About 3 weeks ago I realized something funny, I say funny but I really mean disappointing. Lol. Ife was upstairs in his studio and I was trying to make a decision on something. I would change it downstairs then jog upstairs to show him. By the 3rd time I had to go upstairs, I was panting! Unconsciously, I found myself walking into the bedroom, landing on the bed with the TV control and completely ignoring what I had started. Lol. I have been on my fitness journey for 8 months now and yup I look and feel so much better. I understand how my body works, I am rarely surprised by it any more, I am stronger, have so much more definition and on and on and on. So why can’t I run upstairs?!?!
In the beginning I was working out outside a lot- walking, jogging and very little running and I knew my stamina was building up nicely. The stairs were not a problem. The weather changed on me and got too cold and I just couldn’t deal. I kept up with my strength training workouts at home but I wasn’t getting any cardio in. At the same time, I was seeing my personal trainer and soon enough the gym became this place I was hiding from. 5 months in, I felt like I was paying someone to force me to be there and it so quickly became stress that I just stopped going.
So when 3 weeks ago happened, I knew I needed more cardio. I thought about working out outside again but I knew I would be more efficient at the gym. I knew I wanted to build my stamina and allow my heart to be more efficient. See, when your heart beats “boom boom”, it is pushing blood through the body. Building your stamina is training your heart to beat more efficiently, so that each beat pushes even more blood through your system. That way it takes longer for you to reach the panting stage where your heart is struggling to keep up. Make sense?
So I started going to the gym again but with no pressure from anyone. There were really 2 main reasons. Cardio and to use some tools I don’t have at home in strength training- Physioball, ball weights, sliders… You know, fun stuff that make my exercises more challenging and for cardio- the stair master became my friend.
This morning I remembered my fitness professor say “if you want to learn to run fast, just run fast” so I got dressed and hit the streets. It was a very eventful run. I could definitely see the improvement from 3 weeks of cardio on the Stairmaster. I was doing great the first half of the run. Then I got lost in the neighborhood, got bored out of my mind and was just looking forward to finding my house. Lol. Pretty adventurous first run. I’m sure I’ll do another check in soon.
Getting fit can be such a fun process as you learn and bond with your body. It’s not that you don’t make mistakes or bad decisions (like I did this weekend…story for another day.lol) but you just get it. You are not surprised, it makes sense and noone can tell you some smack about what you should be doing. Trust me; it’s so much easier when you know why you are doing stuff. Want to start your journey but don’t know how to? Let’s talk! Let’s do this!!
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Moren I find that cardio is something I need to work more on also. I use a treadmill once in a while, but it gives me a false sense of real running, because once I hit the pavement, I tend to struggle more. {a bit more difficult}
Hello Lynda, thanks for visiting Makkoy 😀 I must agree that running outside is definitetly more challenging and that was why I used it to guage how well I was doing. But the nice thing is that even on the treadmill, you are training your heart; so if you get better on the treadmill, you will definitely get better outside too:)