Any recommendations for said stretch routine. I’m 42 and need to add this to my routine
This month has sucked for my workouts. Between focusing on a class I was finishing, getting sick (a week now), and friends visiting I have lost all sense of routine. Two Vacations coming up will not help either. I am definitely going to try to be doing bodyweight stuff while travelling. Considering I can’t do a pushup yet, there’s plenty of gains to be made there. I got tons of bodyweight torture such as burpees I can do while on the road.
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YouTube is your friend here. A zillion basic yoga/stretching routine videos to get you started.
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I would start with your problem areas. Where is your mobility getting in the way?
Stretching for a purpose is a lot easier to maintain than stretching just for the sake of it.
For me it’s
Post 40 no matter what kind of mobility or stretching I do I feel a hundred thousand million billion times better. My routines are more seasonal than focused. In the summer I run a lot so will do some extra stretching/mobility for calves and quads because those tend to get all gummed up by running. In the winter I do more heavy barbell training so I will do extra stretching/mobility for things that support that, for example more hip mobility for good squats and lots and lots of shoulder mobility so I don’t mess up my shoulders (again) doing bench press and OH press.
Skip to 2:20 for my worst nightmare
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When I just need to move around, I also stack together a bunch of repetitions of the same Tai Chi kata I learned like twenty years ago when I was a teenager. Only eight movements but you can do a lot with those if you shift your bodyweight and positioning each time, or if you make each movement tediously stiff and slow for some body control practice.
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For hip stuff I’ve been doing hip airplanes. They have been a game changer for my brain being aware of what’s going on as I move.
I just had a gnarly back spasm on my walk. I wasn’t sure if I should take an Uber home or keep walking. But I managed to walk home which I think was better than sitting right away. I’ve got a heat bad on it now.
I think it’s because I did cable rows yesterday for the first time in a long time. I seriously cannot do any new exercise without going very light one week, then medium, then heavy the third week.
I had been doing dumbbell rows, which is basically the same exercise. But nope, any little difference in movement and I need to start at the beginning.
This is why I don’t mix up my exercises much. At my age it just seems to cause problems.
I spent about a week in Singapore and I was stunned at how many people were jogging outside - I found the heat and humidity to be unbearable. I was very surprised and interested to see that my hotel had a Woodway treadmill, which is something that I have read a lot about but never tried:
This is a manual treadmill, which means that you kind of just step on, start walking/running and it’s powered entirely by your own effort. Like running on ball bearings, I guess? It’s supposed to give instantaneous changes in speed (because you don’t have to wait for any motor to change speed), and is supposed to be far easier on your joints. It’s also crazy expensive - $6k for this model.
Anyway, I tried it and lasted for about 2 minutes. It felt completely unnatural and I had no idea what I was doing, and was pretty sure that I would fall off if I stayed on any longer. I’m still curious about how it would feel if I ever adjusted to it, but I’m confident that I’ll never find out.
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We have something similar in our gym, called the Skillmill, but it has a lever for variable resistance. Doing it with minimum resistance basically makes it feel like the treadmill from the opening of the Jetsons where I expect to fly across the room if I take a misstep or let go of the rails. If yours doesn’t even let you adjust it, I could see it feeling awkward as hell.
I never used it much until recently, but I’ve been having knee issues and trying to follow some of Ben Patrick’s (kneesovertoesguy on YT) protocols, which involve a lot of backwards walking and sled pulling. No sleds at our gym, but I’ve found walking backwards on the uphill part of the belt with full resistance kind of approximates that level of effort.
They have a few of them at my gym. I quite prefer them to regular treadmills - they do seem easier on the joints. I primarily use them for sprint work since you can quickly ramp up and down speed. It does take a few times to get use to the feeling and figure out the right stride length.
Yeah they’re really good for this.
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There are two of these at my gym. Only just dabbled on them but initial impression was 1) they’re easy to work up a sweat on; 2) feel somewhat unnatural to walk on. I’ve gravitated toward traditional treadmills for my cardio, but maybe I’ll give them another try.
I think I might have a torn meniscus. I’m not positive but that seems to match my symptoms so far. I had been lifting weights after a long layoff (many many years). I researched squat form quite a bit, and started with low weight, but I think I still fucked it up somehow. It’s been almost two month now, and the pain is not going away (I stopped leg workouts right away).
I am trying to get in to see a specialist, but it’s taking a while bc of lol US health care. Anyone have experience with a torn meniscus? On the positive side, it’s not too bad. For the most part I can still walk ok. Trying to do some RICE and internet recommended exercises. Really hoping surgery will not be needed. I’ve been reading some scary shit and I guess I’m hoping to hear a success story of recovering from a moderate tear.
Different knee issues here, but if you haven’t already, try calling around to different orthopedic providers in your area. For example, the offices in the same “system” as my PCP are always mega backed up and it’s a hassle to even get them to return my calls. But other local ortho offices are a lot easier to get into.
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Not a ton of advice at this point, but I’m in a similar position. I think going back after an early-pandemic layoff when gym was completely closed, and then trying to ramp back up too fast, really fucked things up. I haven’t seen an ortho yet partly because I’m stubborn and trying some things on my own, including a long-overdue loss of 25lb to see if just putting less stress on it would help.
My main symptoms are inner knee pain (right at/above the top of my tibia) when in a deep squat position, even with no weight, some non-painful inflammation behind my knee that I suspect might be a Baker’s cyst (which can be a side effect of a meniscus tear), and very recently, some patellar tendon pain.
The past couple of months I’ve ditched any attempts to squat, and focused on lots of mobility stuff including upstream and downstream like hips, ankle dorsiflextion, etc., and exercises to improve knee stability, things like resisted backwards walking, tibialis raises, reverse step-ups, etc. Ben Patrick (kneesovertoesguy on YT) is a good resource. I think it’s slowly helping improve my pain level, but as usual with this kind of thing it’s hard to say whether just the layoff from heavy compound stuff is what’s making me feel better.
From what I’ve read about meniscus tears, it definitely sounds like avoiding surgery should be your goal, even if you have a tear in the area that doesn’t have enough blood flow to heal on its own. I never feel any instability in my knee which obviously seems like a good sign; if you do, and it doesn’t improve with PT or something like the above exercises, then that might be the deciding factor.
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Have a look at hip aeroplanes. This is one that’s really changed my mobility and my understanding of how hips actually move.
Also. Are you doing glute strength stuff as well?
Thanks. I know I’ve seen and maybe even done the hip airplanes in the past, but forgot they existed.
It’s the glute med that’s usually the weak point, right? Any favorite exercises for that?