My Health Journey

I have practiced yoga on and off for decades, having participated in classes and also on my own with the aid of books. When I started running, I wanted to continue my yoga practice, but in a way that is complementary to the running. I found this book called Yoga for Runners, by Christine Felstead to be really helpful. Like other yoga books, it illustrates many yoga poses. However this books goes beyond many yoga books I have seen in several useful ways: It is organized by muscle group. Each chapter opens with a section illustrating and discussing the different muscles and their relation to running, followed by yoga exercises aimed at strengthening and stretching those muscles. The book indicates the exact benefits of each pose. The section on "Restorative Yoga" teaches a number of poses where the body is supported to allow for deeper relaxation. I use some of these after a race or a particularly hard workout to reset my body. It has two tables on injuries: one ...

Exercise calendar I made using an excel Template To keep track of my workouts and help me vary it up, I use a monthly exercise calendar I customized using the Excel templates at Vertex42.com . Typically I rotate between three types of activity, like running, weights, and yoga. The calendar helps me sequence them to ensure I have enough days of rest or active recovery. If I am training for a race, I weave my selected training schedule into the calendar. I can then check completed workouts, enter notes about my time, etc. For more detailed notes, I recommend keeping a dedicated exercise journal. A good example I have been using is the  getfitbook .

Apart from a few nice walks at sunset, the heat wave kept me indoors for most of the last ten days. I managed to do three weight sessions: Monday, Friday, and Labor Day Monday. I have been battling injuries on the left side of my body. Through yoga and foam rolling, as well as a couple of chiropractor adjustments, I managed to eliminate that pain by the beginning of the weekend. I had been using mostly 5 and 10 lb. dumbbells to reintroduce my body to weight training gradually.  Friday's session felt easy I decided to upgrade the weights to 12.5 lb. for the Monday session (keeping the left arm at 10 lb. for some exercises to give it more time to heal). In retrospect, that was a mistake, as I had spent an active and vigorous weekend with my girlfriend. We exercised both in and out of bed. She left me exhausted on Monday, and I should have rested instead of immediately doing weight training. By Tuesday morning, I woke up with serious pain on my entire right arm, from the ...

I wrote about the importance of planning new and different routes to break the monotony of outdoor exercise. Especially when following a running program that assigns runs of certain distances, it's useful to know the length of each possible route. There are a number of ways to do that. First is past experience. If you travel this path once, with the aid of a pedometer, gps watch, fitbit, or smartphone you can tell or estimate its length. When I first started walking, I only had my Omron pedometer. It was nice because it counted my steps all the time, not only when I worked out. To estimate distance, I measured how many steps it took for me to walk or run a known distance. After repeating on several occasions, I'd have an idea of how many steps it took me to cover a mile, and use that to measure future walks / runs. It's not so accurate, but it works and is relatively inexpensive. After losing my pedometer, my girlfriend got me a Fitbit. The Fitbit has the featu...

To help me start my weight training, I got several books on using dumbbells. The one I ended up using most is Dumbbell Training for Strength and Fitness, by Brzycki and Fornicola. It is aimed at the beginner starting with a home gym. The exercises in there are basic but cover all the muscle groups. I like the clear description of each exercise, and the indications on whether to skip it or how to adapt it in case of injury. The last part of the book is a collection of dumbbell workouts submitted by different coaches. It was fun to work through some of them and helps break monotony. The book has a good introductory section about safety practices and general advice. I still refer to it for reminders of the proper form for each exercise, and occasionally for new exercises to do. Overall, if you're a beginner to dumbbells, this is the book! The other popular book, Dumbbell Training, by Allen Hendrick, was useful for finding additional exercises. However, and I attac...

Tofu Kebab, one of my culinary creations After starting exercise with weights, I worried about the adequacy of my nutrition. I am a lifelong vegetarian, and though I have lived healthy for decades on a vegetarian diet, I wasn't sure I was getting enough protein to build muscles. I got a few books on vegetarian nutrition. One was too technical and tedious, another a marketing ploy for nutritional products. Ultimately, however, one book really changed my life. No Meat Athlete by Matt Frazier was a curious but interesting and most practically useful guide. Half the book was about down to earth vegetarian nutritional advice, the other half about running. This is the book that got me started running, at age 41. I learned that my biggest concern with a vegetarian diet was not protein, but the dependence on processed food. I followed the book's advice and switched my diet nearly completely to whole foods, while eliminating much junk food. I ended up cooking more myse...

My old cumbersome dumbbells A few years ago, I reached a point in my walking where I was no longer making progress. I was walking at least an hour each day on outdoor trails. My weight loss reached a plateau. I realized that all the walking strengthened me to the point where an hour walk is no breeze, and my recent weight loss meant it was taking less effort to walk. I tried extending my walks, or taking two daily hour walks. It was nice to spend all that time outdoors, but with work, my daughter, housework, and other things, it became difficult to find that kind of time. My PowerBlock Dumbbells To boost my development, I decided to go back to weight training, something I had done briefly as a teenager, and then again in college. However I did not like gyms. The thought of getting into the car to go to a gym, to exercise in front of other people no less, robs me of half the motivation to work out. If only I had a set of weights at home, I thought, then I'd have no e...

my jogging stroller One of the earliest challenges I faced was integrating my exercise with my single-parent life. I had separated from my marriage when my daughter was only three years old, retaining shared custody. On my custody days, the child demanded much attention. She could not be left alone, so I was unable to do any early morning outdoor activities. Enter the jogging stroller. Upon a friend's advice, I purchased it a month after my separation. For less than $100, I bought my freedom to exercise outdoors anytime I wanted. The Baby Trend Expedition stroller I got was fairly sturdy. It supported my child until she was five years of age, and weighed 50 lb., as advertised. It also has two cup-holders for each of us and a phone / wipes compartment, along with storage at bottom. We kept it in good shape, so I sold it on Craigslist after for $35.                             I started with walking. I...

My bedroom workout setup. Injuries are a fact of an active life. Whether from accidents, poor posture, repetitive use, or exerting oneself too much, injuries get in the way of further exercise, leaving muscles weaker and withering away. Most of the last two years I have spent battling injuries. This led me to re-evaluate my approach. Rather than focus on running speed or weights lifted, I need to understand my body better and build around it. Something I am just realizing is that the workouts and routines you find in books are usually aimed at neutral people who are in reasonable shape and mechanically balanced. The same routines may not necessarily work for you if you are starting from a baseline of injury and imbalance. Instead, they need to be customized to fit your needs and your body, which requires first knowing your body. Last week I did a tour of my body with fairly light 15 lb. dumbbells. I felt much soreness in my neck, upper left arm, left hip and lower back, and right...