Fitness for Glastonbury 2023

[moogster]

27 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

Yep shorts should be fine. 

Just realised the British are a bit more on the prude side... Or that i should report all the massage therapists i ever had 🤔

[sfroml]

2 hours ago, 2019 said:

I got myself half marathon fit this year, it definitely helped on the endurance side. I'll aim to do the same this year. I averaged 44k steps per day of the festival.

Just signed up for the Leeds Marathon! 🙂 

[gigpusher]

30 minutes ago, moogster said:

Just realised the British are a bit more on the prude side... Or that i should report all the massage therapists i ever had 🤔

Some people over here would be more exhibitionist as well but if someone is asking the question they probably don't want to be an exhibitionist. 

[moogster]

2 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

Some people over here would be more exhibitionist as well but if someone is asking the question they probably don't want to be an exhibitionist. 

Fair point. Not really up to discussion here. In your undies! Now! 

On topic though, massages are a great way to get in touch (no pun intended) with your body and just feel good about it, whatever you think is not right with it. 

As for my fitness, I was not careful last week while cycling to work and had a nice slip and fall. Trying to push myself to keep moving even though my left leg is all the colours of the rainbow and still painful. 

[gigpusher]

6 minutes ago, moogster said:

Fair point. Not really up to discussion here. In your undies! Now! 

On topic though, massages are a great way to get in touch (no pun intended) with your body and just feel good about it, whatever you think is not right with it. 

As for my fitness, I was not careful last week while cycling to work and had a nice slip and fall. Trying to push myself to keep moving even though my left leg is all the colours of the rainbow and still painful. 

Ouch!! My fitness has taken very much a back seat with Winter and being really busy with work. Hoping in the new year to kick start some semblance of my fitness in preparation for Glastonbury. 

[2019]

28 minutes ago, sfroml said:

Just signed up for the Leeds Marathon! 🙂 

I think I'm too far gone for the full fat 42k these days!

[2019]

1 hour ago, Alvoram said:

to be fair I thought that of mine, but the km clocked by GPS suggest it was accurate. I think it's generally 1.2k to 1.5k steps per km walked, depending on stride length. 

The apps and their sensors do differ. Google Fit thinks I'd did a lot less on Friday. Phone thinks I did 36k, Vs the watch at 47k! All I know for sure, is I was knacked on Monday!

[Kalopsia]

Completed the Bath Half in 1:36:34 this year and raised money for a great charity. 

I've signed up for Brighton Marathon next year and will be raising money for MindOut! I'm so excited. 

[Alvoram]

7 minutes ago, 2019 said:

The apps and their sensors do differ. Google Fit thinks I'd did a lot less on Friday. Phone thinks I did 36k, Vs the watch at 47k! All I know for sure, is I was knacked on Monday!

My Friday was quite chilled.
 

 

One thing is for sure though, despite all the delicious food, I lost weight at Glasto, and it’s easy to see why burning 5k calories on a chilled day! 🤯

[2019]

1 hour ago, p.pete said:

When calorie intake is less than the calories you need to do all that you're doing.

<edit> 

 sorry if the reply is a bit flippant 🙂

 

If I dance with my arms in the air, I swear it makes me look 5kg lighter.

[p.pete]

7 minutes ago, 2019 said:

If I dance with my arms in the air, I swear it makes me look 5kg lighter.

Looks don't lie 😉 

[Alvoram]

3 minutes ago, p.pete said:

Looks don't lie 😉 

I thought that was hips?

[p.pete]

17 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

I thought that was hips?

I don't have any hips (I do actually, and it's been sore for the last year, Bursitis I think, and - related to this thread - will be a major barrier to my fitness for Glastonbury), so if you don't like the looks of my post...

[Alvoram]

1 minute ago, p.pete said:

I don't have any hips (I do actually, and it's been sore for the last year, Bursitis I think, and - related to this thread - will be a major barrier to my fitness for Glastonbury), so if you don't like the looks of my post...

Well they do say 'looks don't lie.' 😉

Seriously though, sorry to hear about your hips (no offence was intended obvs.) I'm sure you already know this, but there's lots of things you can do in water / pools to build that fitness without having too much of an impact on your hips. (Even some things that are supposed to actually ease arthritis and other hip issues, so definitely worth a try.)  

