Dani Chats: Fitness, Rants, Hobbies

I think motivation is a constant hum in the background, a white noise.

Sure, it’s okay to seek overt, external motivation (and get it) in the early days of your fitness journey < barf word. After that wears off, look at the big picture and motivation becomes easy:

I don’t want to be fat. I don’t want to die young of some easily preventable disease. I don’t want to be on 15 prescription drugs by age 55. I don’t want to deal with smug doctors. I don’t want to lose the ability to get an erection. I don’t want to be nonfunctional and weak in a real life situation. I don’t want to be a victim or a soft target. I don’t want to look my age. I want to be pretty! :face_with_peeking_eye:

Call it negative motivation: get motivated by being scared of something. Fear of being fat/weak/sick, etc. Fear is fuel. Not the cheeriest way to get and stay motivated, but it’s been working for me for decades.

Kinda related to the whole promotional vs. preventional motivation thing.

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Oh good call. Avoiding the hardships you see other people struggling with is a powerful motivator.

You know what else? (Probably, because we share a brain.) Being married to a fit person is a privilege. On days I don’t feel motivated, I can basically just hitch a ride on your motivation, get to the gym, and get my workout in.

But that also kinda goes back to what’s habitual. Our schedule is fixed. We go to the gym on specific mornings unless something pops up… like it will tomorrow. The plumber is coming around 8 am so we either need to work out a bit earlier, or we need to just skip tomorrow and go the next day.

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+1 to this!

Plus I want to be able to lift things and move freely when I’m 80+, 90+

Find something they enjoy, but as per other great replies above, dedication and consistency trumps any motivation factor.

Do it early in the day, and get it done!

(good to see you logging here now too btw!)

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Heck yes. This is the most underrated strategy in fitness. If you know you’re not going to feel like working out later, do it first thing.

And thanks for the kind words! :smiling_face:

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This is a giant frosted protein cookie. I’ll cut it in slices like a pizza. This — and other configurations of desserts like it — are staples in my diet.

The cookie batter contains 3 scoops of Metabolic Drive protein, a can of pumpkin purée, a banana, a heaping 1/3 cup of PB2, a splash of vanilla, about half a teaspoon of both salt and baking soda, a random amount of Splenda that I just poured in, and some pumpkin pie spice.

Measuring stuff is unnecessary once you know what consistency to look for and when you can taste the batter to see if it’s going to taste good.

The frosting is an 8-oz block of cream cheese, a couple scoops of Metabolic Drive, and a few tablespoons of water.

The fat loss strategy I use most often is called satiety. So when people say, “in order to lose fat you must learn to feel hungry,” I always pity them.

They’re counting their calories, aiming for a number, weighing portions, logging every bite, and often going hungry to lose a meager pound. That’s not a life I want to live.

I get lean while feeling over-fed. I’m not trying to be haughty about it. It’s merely a testament to high-protein food; not anything I came up with.

Leanness is the byproduct of aiming for satiety.

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Not enough people think like this… and that transcends health and fitness. There is a great book called “Think Again”, i think by adam grant… great read along tgese lines. Great log, great approach to life. Alot of people could gain by following your lead.

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Cookie looks great but that tough guy in the pic deserves a mention as well!!!
:joy:

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Thank you so much for the kind words and for dropping in! If I’m being honest, I’m probably super guilty of making blanket statements. Luckily I’ve adopted more of a “do what works for you” libertarian approach to fitness. LOL

Thanks for the book recommendation. I’ll download it to my Kindle!

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Ha! He’s personally offended whenever he doesn’t get human goodies. :laughing:

Same here, but it took me a long time to accept it.

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WHOA. I’m sorry you experienced the same, but glad to know I’m not a special snowflake. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Leg Day Like a Grandma :raised_hands:

I warmed up with some bounding skips and a couple mobility drills. I had achy knees before even beginning the workout.

Decided to start with something that’d wake up my quads and get my knees warmed up:

First thing

A1. Wall squat with a Swiss ball and a band around my thighs. Held the first rep at the bottom for 20 seconds then followed that with 10 smooth reps. I used one of Nick Tumminello’s mini bands (NT Loop) for this.

A2. Ridiculously light, heel-elevated front squats with a four second eccentric and pause at the bottom for 10 reps.

I did three rounds of these but my knees still weren’t feeling great.

