Do I Try? Tri-ceps

The triceps are found on the back part of the upper arm. They aren’t the fancy biceps that bulge so nice in the pose for those he-man pictures. So what are they used for? Well, a few things. Some of them are things you probably do. Things like pushing open a door or a shopping cart, perhaps pushing a lawnmower or a baby stroller. They help with lifting things like groceries or small children. They are activated when reaching for something on a high shelf or putting it back up there. The big one is getting up off the floor or even pushing yourself out of bed or up from a chair. They are activated when reaching for a seat belt or anything in the back seat of the car. And they are used for such things a combing your hair or brushing your teeth. So if you do any of these things – triceps are important.

Working on the triceps muscles also involves shoulder mobility. Having a full ROM of the shoulder is quite helpful when engaging in many of the above movements. It is easier to reach high shelves if you have a mobile shoulder. That is the ideal. We, however, live in reality. If you have been sedentary for a long time, you have probably come up with some immobility issues along the way. Our bodies really do either use it or lose it. So if you haven’t actually worked toward mobility and flexibility over time, it has decreased. It hasn’t disappeared. We always have “yet” to work with.

Options for a seated triceps press are: weighted or isometric (without weight). The weight can be a dumbbell or band. If you are using a band, stand on the end that is on the floor so the band is held stable, sit on it (you can put a towel over it if you are worried about it moving, and have enough slack at the top for the full ROM movement. The greater the slack, the easier the pull, with less slack creating a heavier pull. If you are using a DB, it is held by the head like a precious goblet. If you are doing it isometrically, you can tent or weave your fingers together to stabilize your arms. If that is not available, you can raise your arms straight up without bringing the hands together. The arms are raised high and then bent at the elbows so that your fingertips are reaching for the back of your head. And then raise and repeat. You can also just raise your arms as high as you can and bend the arms up and reach backward.

Today’s workout:
2-3 times
5-8 triceps presses
5-8 heel to toe steps forward (baby steps) *
5-8 heel to toe steps backward (baby steps) *
rest as needed
* if you are at all unstable with these, do them next to a counter top or wall so you can brace yourself if needed

When doing the baby steps, don’t watch your feet if you can help it. Look outward at eye level at something in the distance.

The glory of a workout comes with knowing you did the hard thing. You didn’t just think about it. You did it. Scaled or not, graceful or not, it doesn’t matter. What matters is you are doing the hard things. That is where the joy comes in. There was a struggle and you overcame it – and dopamine kicks in and you feel joy or happiness or accomplishment. That is the thrill of victory.


Stay balanced.
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A Call to Arms

Being flexible is more than being able to cope with a change in plans. It is also being able to move through your life with fewer limitations.

I’ve been doing yoga for almost as long as I’ve been doing CrossFit. Thanks Cindy. There are many different kinds of yoga and I’ve taken many different types of classes for this particular discipline. I’ve done chair yoga and yoga for seniors but in my heart of hearts I prefer yin yoga, holding poses for minutes at time. All of them have benefits for a more flexible body under your precise control. These are stretches come from yoga.

We don’t really think much about our body movements until we try to do something that used to come naturally and find we can no longer just blithely do it. So today, I want to move through some arm movements.

Hold your left arm straight out in front of you at shoulder height with your palm up. Now take you right hand and gently pull your left hand downward. Then bend your left hand upward so your palm is facing your face and pull your whole hand forward, not just the fingers. Repeat with the other arm. When your hand is pulled downward, you should feel a gently stretching of the muscles along the inside or top of your arm. When up pull your hand toward your face, you should feel the pull on the outside or bottom or your arm.

Holding the arms at shoulder height for an extended time will also be an adventure. They get tired up there, but we can do hard things. Another thing we seldom think about is our grip strength – until we try to open a bottle or something. Clenching your fist tightly (without digging your nails into your palms) and then releasing and splaying your fingers wide not only involves your hands, but your forearms as well. You might feel different parts of your forearm activating with the clench part and the splayed part.

To work on coordination, rapidly touch each finger to your thumb. You can start pointer to pinkie finger or the other way or even go back and forth. Go as fast as you can maintain the touch for each finger.

The video is probably far more helpful for this one than my trying to explain it with words.

Today’s workout:
2-3 times
extend left arm with palm up, use right had to move hand down for 10 seconds, then up for ten second
extend right arm with palm up, use left had to move hand down for 10 seconds, then up for ten second
keep arms extended, palms down facing down and then lift hands
8 clench and stretch both hands
8 finger touches to thumb both hand
8 jumping jacks (jumping, step out, or seated)

Have fun and
Stay balanced.

