibralta]

Thanks, IAmFCA!

 

The gift of this moment (for me was 42) is it pushes you to learn a new skill - build a habit, a support system, something that will get you into new physical territory.

 

I think the big gift for me (so far) has been coming to terms with the importance of diet. For a long time, I resisted because I could. But the last few years gave me a big reality check. It's true that my activity levels also decreased during that time, but as life seems to get busier and busier who knows how much time I will have to devote to exercise in the future? I can't just say "I'll work it off later," because I may not have time to do so. So, diet must be a priority now.

 

I think I'm finally past the anger stage when it comes to diet. Now I'm just resigned to it!

[IAmFCA]

Thanks, IAmFCA!

 

 

 

I think the big gift for me (so far) has been coming to terms with the importance of diet. For a long time, I resisted because I could. But the last few years gave me a big reality check. It's true that my activity levels also decreased during that time, but as life seems to get busier and busier who knows how much time I will have to devote to exercise in the future? I can't just say "I'll work it off later," because I may not have time to do so. So, diet must be a priority now.

 

I think I'm finally past the anger stage when it comes to diet. Now I'm just resigned to it!

 

"Past the anger stage" -- that is wisdom, friend!

[Jibralta]

Horseback riding went ok on Saturday and I didn't have any major muscle pain. I was sore, but it was very tolerable. The next day, New Year's Eve day, I went to a spin class. This was a mistake. Not because it hurt my legs (it didn't) but because I got sick. I should have known better than to push myself. I've been sick on and off since fall, when I had mono. Then it was the flu. Then it was an upper respiratory infection. And now it seems there's another upper respiratory infection--worse than before. SO I cancelled the rest of my spin classes this week, and I'l probably cancel the Sunday one, too. I signed up for this 8-week spin program and I'll be really pissed if I make myself too sick to complete it. It starts on January 8, so I do have time to heal. I worked from home all week, too. I think that's helpful when you are sick.

[Jibralta]

I've committed to an eight-week new year's resolution challenge at the spin place I joined. Last week, I was sick. My malaise started around December 30, and for a little while I was optimistic that I would stay healthy. I scheduled classes for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. But the next day, I felt sicker. And the next day, I was even sicker. As the week wore on and I remained sick, I cancelled each class, one by one. So depressing.

 

However, the challenge didn't officially start until this past Monday, so the classes that I missed weren't part of my goal. I just scheduled them to get me into the spinning groove. But I'm back on track now, anyway. I scheduled classes yesterday, today, and Friday. In the future I will also schedule a class over the weekend, but we are going away tomorrow so I won't be spinning this weekend. I plan to keep a Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Weekend Day pattern for this endeavor.

 

I set an 8-week goal of (I think) 8% increased power and 8% increased calorie burn. I used the average stats from my first three classes as a baseline. I was surprised to see that I made steady improvements during those three classes. But my first day back after being sick (yesterday) was grueling. That would be class 4, and there was no improvement from class 3, so my upward trend was broken. The instructor was VERY intense, right from the beginning. I pushed as hard as I could, so I was surprised that I hadn't made progress.

 

Today, the instructor was MUCH easier. She started us out very slow, and even though she pushed us I felt like it wasn't a major challenge. I was pretty surprised to see that despite the seemingly less intense class, I actually performed stronger today that I did yesterday. I guess that just goes to show that working harder isn't necessarily more effective.

[Jibralta]

On Wednesday, I felt like skipping my spin class. But I went anyway. Then I came home and saw an article that January 17 was "Ditch Day" or something like that--when most people blow off their New Year's resolutions! Wow, they were really right about that...

 

My schedule is Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings with one class over the weekend. Last weekend, I went away for a couple of days and feasted shamelessly. So, it's not really surprising that I was so drag-ass this Wednesday. Glad I got over that hump.

 

Last Friday was my worst performance thus far. It was a little disheartening. I don't know if it was me or the instructor's approach. Probably both. Yesterday was my strongest performance to date--like really strong--and it was the same instructor as I had for my previous strongest performance.

 

I've noticed differences in me from class to class. Like last week, I started sweating more profusely in the second or third class. I think that's probably a good thing. I mean, it wasn't an insane level of sweat; I just had to use my towel more than in past classes. It could be that I'm just pushing harder in general. When I first started out, I was quite tentative with my effort level. But now that I know my heart won't explode, I am not afraid to push harder.

 

The bikes in the 'stadium' are closely packed, and as a result good personal hygiene is REALLY important. A couple of times, one of the people around me hasn't brushed their teeth, and I can smell the staleness. Uggh. Last week, the guy next to me farted. HORRIBLE. PSA for anyone who takes spin classes: Please brush your teeth and hold in your farts People need to breathe. Your neighbors could pass out. Someone could die.

 

I agreed to do a post-class workout today and tomorrow. Not really looking forward to it. It's going to make me later into work, which means I'll have to leave later. Bleh.

[Jibralta]

Definitely didn't want to go to my spin class this morning. But I made myself do it.

 

I think I mentioned this about ten times already, but the program I am doing had me set goals in the beginning. They suggested setting a goal no higher than an 8% improvement in Power, "Torq," and/or Calories. Since I am doing the weight loss program, my parameters are Power and Calories. I took three classes before starting the program and used them as a baseline. I've been tracking my progress at each class. I have a whole spreadsheet set up and I'm seriously tempted to do a regression analysis to see if I can figure out how they derive Power. But I digress. Looking at my trend lines, I am making steady progress and will meet my Calories goal well before the last class. However, I will not meet my Power goal. I assumed my Calories and Power performance would rise at the same rate, but I guess not. Today, I thought I would get a personal best in Power, but I was three points short.