[p.pete]

21 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Well they do say 'looks don't lie.' 😉

Seriously though, sorry to hear about your hips (no offence was intended obvs.) I'm sure you already know this, but there's lots of things you can do in water / pools to build that fitness without having too much of an impact on your hips. (Even some things that are supposed to actually ease arthritis and other hip issues, so definitely worth a try.)  

Cheers 🙂  I have managed to have an NHS physio visit and some exercises from that, which I've not been doing much of, but Glastonbury will be a massive incentive for.  I can do short runs (15/20 minute jogging), so will try build up doing them more often, yoga and more long walks.  Water based stuff is a great shout, I'm not in a pool very often but will give that some thought.

[danssol]

59 minutes ago, p.pete said:

I don't have any hips (I do actually, and it's been sore for the last year, Bursitis I think, and - related to this thread - will be a major barrier to my fitness for Glastonbury), so if you don't like the looks of my post...

Got a similar problem, thought it was my back. Chiropractor has me stretching my hamstrings, lunges, clams 🤷‍♂️ and core strength exercises. Think my injury stems from inertia. Apparently my glutes need reactivating. 

[p.pete]

3 minutes ago, danssol said:

Got a similar problem, thought it was my back. Chiropractor has me stretching my hamstrings, lunges, clams 🤷‍♂️ and core strength exercises. Think my injury stems from inertia. Apparently my glutes need reactivating. 

Yes, sounds very similar.  I've always been sedentary but thought being at home two years ago was a good opportunity to switch to a standing desk, then we moved house and onto concrete floors.  Muscles I never knew about before are either inactive or weak, and when they flare-up it's really sore but manageable 95% of the time (to the extent I've been poor at doing my exercises 😛).  Glastonbury will almost definitely cause serious flare-up, so I need to pull my finger out.

Previously I'd always struggled to stand through gigs, I'd get aches within an hour - think it was usually my back, so like you I started off thinking it could be back-related or sciatica.  I was generally fit and healthy otherwise, so I thought with a standing desk (building up increased usage) I'd be bullet-proof.  Turns out we have to go backwards to go forwards sometimes 😄 

[2019]

4 hours ago, Alvoram said:

I thought that was hips?

Shakira fan eh?

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdun7a

[Alvoram]

Day 2:

Weight: 283lb 
Daily Change: -1lb
Total Loss: 1lb (Means nothing yet! But just getting used to weighing in and updating here.)

Ate well yesterday, soup and a couple of mini bread rolls, then chicken and veg later on. No snacks at all. Sounds odd, and I know I haven't lost any weight yet, but I already feel less 'bloated' than I did yesterday morning, after our relentless takeaway run of the past few weeks, I was starting to feel like a weeble. Getting that appetite down is the main challenge of the first few days, and yesterday will have been a solid step in that direction. 

I didn't make the 5k walk, I went unprepared and it was too cold, so I went part way then turned back. Did 3.5km on that walk in the end and a 7 hour shift on my feet, making for just 6km all day. (although I didn't put my watch on until lunch time.) Poor effort to be honest, but still an improvement on the last few weeks / months. Never the less I have to be hitting that 5km walk most days as a minimum, it was instrumental last time, and was the biggest activity based contributor to my losses. 

[moogster]

15 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Poor effort to be honest, but still an improvement on the last few weeks / months. Never the less I have to be hitting that 5km walk most days as a minimum, it was instrumental last time, and was the biggest activity based contributor to my losses. 

Doesn't your job (if I'm not mistaken) require quite more physical activity? 

Edited December 7, 2022 by moogster
Edited because I can't even properly ready a full post before answering. As half the answer was in the second paragraph

[Alvoram]

10 minutes ago, moogster said:

Doesn't your job (if I'm not mistaken) require quite more physical activity? 

Yes, as a minimum I'm on my feet for hours, but on busy days that'll also include a lot of moving. (Yesterday was not a busy day. Hence only racking up 2.5km at work.) My watch tells me I had '0 idle hours' yesterday, which is a good thing I guess. 🙂 

But what I meant was that I have to add in an additional 5km walk most days, on top of my usual activity levels. That's what I did last time, with some days, probably once a week or so, adding in an extra 15 - 20km walking, (Usually around theme parks. So I'll probably not start the longer distance days until March, when they reopen. 😂)

I also have a pretty strong back and shoulders thanks to throwing full barrels of beer around like they're dog toys, in a cellar I can't stand up in. 🙈 So I guess that's work related activity. It's genuinely quite a workout on 'delivery' days and 'racking' days. 

