Since retirement and more free time, I am focusing on getting more exercise. I give weekly updates here to make myself accountable and see my progress.
This week was full of dancing, and a couple of gym classes were thrown in for strength training. I am continuing to challenge myself, but I seem to spend most of the time with sore muscles. My thoughts fluctuate between maybe I need to scale things back a bit or just keep doing what I'm doing. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will my fitness be.
Friday, March 21:
Strong and Balanced: This is a good class for me, and I am making an effort to get to it. It works at strengthening and stretching all parts of the body. It especially helps strengthen my back and shoulder muscles, which I have problems with. Today's class had two older women (80-something and 90-something.) who were hunched and had difficulty walking. To look at them, you would use the word feeble. However, they were both using heavier weights than I was. The 90-something sat for some of her exercises but has given me something to aspire to.
Ballroom Dancing: Our ballroom dance class had a practice party tonight. We brought refreshments and danced for two hours, practicing what we had learned and trying to remember dances from the past. It was fun and definitely a good workout.
Saturday, March 22:
Free Day: Nothing much happened today, exercise-wise, not even yard work, because it was cold and windy. I was okay with that because I had two good workouts yesterday.
Sunday, March 23:
LIIT (Low impact interval training) This class continues to be the week's biggest challenge. I tried hard to pace myself with lower weights and a slower speed than the instructor, but it still wiped me out. But I went, and I consider that a win.
Monday, March 24:
Ballroom Dance: We reviewed the waltz, learned left turns in the rumba, and added to our samba routine. When we were getting all of the parts of the rumba, it felt good and was fun. I was confused during the new samba parts we "learned" at the end of class, but I will try to practice them. The class got my heart rate up comfortably.
Tuesday, March 25:
Line Dancing continues to be the highlight of the exercise week. I've been going for over a month now, and I am learning some of the dances enough that I can occasionally give them some flair—more than just trying not to bump into anyone. We learned a new dance today, but I couldn't tell you what it was. Hopefully, it will look familiar next week.
Wednesday, March 26
Free Day: The day was full of other commitments, so I didn't do any extra exercise.
Thursday, March 27:
Line Dancing: We went to a new-to-us venue sponsored by the same person we see on Tuesday mornings. It was not close by, but we went to learn some couples' country dancing. We learned El Paso, and it was fun dancing it together. We were there for three hours, and I danced about 1/2 of that time. It was a good aerobic workout; however, by the end, my knee was really hurting. I'm just beginning to understand ways to modify some steps to put less strain on my knees.
Also, I'm starting to tire of these posts, but I will keep doing them for now. I need all the gimmicks I can think of to keep this fitness journey going.
Until next time...
