About 7 years ago, I took up running. I had always thought it would be cool if I could run a marathon (and let's be honest here, I also thought if I were a runner, rock hard thighs and the ability to eat like a lumberjack would finally be mine). After some encouragement from my marathon running cousin, I picked out a race and started running. Five years, two full marathons, and countless half marathons later, I was definitely hooked on being a runner.
But, my body (traitor!) had other ideas. About a year and a half ago, I injured my back. Herniated a disc, to be exact, while training for my third full marathon. I managed to still run the half marathon out of shear stubbornness (can you say painful?) but that was literally, the last time I ran. I then spent the next year doing PT, getting injections in my lumbar spine, considering fusion surgery, trying a chiropractor, taking narcotics when needed, crying a lot, and feeling frustrated with walking as my only form of exercise.
Over time, it became clear that returning to running wouldn't really be a good idea and so I continued walking at least 2 miles a day and sometimes riding the stationary bike or using the elliptical at the gym all the while moaning to Kevin, my husband, about my inability to really work my body out.
This fall, Kevin suggested I hire myself a personal trainer and have her tailor a workout plan for me that would work my body out but do it in a way that wouldn't cause injury to my fragile back. I have to say, I was nervous about the whole thing because after a year of horrendous pain, it is safe to say I am a scaredy cat.
After some steady encouragement and pep talking from Kevin and putting my fears aside, I contacted Kate at Xceed Fitness and explained my situation. She said I would be a challenge but that she thought she could work up a program for me. I nervously went for my first session where she worked my butt off for an hour. I walked out with shaking arms and legs and a smile on my face. I worked with her for a month and since then have been doing the exercises on my own.
Most of the exercises use your own body weight, free weights, and bands and sometimes machines like the leg press. I am doing things like skull crushers, pushups, lunges, planks, rollups on the ball, flys, and much more. I have always worried a bit about weight training, that I would end up looking like this:
Photo from: We heart it
Soooooooooo not the look I am going for. To my surprise though, after 2 months of working out this way, I have more muscle definition (the good kind, not like above) and feel more solid than I ever did when I was simply running. (Don't quite look like the chick at the beginning of my post yet though - something to work toward maybe?) My thighs even are more firm and muscle defined than they have ever been and my husband keeps teasingly calling me muscles, which I love.
On a fitness blog I read, the author tries out different exercise routines for several months and then blogs about the results. Recently, she followed a plan by Rachel Cosgrove that has you doing no cardio at all and only 3 hours a week of weight lifting exercises. The author and her workout buddies were really nervous about abandoning their cardio but to their surprise, all of them lost inches and clothing sizes without doing any cardio. You can read about it here.
So, in spite of my previous feeling that running was the best workout around, I am newly convinced that if you want to look lean and tight, weights and weight bearing exercises get the job done.
1 comment:
Wow - LOVED this post. I'm so glad this is working for you, and it gives me so much hope as well since running too much seems to irritate my neck issues. Way to go! And I would LOVE to look like that first picture.
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