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Step Right Up

Here’s another bit of risky business. Today we will work with step ups. This entails stepping up on a raised platform or riser. It can be done on a staircase as well as with the fancy box stuff. It can also be done on lower rises. What needs to be considered no matter what you are using is not falling over. If you are on a staircase, you will have walls on either side with which you can balance yourself if you need it. If you are using something else, make sure you are either stable enough or near some object you can use to balance yourself if you get wobbly – such as a counter or wall.

When stepping up, the leg that is placed first will do the pulling up while the leg that remains on the floor at first will do the pushing up part. This means you want to switch legs to work both sides equally. Fun fact: if you always lead with the same leg, and if you do enough of these for one workout, one half of your butt hurts. It is an astounding feeling that I do not recommend. Switching legs means your glutes and quads work half the time and your calf works half the time.

If this is not available to you yet, you can do toe taps where you take your “lead foot” and tap the top of the stair/platform/dictionary/other book – whatever you are using to have a bit of a platform (those last things are NOT recommended for actually stepping on). You want something at least an inch high and up to as high as you are brave enough to do. After tapping the top, put your foot back on the floor and reset your balance. Always have something available with which to balance yourself it you need it. If you don’t need it – great. But if you do, you need it now. So have it available.

The entire movement should be made with you standing tall, chest up. You don’t really need to watch your feet. They are going to go where you move them. You do want to make sure your are clearing the height of your platform.

If you are using a stair or step, the goal is to bring one foot up, the other to meet it, and stand tall when both feet are together on the platform. You then use the same foot you started with to step backwards and back down to the ground. So if you put your right foot up first you will be pulling with the right leg, pushing off with your left foot that will then meet you on the platform. Rise until you are standing tall. Then step the right foot back down to the floor and follow with the left leg. TL;DR – right, left, right, left.

These are not just for strength and balance work, but they are actually cardio as well. They do take skill and power. Use walls, counters, or whatever is available to help with all three of those tasks as needed.

Today’s workout:
2-3 sets
3-5 step ups (or toe taps) with right foot first
3-5 step ups (or toe taps) with left foot first
5-7 bilateral DB curls with or without weights
rest as needed

Step ups are the goal, toe taps are the step to step ups. I watch a health YouTube channel out of Canada. Two doctors talk about all things health related. It’s called Talking with Docs. At the end of each video, Dr. Paul Zalzal says, “Remember, you are in charge of your own health.” He’s correct. You are the person to choose which scaling option, what the amount you want to do is going to be, and how much fun you have doing it. Workouts should be challenging without being dangerous. They should be fun and not daunting. They should make your proud of yourself when you finish. The workout I write is a guide, not a commandment. And I want you to be amazed at yourself when you are done.

Stay balanced.

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Thinking About Health and Fitness

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m interested in health and fitness. I mean, really? Of course I am. It was my first and main career. It has been my avocation even longer than it was my vocation. So I think about it but I also read, listen, and seek out other advice on the topic.

I found this quote, from a promotional piece of stuff, but still. I love the quote. I’m not quite certain who wrote it. But here it is.

Do one hard thing every day to prove you’re still alive.

We are over stressed because we are under challenged. The email isn’t a saber tooth tiger. The phone call isn’t a lion. The small daily irritations are not a pack of jackals. Our system evolved for a different environment than the one we have presently created.

A million or two years ago, as humanoids first started roaming around, the dangers were quite different. The flight or fight instinct was rarely triggered, but when it was, you better know if you were alone and prey or with your group and predator. Either way, the adrenaline flooding your system would help you survive the encounter. Damn, it wasn’t a lion, it was something innocuous. Or it was a lion, but your group vanquished the threat. Either way, you were safe. The adrenaline and cortisol could dissipate and you returned to homeostasis.

Today, the little pings just keep coming. There are minor issues that in our stressed lives feel like nearly insurmountable problems but are really notifications, emails, phone calls, traffic. We don’t face lions and tigers and bears, oh my. We are being pecked to death by ducks and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and stop on the way home and go through the drive-through at Starbucks for a coffee. This is not the same as hoping to find food and water to live another day while competing with predators that looked at you as the menu.