[moogster]

30 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

I also have a pretty strong back and shoulders thanks to throwing full barrels of beer around like they're dog toys, in a cellar I can't stand up in. 🙈 So I guess that's work related activity. It's genuinely quite a workout on 'delivery' days and 'racking' days. 

Yes that's what I meant. For my body, 15 mn of intensive/heart pumping activity has more effect than an hour of mild walking. I get annoyed when coming back from a walk/cycle that barely registered as activity in terms of heart rate and calories burnt.

 

[Alvoram]

2 hours ago, moogster said:

Yes that's what I meant. For my body, 15 mn of intensive/heart pumping activity has more effect than an hour of mild walking. I get annoyed when coming back from a walk/cycle that barely registered as activity in terms of heart rate and calories burnt.

 

To be honest, since Glastonbury, the pit of despair I've fallen into has gotten pretty bad. I blamed Covid for starting it off, but at least I was still active enough not to find Glasto too much of a struggle. Since then I've been walking the dogs less and less, (leaving it to other members of the family) walking shorter walks when I do walk them, and eating nothing but junk. But that's over with now. 💪

The area I live in is very hilly, a country park similar to glastonbury in terms of size, hills and their steepness, (There's one hill that's as steep as the glasto sign hill, but it's not quite as high / long.) Once I've done one of them hills briskly on a walk, my heart rate moves into the higher end of the 'fat burning' zone and pretty much stays there for the remainder of the walk, moving into cardio for the bigger steeper hills along the way. Cardio is obviously more intensive and better than the 'fat burning' zone on a per minute basis... But at 280lb, I am not yet able to maintain cardio for anywhere nearly as long as I can maintain a high fat burning zone heart rate. That will come when I start adding the jogging in. For now it's all about just getting moving again. 🙂 

Think I'm going to start with Couch to 5k very soon, as it's been nearly a year since I jogged. But as I'm sure I'm not totally useless, I'll probably start on a level above 1. 

Having said all of that, if I walk with the missus, she hasn't got the pace, and you're right, it doesn't register as exercise at all. 

Anyway... Just back from a 6km walk 🙂 My resting heart rate is 54bpm, on the walk my average heart rate was 108bpm with it hitting 144bpm on the hills, so a little lower than I'd have expected... Maybe I'm not as unfit as I thought I was... More effort, and a higher pace, needed. Although apparently I burnt 604 additional calories, (800 in total.) 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Alvoram

[Alvoram]

Day 3:

Weight: 278lb 
Daily Change: -5lb
Total Loss: 6lb (Means nothing yet! See below.)

So 6lb lost in 2 days... Looks good right? Sadly, as anybody who's been big and lost weight before will know, it means nothing. What happens in the first few days, if you're dieting properly, is that you lose, or use up, all of your glycogen stores, which mostly consist of water. As I've completely stopped eating sugary food and drinks, and reduced my carb and calorie intake to a level that is below what my body is burning on a daily basis, this is what is happening here. it's not real weight loss, as in fat, and I can expect to put a similar amount back on, the minute I eat a large dominos, or lots of sugary food. That being said, it is most definitely a sign that I am on the right path, that what I've been doing is going to work in the long run. And it's also nice being under 20 stone again so quickly. 

Yesterday I did the 6km quick walk, quite a hilly one too, my legs found it quite taxing, but my heart rates are showing that my cardio fitness isn't as bad as I'd have imagined it was after such a destructive few months. Then I worked a 6 hour shift on my feet, a little bit busier than Tuesday too... My legs are really feeling it today, so I'm going to do a shorter walk this morning (3-4km) to set me up for a big one tomorrow. 

I ate a plain chicken sandwich on wholemeal bread for lunch, and a home cooked chicken and sweet potato katsu curry in the evening... As a snack I had a nice warming bowl of home made winter vegetable soup, on it's own (no bread.) You're going to be seeing a lot of soup, I love the stuff in winter, and have so much of it made up and frozen down. Potato and Leek today I think. 🙈😂

Anyway... Early doors but going well, confidence (in my ability to do this) is rising, and I'm now quite focused on the task at hand. These updates are definitely helping. 🙂 

[moogster]

Putting on a very improbable trainer hat: What I am missing here @Alvoram is some upper body/core work outs. Go and lift some barrels!