Wishing you all & your families a very Happy Diwali! May the festival of lights shine health, wealth & prosperity into your lives!
Have you ever had one of those weeks where every workout has been on par? That pretty much sums up my week so far in terms of exercise- I feel like a whole ball of endorphins! It started off with a 5 km run on Monday at the gym which was my first run in about 3 months. Although it was fairly slower than past times, I am proud of myself for running the whole thing without stopping…and actually enjoying myself. The latter came as a surprise, particularly because I stopped running after I got back from London in July- consider it a case of Runner Burnout.
Four factors that contributed to this great run was:
1) Focusing on my breathing: I used the ‘talk test’ to guage my speed i.e. making sure I could carry out a converation without getting out of breath.
2) Taking the pressure off: After taking over 3 months off running, I knew it would seem like a struggle initially. Therefore I didn’t start with any distance or speed goals…I just wanted to run.
3) Eating a proper, carb-heavy breakfast beforehand: As always, oatmeal worked its magic!
4) An upbeat playlist: duh!
I’m looking forward to November when the weather cools down here and I can start running outdoors again. Aside from running, I have been working out with a personal trainer 3 times a week at home, which involves a mix of TRX training, kettlebells & boxing. We often use the staircase for quick bursts of cardio in between exercises. I actually came across my trainer through chance, but he’s definitely a keeper! The rest of my workout week, I try to balance out with weights at the gym & swims.
On another exercise-related note, I went for a talk on Sunday given by Dr. Aashish Contractor, who is Head of Department of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation at the Asian Heart Institute. He’s also been the Medical Director for the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon since 2004. One point that stood out was his reference to exercise as medicine. There’s no doubt that regular exercise can make a positive difference to almost every aspect of our health including lowering the risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, depression, arthritis, Parkinson’s disease…the list is endless.
However like every medicine, there is a risk of overdose and the dangers that come with it. Although it’s easy to carried away with exercise, there’s a fine line between exercising enough & exercising too much. After a certain point, exercise can actually provide more harm to our health than benefit including, but not limited to, hormonal imbalances, knee damage & excess stress on our heart. A few signs to look out for when assessing whether you might be exercising excessively include:
- Poor sleep
- Low energy levels
- Loss of menstrual cycles
- Mental fogginess
- Lack of appetite
- Stagnant progress in workouts
From personal experience, I know that my body works best with 2 rest days a week on average- anything less & I can feel both my motivation to work out & the quality of my workouts start to dwindle. Being Diwali & all, I traded in my workout today for a massage….good call if you ask me ;)!
What workouts have you been doing lately?
How many rest days do you take a week?
Yay congrats on having an ON workout week! Thats the best feeling! I take 2 days off per week, but if I need a 3rd because I haven’t been sleeping or what have you, I’ll take it. And wait lack of appetite a sign of overexercising? When I overexercise I get STARVING. Am I alone on this?
I’m probably in the minority but exercise seems to kill my appetite, at least right after!!
Congrats on having a good run! That’s always an awesome feeling. I don’t really have much of a workout plan right now – I just do what sounds/feels good at the time. Always two days off though!
Intuitive exercise sounds like a great approach to me 🙂
I usually lift 4 days a week and do 1-2 days of dancing/sprints as well, but I try to add the latter to lifting days so I can have more complete rest days. I went for a run on Sunday and lasted all of 15 minutes haha!
I need to start incorporating sprints into my workouts, especially on days I’m running low on time!
Yay for an on-par workout week! So when you say your run started at the gym – did you run through Regents park? I remember walking through that park – and ooh, a run through there would have been heaven!
I hate to admit it, but I am guilty of overexercising – I started trying to focus more on strength training and while I LOVE it – it doesn’t give me the mental break that running does, so I have been trying to squeeze in runs whenever I can and I think am doing too much as my appetite has been way off kilter. Thanks so much for this well timed post Khushboo – I am gonna plan a rest day for Monday. Hope your weekend is wonderful!
Ah I should’ve clarified- sadly that picture of Regents Park was from the summer! My run was fully on the treadmill…in Mumbai! And I know what you mean about running versus strength training- the high from the former is totally different!
Sounds like an awesome run! I always need a great playlist, and definitely taking the pressure off. I’m also motivated by knowing the run won’t last forever. If there is walking in the horizon, I’m much more motivated to keep going!
For sure- mentally allowing yourself to take walking breaks helps so much!
i’ve been holding off on cardio because I need to gain weight, but the right way. i’ve been doing more weights, definitely see a difference. if my workout is super painful, then i wait about 2 days in between, else every other day.
Sounds like you’re being really smart about your approach to gaining weight, Nisha! Have you started to increase your food intake? I wrote this post a while back which might help on increasing calories: http://kthadani.com/2014/08/25/how-to-eat-more-calories/
Do you know what I’ve found to be most surprising? How little exercise I NEED in order to prove beneficial to me and serve to boost my energy levels instead of drag me down. It all depends on how I feel on the daily; mostly walks and stretching. In my case I find when my appetite grows overwhelmingly crazy..its time rest and eat more 🙂 .
Thanks for sharing- really interesting! I truly believe that the minute that exercise stops energising you, something needs to change!
I’ve actually been feeling the rest days lately! I took a few las week and am doing to take 2 this week. It’s been serving me well. 🙂
Yay for rest days :D!
YAAAYY, love this so much. I’m running, walking, spinning, sitting…all of those right now haha.
A spinning centre nearby recently opened up- I’ve been meaning to go!!
As you know, I’ve been running a bit more and continuing with ST workouts. Loving that combo, but you’re right, it’s easy to overdo. I find that 2 rest days a week are perfect for me….sometimes even 3 depending on what I have going on. Rest is definitely underrated!
For sure- rest days are as important to the workouts itself, even if it seems a little too easy!
OMG I ADORE those days where you are done working out and you just say out loud: WOW. That was a GREAT WORK OUT!! 🙂 I wish it could happen EVERY day! LOL!
You and me both…we should find a way to bottle up that feeling and sell it- we’d make a fortune ;)!
I’ve actually had too many rest days lately. Work has kept me so busy I wasn’t making it to the gym very much. I snuck in an occasional run here or there but nothing with regularity. It was actually starting to bum me out and not having that outlet for my stress was causing me to sleep poorly. All that being said, I managed to get my groove on four days out of the last seven. I did a body pump class, a Treadfit and Tabata workout, a Yoga class, and then I went for a good run today. It helped tremendously with my stress and my sleeping this past week. Hooray for exercise. It makes me happy and my jiggly bits less jiggly. 🙂
You go girl with the 4 workouts! Really hoping this week is less stressful…and yay for more sleep :)!
Hi Khushboo
I just started a heavy weight training workout and LOVE IT, alternating with zumba twice a week which I find more enjoyable than running on the treadmill 🙂
Where is the new spinning class ? South Mumbai ? would love to try it out.
Sometimes I wish I had 10 days in a week to cover all the workouts I wanna do, but for now 5 days workout and 2 days rest.
Hi Rukhsana! Your workout sched sounds great. There is a place in Colaba that offers spinning classes!
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