I’ve made dinner thousands of time. I know how. I know the shortcuts. I know what works.
I’ve been driving for decades. I know how. I know what works.
I’ve been living my life for what I believe might be eons now and I have my routines, my patterns, my usual go-to things. I do this and that even though there a millions of other thises and thats I could be doing because my routine is what I always do.

The videos I’ve been making are totally outside my comfort zone. I’ve joined Toastmasters and that is completely out there for me. I joined a Senior Center and meet with other crocheters or knitters once a week. I’ve been making strides into the unknown.

Is it stressful? Oh my, yes! Is it fun? Sometimes. Those first couple videos were terrorizing which is stupid. I was not being attacked by anything other than my own insecurities. The last one was only slightly scary. They scare me, but I’m doing them anyway.

I am going to be participating in a leadership role for Toastmasters this week. I’m as prepared as I can be and nervous as hell anyway. But I’m on paper as doing this, so I will strive forth with prepared paper in hand as a sword with which I will slay the dragon – the fear.

Pick something new to do or try each day. It doesn’t have to be monumental. Read the hard book even if it takes a long time. Learn a new craft/skill and be bad at something entirely new. Go to a different grocery store where you don’t know where anything is and try to complete a shopping list without crying.

Shake up your routined, regulated, normal world. Search for something on the internet you aren’t familiar with. Find out about it and then see how you can learn from the experience.

Something I thought I might do before I picked up three new challenges for the price of one, was read the featured article from Wikipedia each day. I still may try it when what I’m doing now becomes more routine. Google has an “I’m feeling lucky” option that isn’t just luck. There are many different things you can feel. Try it. You might like it.

New is hard. Routine is lethal. Choose carefully.
Stay balanced.

The Thrill of Victory

Not the agony of defeat. I want you to succeed. I was quite nervous about posting today’s video because I know it is difficult, challenging, and can be daunting. I want you to be challenged, but I also want you to be successful.

I am trying to keep these videos short and sweet. Okay, at least, short. That means I have so much more to say, but don’t want to take the time in the video to say it. That is the reason I’m also posting blogs about the videos.

Here’s the thing, there are more ways to scale things. If there aren’t any ways to scale it, to make it more accessible, there are always substitute movements that can be used.

If I’m using weight, isometric options exist. If I’m doing some crazy movement that doesn’t work with your current status, joints, back issues, confidence level, etc. then I can help with coming up with something else instead.

If you would like some other options or ideas, send me a DM and I will come up with some way for you to succeed. I may also put out a second blog with options for successful workouts included. Something like this. They will be titled The Thrill of Victory.

If you are not comfortable with being on the floor and would like a substitute for a sit-up, try this. Sit on a hard-bottomed chair with a back (like a dining room chair). Sit with your butt all the way on the chair and your back leaning against the back or the chair and then pick your knees up towards your chest lifting your feet off the floor. If that is still not available yet (so new goal: get to this point) you can do this with a chair with arms or hold on to the edge of the table for support while lifting your legs. You can also do one leg at a time alternating legs.

See? There are ways. There are so many ways. You can. I will help strategize with you so you can see the thrill of victory because you deserve it. You are working hard. Your hard and my hard and some super-duper 20-year-old’s hard are all different and each needs to be honored. We are at this place at this time. It is from here that we can move forward.

Now, to the dang planks. Unless you would prefer another modifier before planks. Insert that now. Stand at your kitchen counter or at a flat wall. Don’t use a door, those things move. Stand a couple feet away from your solid surface, place your hands on the edge of the counter, or flat on the wall at shoulder height, and then lean into your hands. And then, if needed, inch your feet back until you are in a plank position, body in a straight line from feet to shoulders. Start the time count at this point. Then walk your feet back in when you have gotten the time cap.

The magic happens with consistent practice. It all takes time. Even those super-duper kids improve with time. Keep going and amazingly enough, you get there – wherever “there” may be.

Stay balanced.

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Get Down

There are times when being on the floor in the place to be. Today is that time.

There are many ways to build core strength. One familiar way is through sit-ups. There is a video out in the world with 50 different types of sit-ups. I’m only going to talk about one.

Having your arms move with your torso, assists with leverage and getting your body to rise. This is quite helpful. Having some lumbar support may be helpful as well. This can be done by having a rolled towel under your lower back or using something called an ABMAT which is a little pad that is certainly not necessary to have. You can have your feet anchored or unanchored. To anchor your feet, you can place them under the edge of a couch/sofa or chair. You can have a partner hold your feet, as well.

