Dumbbells and Crunches: Day One

When I was younger, I loved aerobics, crunches and dumbbell workouts, and I also took a series of courses to become a certified personal trainer, but over the years, I let my enthusiasm for living a fit and healthy lifestyle get pushed aside, and now I'm writing this (hopefully motivational) blog as a 240-pound, size 22, peri-menopausal, overweight woman.

Dumbbells image courtesy of Pixabay

So, anyway, I'm back, looking at my past passion for fitness and exercise physiology and wondering what, other than my body, has changed over the years. 

A Flawed Approach to Fitness?

I never bought into the no pain - no gain line of thinking, because so many people give up after the first workout or two because of the pain, though I of course understand the breaking down and response of rebuilding stronger muscle part of the human body. 

So, I'm going to take myself through the process as I relearn how to become fitter and healthier - as a woman going through the menopausal phase of life - and I'm going to share a lot about that here in the coming year. 

Wherever possible, I through in sources from experts currently working in the field of fitness, and I'll enlist my doctor's assistance and share her inputs, too, though I will only directly quote her if she gives permission, of course.

Dumbbells and Crunches

First Workout of a New Fitness Regimen

So, for today, I was pretty busy with laundry and new year's cleaning and organizing, so I kept my first workout kind of light.

• Stretches: I started with a few minutes of yoga-type stretches to warm up my muscles and get ready for the harder part of my workout. 
• Dumbbells: I grabbed my 3-pound dumbbells and did 10 standing presses, 10 bicep curls on each arm, 10 toe-raises, 10-straight-arm lifts, 10 squats, and 10 tricep curls.
• Floor Work: I then dropped to my exercise mat and did 30 crunches. By this point, in spite of this being a light workout by my old standards, every muscle in my body was kind of burning, so I cooled off with some more yoga-like stretches.
• Hydration: I also drank extra water today, though I didn't track how much, and i haven't even started to look at my eating habits. 

(I have to admit, I'm a little nervous about this, and I feel kind of vulnerable just from including my weight and blouse size in this post, but I think without authenticity, I would be wasting your time and mine. I'll eventually probably add photos of me instead of exercise equipment, but for now, I'm still feeling embarrassed and shy, so this... openly sharing information... is my starting point.)

So... this was my first post about starting my journey to a healthier lifestyle as a 'mature' woman - I hope you'll follow along, and if you want to make healthy, positive changes in your own life, I hope you'll be inspired to join me. 

If you don't have dumbbells, don't worry, you can start with no dumbbells, or check out information on isometrics, and then you don't need actually need exercise equipment to get started anyway. 

Thanks for joining me on day one of my 2017 journey to a healthier, fitter lifestyle, and if you're ready to join me for real, I'll be back tomorrow and I look forward to your company. 

By: Laure_J