Exercise Update, May 23, 2025

 I am on a quest to exercise regularly and report about it here to keep myself accountable. Here is my weekly update. 

But before that, here are a few things that are happening in my yard this week.

We had a great surprise this week when a friend sent me three bare-root roses. They have been planted, and we are excited about the roses we will have in the years to come.

Dahlia

Purple sage

The first day lily has bloomed.

Tucked between the amsonia and the bleeding heart, I found a squash plant. I have no idea how it got there. I'm still debating whether or not to move it. Volunteers always seem to do best where they come up.

The wax beans came up yesterday. I always find it fun to see the seed from which a new plant comes.

We have a fence to keep rabbits out of the beans, but the birds flew over it and snipped a few off.

This poppy bloom is a little worse for wear from the several days of rain we've had.

The other rhododendron bushes are done blooming, but this one is still putting on a good show.

The spireas were covered with bumble bees, but I didn't manage to get a picture of one.

The cherries will be ripe soon.

Now onto my exercise report.

Because of Memorial Day, I had more free days this week than usual. However, I'm still happy with my effort. 

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Line Dance: This is a beginner's class, and I did well with all of the dances, except one. That was a new one, and while I got most of the steps, I seemed to turn the wrong way much of the time. Hopefully, I will figure out the right way next time. It was a good aerobic workout.

Friday, May 23, 2025

Free Day: I usually go to Strong and Balanced on Fridays, but skipped today because we had several other things we wanted to get done. I might have been able to work it in, but we had a dead car battery to deal with. However, I did a moderate amount of weeding and raking in the yard for some exercise.

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Free Day: We spent the morning working in the yard before heading to a family party a couple of hours away. By the end of the day, I had over 11,000 steps, so I may have done more yardwork in the morning than I realized. Nothing was too vigorous, but good movement all the same.

Sunday, May 25, 2025

LIIT: This was an intense 45-minute workout with weights, a step, and a mat. I modified when necessary (my knees don't like a lot of jumping) for a draining but good combination of strength and aerobic exercise. 

Monday, May 26, 2025

Free Day: The gym closed early for Memorial Day, so I didn't go there for any classes today. After lunch, I went for a walk with Ward. It was about 1 1/2 miles at a good pace with some hills thrown in. It was not too strenuous, but hopefully, it made a small dent in the brownies that I had not been able to stay away from all day. 

Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Line Dance: It was a good hour session of dancing with a couple of new dances. One of them was more complicated than what we had been doing, and I got most of it. A dance with a little more variety was fun. The class was a good workout, but I wasn't exhausted afterwards. A definite improvement from when I started the class three months ago.

Wednesday, May 28, 2025

Express Sculpt: Although this class was only 30 minutes long, it was intense. I have been feeling better with my exercise lately, as I'm not getting as sore or tired as I used to. But this class was too hard for me. There were lots of lunges of various kinds that really hurt my knees. And some of the exercises, I just couldn't do because I was not strong enough (ones involving push-ups, especially). But I kept moving with my version of the exercises. The rest of the class was filled with fit people who were not struggling. I may try something else for strength training before I try this one again. That's the beauty of the gym we belong to--there is a wide variety of classes to choose from.

Until next time...