As you come up, the ideal is to “break plane” or bring your shoulders forward enough to pass your hips. This can be seen as you touch your knees, ankles, or even the floor in front of you.

A plank is another standard floor movement. While on your forearms or resting on your splayed hands that are slightly rotated outward, you lift your prone body up, held rigidly in a straight line from heels to shoulders. I find it more difficult to use my forearms, but some people swear by it. This move also entails tightening the core to hold the body rigid, thereby strengthening the core muscles.

The variation for a plank would be to not be perfectly straight. You can hike your butt up into the air a bit, if needed. This would be more of a pike or downward dog pose. It is still working your strength and your core.

Today’s workout:
3-4 sets
3-5 sit-ups
5-10 second plank hold
rest as needed

Use a real timer and don’t just try to count off those seconds in your head. Your phone’s timer will work fine.

This is a more challenging workout. That’s because there is a certain satisfaction or even joy in achieving something challenging. Joy and satisfaction aren’t just hanging around floating in the air. They come from knowing that a struggle happened and you won.

When I first started CrossFit, all the much younger people were doing so much more than me and I was sure they were not struggling as I was. They were young. They were fit. They were capable. Then … a superior athlete made it to the final playoff round at the I CAN Games. She had to complete a certain number of double unders in a row. This is a jump rope move where the rope goes under your feet twice each time you jump up. She struggled and she struggled. Whatever the number was, she couldn’t get there. She was in the finals. She was one of the best at the meet. She never did get them. Time ran out. She never gave up. She tried again and again. The struggle was more than real. I hope she was as amazed at her performance as I was. She was, in my opinion, the greatest athlete there. She never quit. I remember her all these years later. I don’t know who won the event.

As you struggle with certain moves, remember you are winning by the struggle. You are the champion of your life. You are a rock star.

Stay Balanced.

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Staying Balanced

As we age, things change. Some things actually get better. Other things, not so much. Balance is one of the things that can slowly ebb away. Keeping is always easier than regaining. But time has been marching on for billions of years now and that’s hard to ignore.

Some of the reasons we have difficulty maintaining our balance as we age:

Vestibular or inner ear changes. Your inner ear is delicately designed with three different tubules that are lined with teeny tiny hairs. The hairs are attached to nerves that send signals to your brain letting you know if you are upright, horizontal, or leaning in any direction. And with age, both the number of hairs and the nerves diminish. This makes balancing more of a challenge, but it can be overcome.

Proprioception, or where your body is in three dimensional space is also affected by aging. You have sensors throughout your muscles, tendons, and ligaments that send messages to your brain about where in the world you are. These decrease with age. Poor Carmen Sandiego.

Vision also changes with age and our ability to see in darker environments is especially affected. Limited visual cues affect our balance.

Musculoskeletal changes also inhibit your ability to stay upright. This is where we have been concentrating our efforts to date. Strengthening your core helps to manage everything else. Having strong legs will naturally keep you able to stand up better. Working on strength training is important. While non-resistance (no extra weights) exercises such as walking are good for you, adding resistance or weight training is even better.

Neurological changes can also inhibit reaction times. In earlier days, if you started to fall or trip, you had faster reaction times in which to catch yourself before tumbling over. There are little mind games to play that help with this and we can discuss them at a later date.

Today’s project is to work on overall balancing by bringing many of these various factors together. There are three separate movements we will be working on.

First, make sure you have support available. If you start to wobble, there needs to be a way to catch yourself before you fall over. Standing next to a kitchen counter would work well. You won’t need a death grip, but a soft touch might be quite helpful.

We will start with heel to toe standing. One leg is in front of the other and your eyes should be focused off in the distance. We are not spending this time marveling at our awesome shoes. After accumulating 20 seconds, switch the lead foot and repeat.

The next task is to stand on one foot. Again, keep your eyes focused on some point in the distance at about eye level or simply watch your timer but don’t watch your feet. You may need to touch the wall, counter top, or whatever you are using as a balancing adjunct. You may even need to put your foot down. Both are fine. Accumulate 15 seconds and then switch feet and repeat.

The last task is to play Mother May I from our childhoods and take 8 baby steps. Again, eyes up and focused on some distant point, and heel to toe steps forward and then 8 baby steps backwards. This may be quite wobbly so if you have that PVC pipe handy, you can use it as a cane or support if you need it. You can also walk close to your kitchen counter.

