Weighing up the best workout
Something happened to me last year.
I turned 40.
And I don’t think my body likes it.
I’m not one of these people to get too hung up on age. However, I’ve had a few people around me hit this milestone and comment on changes they experienced as a result.
For a couple of years now I’ve belonged to a local girls only gym so I’m surrounded by women of various ages and shapes and sizes.
I enjoy going to the gym. Not just for the fitness side of things, but it also really helps me with my wellbeing and in switching off.
When I first joined I was on a pay as you go basis and always went to spin classes - hard, but something I knew and loved.
However, the instructors often encouraged me to try something new and mix it up a bit.
So what to try?
Up until recently I had added a couple of different classes. I still kept lots of spinning up, but now I added in a ‘supple strength’ (stretching, strength and balance with yoga/pilates moves) class and ‘boxing bootcamp’, since pre kids I quite enjoyed boxercise with my other half (he used to do personal training).
After I had twins, where I don’t drive (currently on my to do list to try and master this year) I walked everywhere - a combination of that and breast feeding I lost a lot of weight. I had 3 children 2 and under!
However, since the children are now all out of buggies and don’t need me to chase after them so much I’ve really seen weight come back on.
I’m always trying to find a balance of eating (I love food!) and exercise so that I don’t have to starve myself but also feel confident in my body/outfits I want to wear.
I’ve always found spinning helped with that and would help my body shape to change when I noticed I’d been overdoing the eating side.
Now don’t get me wrong I celebrated my 40th - my bank balance (or lack of) and my figure definitely reflect that. However, once I turned 40 in August something changed. My body changed big time.
I’d been getting pain in the lower part of my left leg and after a few calls and thankfully an in person appointment with a very helpful nurse then doctor, it was confirmed I’d got varicose veins there. Wow, now didn’t that make me feel old?!
Incidentally, since this I’ve had many people tell me how they or their partner have suffered with this and at earlier points in their lives. The doctor did also confirm it’s not an ‘old lady condition’ as I’d previously thought. Still, it was something new and not a particularly welcome change.
Soon after my birthday I also started to find my energy levels were dropping and the only way I can describe it is my body just felt tired and slower/stiffer.
As if this didn’t annoy me enough, the best bit was yet to come.
My tummy - now I’ve suspected for some time I’m going through peri-menopause so this could be linked, we’ll save that for another post - suddenly won’t seem to reduce. It’s puffy, sticks out and even though I’d be exercising and watching what I ate it was still prominent as ever.
Not great for the confidence. And the spinning? It wasn’t changing my body shape like it used to.
Something had to change.
Many of the gym instructors have said previously how we should be incorporating weights into our workouts - so many benefits and particularly as you approach/enter the menopause phase of your life.
Lucky for me a new class hit our gym with a new instructor. I decided to give it a go.
Shape and sculpt mixed cardio and weights and was a workout to work your whole body.
It was hard, but I found I really enjoyed it. And for someone who has never been too fussed about weights, I was surprised to like that part a lot!
I started to do both the sculpt and boxing classes each Monday along with my other spin classes/stretch class on other days.
Then our boxing bootcamp class was changed up - more like a circuits class now - and in parts incorporates weights.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s hard, I find it very hard and I often have moments where I’m well aware I’m not the strongest, fittest or most able in the session. But the buzz I get after? It’s so worth it.
Now we’ve just had half term and school holidays typically mean for me no gym and probably quite a bit of eating more unhealthy foods and drinking less water than usual.
However, as per my previous post I’m currently doing a squat challenge during February and I’ve stuck to it. And 3 weeks in I can see/feel a difference from doing them physically as well as mentally.
Before the holidays, we started to do exercises with kettlebells in boxing and I liked them, so I decided to leave my comfort zone yet again and try another new class - kettlebells.
Today was only my second class, but so far I’m really enjoying it and despite my ‘pigging out’ over half term break, I can feel a difference finally in my body.
Everybody has been saying it for a while and finally I’ve listened!
So, have I found the answer to my workout weigh up? Is it weights? Well, for now, it certainly feels it could be…