 

I went horseback riding on Saturday, a couple of hours after a spin class. It went well. I am nowhere near as sore as I was after my first class. However, I still can't believe how out of shape I am. I had no idea I'd become such a mess after time off.

[Jibralta]

I forgot.... I haven't seen much weight loss. But my clothes are fitting better and my boyfriend notices a difference. I guess that means I'm building muscle. But spinning doesn't strike me as a muscle-building exercise. Maybe my lungs are getting really muscular.

[Jibralta]

I beat my personal best in Power on Wednesday (by 8 points) and I beat that personal best today (by 4 points). I am still tracking behind my ultimate power goal, but if I keep making progress at this rate, maybe I'll meet it. I didn't realize this until now, but I've surpassed my Calorie Burn target twice (today and Wednesday). So, that's nice.

 

I just checked my performance against the rest of my class, and I actually beat the whole class in max RPMs. Actually off the chart and top of the graph. Wow! For everything else, I'm squarely in the lower third. There are some really sinewy people in that class.

 

I think that I am improving cardiovascularly to the point where I am now able to feel a little muscle burn. Until this week, I just wasn't feeling it. But I guess I just couldn't get there until my heart and lungs levelled up.

 

And damn, I am hungry today. I ate a big meal after my class, but then spent three hours measuring a house in the freezing cold. I ate when I got home, but I am still hungry....

[Batya33]

For what it’s worth I am so impressed! I do daily cardio either inside or outside weather dependent. I’ve never done a spin class but know a lot about it and how intense it is. I had to laugh about tjevperosnal hygiene because when I woke out indoors it’s in a small workout room in my building and there is a woman who farts. Ugh. Butvwere fsr apart Melvin they I really can’t tell body odor. Too funny. I do love the whole etiquette though - typically I talk to no one but there are exceptions I just err on the side of keeping the convo short and assuming the other person wants the time and space to work out and watch tv or be on their phone etc. anyway good for you for pushing so hard. You must feel awesome afterwards. You should.

[Jibralta]

Thanks! I'm still slower and less powerful than most of the people in my class--but I can move my legs really fast lol!

 

I do feel very good after a workout. On Wednesday, I felt like a million bucks. I can't wait to begin Crossfit again. That makes me feel really good. I'll start that in April after my spin membership runs out.

 

I ended up taking a nap yesterday afternoon. Same last Saturday. I guess I need to recover now that I am 40.

 

I can't believe the woman who farts in your gym. Horrible!

[IAmFCA]

J, Love your 40!

 

I just started a class in hand to hand combat. I suppose some days I am the oldest person in there. Plenty of sparring partners give me tips to help me improve. Even so, I will brag to you that my teach said to the class "She hits like a ton of bricks." I eat that up.

 

Your legs at 40 will carry you into your 50s, and those are large muscle groups so they have a big impact on metabolism. I love reading how you are rocking that spin class! Tell us more as you go. :)

[Batya33]

Thanks! I'm still slower and less powerful than most of the people in my class--but I can move my legs really fast lol!

 

I do feel very good after a workout. On Wednesday, I felt like a million bucks. I can't wait to begin Crossfit again. That makes me feel really good. I'll start that in April after my spin membership runs out.

 

I ended up taking a nap yesterday afternoon. Same last Saturday. I guess I need to recover now that I am 40.

 

I can't believe the woman who farts in your gym. Horrible!

 

I took a nap yesterday too and I am 51! Very unusual for me. I agree with Iamfca about your legs/large muscle groups -what you're doing for yourself is awesome and long lasting. Are you increasing your water intake too?

[IAmFCA]

I forgot.... I haven't seen much weight loss. But my clothes are fitting better and my boyfriend notices a difference. I guess that means I'm building muscle. But spinning doesn't strike me as a muscle-building exercise. Maybe my lungs are getting really muscular.

 

Quads, glutes, calves, plus a few others around hips and shoulders I would guess

[Jibralta]

I took a nap yesterday too and I am 51! Very unusual for me. I agree with Iamfca about your legs/large muscle groups -what you're doing for yourself is awesome and long lasting. Are you increasing your water intake too?

 

Thanks. Yes, definitely drinking a lot of water!

 

Quads, glutes, calves, plus a few others around hips and shoulders I would guess

 

I am now starting to feel some muscle soreness, which is nice. Weight is starting to go down, too (although today will probably counteract that trend!).

[IAmFCA]

Thanks. Yes, definitely drinking a lot of water!

 

 

 

I am now starting to feel some muscle soreness, which is nice. Weight is starting to go down, too (although today will probably counteract that trend!).

 

apparently superbowl sunday is the #2 eatingest day of the year in the US

 

leaving "eatingest" right where I typed it :) it ought to be in the dictionary

[Jibralta]

leaving "eatingest" right where I typed it :) it ought to be in the dictionary

 

Yes, I agree!

[IAmFCA]

Yes, I agree!

 

Tonight my goal is to hit the grocer DURING the game, and before that, stick to veggies and fish and such in my fridge. If I go to a party, going to try to arrive already full.

[Jibralta]

That's a good plan. Hope it worked out.

[Jibralta]

I have consistently stayed above mu first Power personal best since I beat it. Today, I thought I was taking it easy, but I matched my second personal best. So, it seems I've definitely leveled up.

 

I don't know how to explain this, but I feel a deeper kind of burning in my legs. Not unmanageable at all. Not even painful. Just there.

 

I felt so centered after class this morning. For most of the morning I felt that way, but in the afternoon I was back in my usual mental frenzy. Exercise may be the key to relaxation.