When I talk about accumulating time in a pose I’m saying that if you stand for 7 seconds and then touch or put your foot down, you have 13 seconds to go. You don’t start from the beginning again. So any combination that equals 20 seconds is the goal. Use the timer on your phone and really measure the time. So, 7+8+5 will equal 20 and that’s the goal. Eventually, you will (with practice) get to 20 consecutive seconds. But we start where we are.

Today’s workout:
2-3x
Accumulate 20 second in a heel to toe stand with right foot in front
Accumulate 20 second in a heel to toe stand with left foot in front
Accumulate 15 seconds of standing on right foot
Accumulate 15 seconds of standing on left foot
8 baby steps forward
8 baby steps backward
Rest as needed

I found these progressive steps for balance a couple years ago and have been working on this steadily. When I began I was wobbling all over the place. With practice I have gotten much more stable and confident in my ability to stand upright. My wobble is much less and I can compensate for it more easily. As a side effect, you will find that when your balance becomes less precarious, your walking stride will become stronger and less like the old person shuffle that can creep up on you if you don’t work to hold it at bay.

Stay balanced.

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It’s Hammer Time

Jumping jacks are a great cardio exercise. They also entail full body ROM. They are able to be done in a contained space, unlike running which needs abundant room. Before I tell you about scaling options I want to have a bit of a philosophical moment.

“I can’t” is defeated and sad. “Not available to me – yet” is promising and hopeful. Things that are not available to you – yet, can or will become available later when and if you keep practicing. There is no magic to this. It is simply consistency over time. With that consistent effort, you build strength, balance, and most importantly – confidence. You can do more than you think you can even now, but so much more will become available to you later. Please don’t say “I can’t” because you are better than that.

If jumping jacks are not available to you at this time, they can be done by standing in place and moving your arms as in a standard jumping jack but only stepping sideways first with one leg and on the next rep, use the other leg. If your balance is such that you are not confident (yet) with this movement, you can do them seated. There are always scaling options.

We did curls last week, but this week I would like to introduce another sort of curl. Hammer curls activate different muscles. With the palms facing up, the biceps is targeted. But with hammer curls the palms face each other or inward and this activates a larger muscle in the upper arm and also a muscle in the lower arm. That makes these “easier” or at least different.

Like the curls from last week, they can be done with or without weights and either standing or sitting. If using a weight, use a dumbbell or DB substitute, such as the cans. If you could do a curl with a can of tomato paste, you can do a hammer curl with a can of soup or even a can of vegetables. I use a metal water bottle and filled to it’s capacity, it weighs in at 1.6 pounds. This type of weight is also possible.

The movement for hammer curls should be smooth with control of the arm both up and back to the resting position, fully relaxed next to your thigh/hip. Control should be maintained for the entire movement and not just lifting and then flop back down. Keep the muscles engaged throughout.

As always we start every workout standing tall, chest up, shoulders back while keeping the core engaged to avoid swaying like a balloon in a stiff breeze. We are working for stability.

Today’s workout:
2-3 sets
10 jumping jacks
5 hammer curls per arm (all on the left and then all on the right)
rest as needed

Remember to have as much fun as you can. What is not available to you today will become available with consistent practice. You will amaze yourself as you keep moving forward. The pace is slow at the beginning, but as you move into this regimen, it picks up more quickly. And then – you can do the things! And that is simply awesome.

Stay balanced.

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She’s Got Legs – ZZ Top

We know if we are right- or left-handed. The one hand can do remarkable things and the other hand is just pathetic. It is helping me type right now, but that’s about the entire skill set. I can’t even eat soup with the wrong hand. It does nicely hold my coffee while I do other things with my “good” hand.

We also have a dominant leg/foot. One side of your lower body is doing more of the heavy lifting than the other. A way to test which is your dominant leg is to stand on one leg at a time (while being close to something you can grab onto when you start to wobble all over the place) and see which leg can support you for a longer, more stable time. That is your dominant leg. Do several tests for a better gauge.

I am right-handed, but my left leg is much stronger than my right. There are so many things that prove this as I move through the gym. You have one leg stronger, too, and it will help you to know which one it is. So take some time and do the test and figure it out.

Today’s workout:
2-3 sets
lay down on your back, roll to the right until you are on your stomach, stand up
lay down on your back, roll to the left until you are on your stomach, stand up
5 bilateral (both arms at the same time) curls with or without weight (DB)
rest as needed, fully recover between sets

There are several different ways to get up off the floor – IF you can get up off the floor. This is something we used to do without even thinking, no considering, no strategy needed. We just got up. If you can still just get up – hooray. If you need help getting up, plan for that before you get down on the ground.