Next thing
B. Hip abduction machine
4x15 reps with drop sets and partials at the end

Not sure why but this machine doesn’t just pump up my glute med, it also makes my knees stop hurting.

And nobody is going to believe this, but this stupid exercise has transformed my butt in a matter of weeks. My chiropractor even recommended strengthening and isolating the glute medius to fix some chronic hip pain… and I think it might’ve actually worked.

Other thing

Superset EMO2M
C1. Leg press 4x10
C2. Banded knee thing: lots of tiny reps

One of the personal trainers in my gym reminded me of this band knee thing while I was doing the previous exercise. Chatting with people in the gym actually pays off!

This little exercise isn’t intended to build muscle. It won’t contribute to fatigue or tax your body in any way, but it will make your knees feel amazing. You basically just flex and straighten your leg with the band as your resistance. It works every single time.

Bands are underrated for joint health and I wish I’d invested time in them sooner.

Last thing
D. Swiss ball ham curls 4 x 10

Are you a person who avoids all human interaction in the gym, are you a chatty Kathy, or are you somewhere in between?

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I’m going to try that for sure!

My knees are pretty awful. Do you ever try neoprene sleeves? They do wonders for me.

I also like the Meadows’ method of leg curls first, but you’ve got a lot of similar concepts going on with your prehab work I believe (I’m just too lazy to do that most the time).

The Peterson step-up (I believe is what it’s called) is in a similar league with the TKE you’re showing - great movements!

Does it count if it’s not by our choice…?

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I haven’t because I don’t feel qualified. In my mind, knee sleeves are for big strong guys and gals using real weight. Picture me wearing those things while doing a wall squat against a Swiss ball. You would have to mock me and I would join you!

YES. I always forget about that!

That’s one of those exercises I’ve seen a million times but kinda want someone to teach me in-person. If I do a seemingly innocuous exercise even a little bit wrong I’ll tweak something!

Sure does. Almost all of my closest friends are people I met in the gym at one point in time. They’re like family now. One of them is 76 years old and he introduced me to the contractor who’s working on our bathroom. There are huge benefits – aside from the obvious psychological ones – to being friendly in the gym.

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I’ve got to push back on this one. Would we advise an obese person to lose some amount of weight before they should join a gym?

How are you going to “earn” your way to knee sleeves with “strong enough” squats when your knees hurt too bad to train squats hard?

But, really, why don’t you deserve to be able to train pain-free in the first place? I don’t think there’s a weight on the bar rite of passage for that. You might not want 7-9mm sleeves for what you’re doing, but I bet 3-5mm would go a long way!

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Tunes plugged in, so keep to myself unless I see a regular face for a quick hi…

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I know, it’s totally irrational. But the lifting community is often not super kind, and I’m so freaking vain that I care about the opinions of other lifters when it comes to stupid stuff. So weird. I’m not afraid to use absurdly light weight, but I am afraid to wear knee sleeves. LOL what the heck is my problem? I should just do it. Got any brand recommendations?

EDIT: The lifting community is very kind to brand new lifters and those who are trying to get in shape, but I think they hold fellow lifters to a different standard. And on occasion there seems to be some competition. I kinda hate that because I’m non-competitive at the gym. I’d rather make a new friend than worry about out-lifting another female.

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Definitely gotta say hi to the regulars. Otherwise it’s awkward when you have to ask them if they’re still using a thing. :laughing:

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I promise they’re all more intimidated of you than you are them. That’s not just the dad in me saying it.

I’ve had Rehbands for years and they’re awesome. A little pricy, but didn’t tear up. I had some Gym Reapers elbow sleeves, and the seams tore. I replaced them with a brand called Aleos, and they’re ok.

Rehband has different thicknesses. 5mm seems to be the “all-arounder”. I got 7mm and like them, but I wouldn’t run or play ball in them or anything.

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I have knee pain that seems to be connected to my glute med as well! My glute med doesn’t fire and is chronically tight. My physio said when I squat I am shifting the weight and kind of bypassing the hip and then putting all this excess weight on that part of my knee.

I think it might be more IT band related though because knee+ glute med is a sign of IT band syndrome or whatever it’s called.

I have no real advice, lol. Working on my IT band and getting my glute med has helped my knee pain 100 percent of the time though!
Love your log! Glad you started one :D.