As the days grow longer and the weather warms up, I'm feeling a renewed sense of motivation to move and increase my fitness levels. During the cooler months, when the temptation to hibernate is strong, my paddleboards and bike are mostly just taking up room in this one bedroom apartment by the sea. Therefore, I need another cardio workout, and so far this spring it's been the nearby steps.
It's not like I've been doing bugger all this winter, but exercise has dropped off the radar a little for various reasons. A dose of the Flu, a change in relationship status, and losing my job, have all in some way reduced the times I've broken into a sweat of late. Exercise boasts the ability to boost mood and immune system, as well as keeping the weight off (not an issue for Sultana kidney), but what I have noticed has happened in time with lack of movement, is my reduced ability to sleep and shit. That makes sense. I'm not burning enough calories during the day and not kickstarting my metabolism enough - nothing like what it's been used to.
And so in an attempt boost my mood, fitness, and to get shit moving, I'm visiting these steps which lead to and from the beach in Magaluf, 2/3 times a week.
It's a no dogshit day, hurrah!
There are just over 100 steps which makes 10 trips up and down and nice goal to aim for. I've not been setting a timer or monitoring my heart rate or anything like that, and have just been trying for 10 climbs with a little variance on speed and step style depending on my mood.
You might be wondering why I'm not jogging? I agree, the view for 50% of this workout isn't that great. Well, apart from the likely increased calorie burn and lower body muscles engagement, the main reason for opting for this form of cardio is to protect my joints. And in particular, my knees and ankles.
As you can see from this gif I made year, my right ankle (and not the worst) is pronated. My feet aren't flat though and the arch is decent, it's just the ankle joint (like all my joints) is weak and overly flexible. Much of my exercise last year was based around strengthening my lower body, mainly hips, legs, ankles, and feet. And so I want to be doing at little as possible to be causing repetitive strain - how I wish I was more aware of this 30 years ago!
I've spent a lot of time on a treadmill, and I'm sure this has negatively impacted my lower body. I realise now that running on a treadmill has reduced my leg lift (you don't need to go forward, just 'up') and the width of my running stance - my feet would land in almost the same place, the centre of the treadmill. And so when climbing the stairs, I make a conscious effort to keep my feet further apart, landing more on the outside of my feet. Also, the stairs mean less heal strike as they are not much longer my feet and would be tripping over them if I tried to land heal first. Landing on the front of the foot mean less work for my suspect ankles, and so far this year they've not given my any trouble at all.
The stairs at the end of the beach will keep me busy this next month or so, but as soon as the weather picks up I'll looking to the items 'in storage', below.
Three paddleboards looking rather unloved at the back, and my bike which is having a rest on the landlords sofa bed we have no room for inside. I hope they don't twig when they visit this week to sign the contract extension - yes, we are renting this apartment for one more year as for the price it is now an even better deal than before. More on that and Mallorca's housing crisis in future perhaps, I'm going to roll my groin for a bit.....
What are you doing to get into shape / keep fit at present?
Cheers
Ash