I have been doing these crazy workouts for over 13 years and I strategize before each and every single one. If you are going to need help getting up off the floor, get it ready and available before you begin. If you are uncertain if you will need help getting up, get help ready and available before you begin. If you don’t need it, great. If you do, thank goodness it’s available.

If you are needing a chair to help push yourself up from the ground, make sure that chair is stable. If you are pushing on the chair and it skitters away, you will lose your balance and fall. This is the exact opposite of the goal. So make sure the chair or whatever booster you are using is non-skid or wedged against an immovable object.

When we were looking for the stronger leg above, this was also part of our strategy. If you are rising, one leg at a time, you want your weaker leg to do the pushing while your stronger leg is doing the lifting. For me, when rising from a lunge position, I push off with my right (weaker) foot (toes curled under and pushing to rise) and do the heavy standing part with my left (stronger) leg. I can do it the other way, but I am far less stable. Begin with the best chance of a good outcome.

Coach Craig (aka Firefighter Craig) writes our workouts. At least 95% of them have us, at some point during the workout, on the ground and getting back up. Why? Because it is that important. As we age, we lose the ability to move when we don’t make the opportunity to do the movement. Not falling is extremely important to your future good health. But there are just times when, whoops, stuff happens. Being able to get back up means you are off the floor quicker than if you have to wait for Fire and Rescue to come and get you. It also means you are one badass, able to do the hard things. So that’s fun.

Have as much fun as you can and
Stay balanced.

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Dummy!

There are a few different types of dumbbell (DB) curls. Standard curls are holding the DB in a relaxed grip with your palms facing away from your body. Then move it upward in a smooth arc toward the shoulder on the same side. Then lower the DB back to the relaxed and resting position. This movement is for the arms and your body shouldn’t be swaying with the DB.

It is also possible to do this with no weights at all. The position and movement is the same. Hands open and bring them up to the shoulder and at the top of the movement, squeeze the muscles in your upper arm. Like you would do if you showing off the muscles that will start developing when you continue your practice.

They can be done from a standing position (stand tall, tuck your butt, chest up, shoulders squared) or from a seated position (again with chest up, straightened back, and squared shoulders). If you find yourself swaying in the standing position you can lower the weight so you don’t need to engage your torso in the movement, or sit down on a seat without arms.

That’s a basic curl but there are many different things you can do with this basic movement and some will be discussed at a later time.

If you don’t have any DBs handy, you can do this with cans. You can fill or partially fill a plastic gallon water or milk container. There are some options. I’ve tried multiple cans in a plastic bag with less than stellar results.

If you are looking at buying some DBs I have some suggestions. They come coated with rubber, vinyl, or neoprene. These have some advantages. They protect surfaces and have a good grip. The metal ones come with a smooth or roughened grip. Each has an advantage – the smooth doesn’t scratch up your hands if you have delicate skin and the roughened grip lessens slip. The head, or weight part, of a DB can be round or hexagonal. I have no idea what the advantage of the round head is. I would highly suggest you get a hex head because there are things to do with a DB that include not rolling around as you use it.

I also own some plastic filled with what I assume is sand DBs.

A DB weight can range from 1 pound to ludicrously heavy. If you are wanting to buy some equipment, I would recommend you try stuff out in person. Walmart or Dick’s Sporting Goods have lots of equipment on the shelves where you can try out different weights. You don’t want to purchase something so light it is meaningless but you also don’t want something so heavy you can use it – yet.

Yet – that is both wonderful and less than wonderful. If you persist, you get better. And then you want bigger weights to work with. Each workout should begin with a warm-up session to get your body ready to do hard things. Once you have gotten stronger, you can always use your lighter weights as part of your warm-up routine.

If you have access to a gym though a program such as Silver Sneakers or Renew Active, where gym memberships are paid for by insurance companies (and they do this because we are cheaper when we are healthy, not for altruism), you can go there and use their equipment without having to buy anything. Many insurance companies offer this perk. This is available to people over the age of 65 and for some with disabilities. It is something to look into if you are interested in having access to a full range of equipment.

Crunch Fitness has a basic membership for $10 a month while Planet Fitness starts at $15. Your local YMCA may also have a program you would find helpful. Having said that – do NOT sign up for any membership that costs money until you find out if you really enjoy the struggle and will use whatever you buy. The benefits are there only if you actually use it.

As always, the key is to
Stay balanced.

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