Fitness Assessment

[Catrin]

A couple times a year my personal trainer gives me a fitness assessment, and he has been resistant to do this since I developed my over-use injuries in September. Now that I am working my way out of that we agreed that it was time to take a new baseline of where I am.

There were a couple of changes I don't like - went from 20.5% body fat to 22.1%. My waist found an additional 2 inches. My thighs are an inch smaller, and my calves are a half-inch smaller. Considering I could not do any cardio at all from October until January outside of a very rare bike ride and extremely light spinning - all I could do was gentle walking - I shouldn't be surprised or upset :o

I think that it is the knowledge that I loss muscle mass as well as gaining back a little of that core body fat that does have me a little perturbed with myself. That is the only way that I can I weigh 2 pounds less than the last time yet my waist is 2 inches larger. Such is life.

My endurance and cardio is at least as good as it was then, and my trainer thinks that I am actually in slightly better shape than I was in August when we did this last time. The great news is that I am not starting back at ground zero as far as fitness is concerned, and that is great news :)

Am thankful that I can do real cardio work now - so am hoping those two extra inches will go away and fast!

I guess that what I am really wondering is how to get ride of this apple shape that just keeps hanging on - no matter how much weight I lose. When I am not injured I do a lot of both strength training and cardio...

[Veronica]

That may just be your shape.

I have three older sisters. Our thighs and calves are all basically the same rather large shape. That's what genetics handed us. We'll never have skinny thighs and I"ll never be able to wear boots. :p

Veronica

[Catrin]

That may just be your shape.

I have three older sisters. Our thighs and calves are all basically the same rather large shape. That's what genetics handed us. We'll never have skinny thighs and I"ll never be able to wear boots. :p

Veronica

Indeed - and I have had two surgeries in that part of my body - all of those muscles have been cut which doesn't help. I can't complain though, at one time I weighed 209, 11 years later I finally weigh 132 :)

[limewave]

Catrin I'm in a similar boat. It's nice you can have regular fitness assessments, they are so helpful.

I had one recently and it was good/bad. I was down 10 more pounds. However, 4 of those were muscle loss :( My workouts this winter have decreased in quantity and quality this winter. And I'm not eating as nutritional of foods.

I'm at 23.25% body fat---which is the lowest I've been. But I'd like to get down to 19-20%. I have some work ahead of me.

I just can't seem to find the motivation. It is a tough time of year in Michigan. It's grey, cold, snowy, icy. I'm hoping to "maintain" for the rest of February. Hopefully some longer days and warmer weather in March will get me going again.

[Catrin]

We can encourage each other :) Now I can do regular intense cardio work again my body fat will start dropping back in the right direction - I just want to lose this apple shape. Given my surgeries that might not be possible...

[Veronica]

I'm at 23.25% body fat---which is the lowest I've been. But I'd like to get down to 19-20%. I have some work ahead of me.

I just can't seem to find the motivation. It is a tough time of year in Michigan. It's grey, cold, snowy, icy. I'm hoping to "maintain" for the rest of February. Hopefully some longer days and warmer weather in March will get me going again.

I just have to say, I want to be you when I grow up. You are so flippin' fast when you run... and that snowshoe race was darn impressive... and you race mountain bikes. You are SO awesome and awfully gutsy in my mind.

Don't let your yucky weather get you down. You have come so far and with some substantial obstacles in your way.

Veronica

[Bike Writer]

Catrin I'm in a similar boat. It's nice you can have regular fitness assessments, they are so helpful.

I had one recently and it was good/bad. I was down 10 more pounds. However, 4 of those were muscle loss :( My workouts this winter have decreased in quantity and quality this winter. And I'm not eating as nutritional of foods.

I'm at 23.25% body fat---which is the lowest I've been. But I'd like to get down to 19-20%. I have some work ahead of me.

I just can't seem to find the motivation. It is a tough time of year in Michigan. It's grey, cold, snowy, icy. I'm hoping to "maintain" for the rest of February. Hopefully some longer days and warmer weather in March will get me going again.

Limewave, I'm right here with you in Michigan and I know exactly what you mean about motivation and the grey skies and with all the snow on the ground it seems like it will be forever until we can ride outside.

In our climate it is work to motivate, I'm fortunate that this year I got a trainer for my bike and as much as I love to ride outside and all that comes with it is how much I dislike the trainer riding indoors.

It stinks and I have to force myself to do it. But I try to keep my eye on the prize of not being sore in the saddle come spring or with wimpy leg muscles etc.

My winter goals are not impressive, just ride a minimum of 4 times a week. I just started mixing it up this week with intervals to try something new and hopefully get better at hills. We'll see. At this rate I'll be happy to keep from having any winter weight gain, a modest weight loss will be a plus and being ready to hit the ground running in the spring will be a big plus.

Let's just hope that springlike weather comes sometime in March and not June!

[marni]

Flem 5,

I belong to a fitness 24 gym and pay for two sessions a week with a trainer. He routinely does a fitness assesment every 6 weeks and we reasses where I am, and what I am trying to accomplish. It's part of the service.

You might try a local gym with training- sometimes they have a free assesment or some sort of enticement package that includes an assesment and a couple of free or low cost sessions to see if you want to do something with them like joining.

[beccaB]

Not trying to plug this too hard, but being a Curves member helps me stay fit during the winter. I will do some outside stuff as well, but not enough to replace the biking I do in the better seasons. Curves now has Zumba dancing being offered as part of the workout, and that helps with the boredom people get from doing the same routine repeatedly. I think part of the problem is that people think it is a workout for "old ladies" and I am here to tell you guys that it IS what you put into it. I typically don't gain any weight or body fat during the winter, and I haven't drastically modified my eating habits. I might even be eating more because I do that when it's cold, I get hungrier quicker.

[badger]

what exactly is involved in a "fitness assessment"? I've often wondered how "fit", or unfit I am. I'd like to think I'm fitter than the average, but definitely not delusional in thinking I'm anything remotely elite.

I wonder if I happened in on one of the workouts on the biggest loser, would I fare well or just die??

[marni]

in many cases, a fitness assessment is what you make of it. In my case, I started at the gym to supplement and encourage weight loss, I started with a trainer immediatly because I knew that I didn't have the discipline to do it without being responsible to someone else for the results.

That was 5 years ago, and my first trainer sat down and spent time with me defining what I expected to do with my results. Since one of my goals was to lose a lot of weight, increase general health, in addition to being able to ride more than a mile without feeling like I was dying.

Then he had me do squats, balance on one leg and then the other, touch my toes with my legs straight standing and sitting, sit ups to burn out, ditto push ups, and some work on the treadmill for cardio numbers and endurance- Then he did both circumference measurements and body fat caliper measurements for LBM and body fat %. He set up the training according to progressing from the base line.

Every couple of month he would weigh, measure and have me do basic muscle group exercise to burn out to see what my max was. We would also discuss how I was feeling and what I was looking for in both short term and long term goals. To me at this point, the re evaluation of goals and what is working and what isn't is almost more important than the physical goals since I can clearly tell whether or not I am lifting more, running more longer without feeling like dying etc.

This year we are working on increasing everything, weights, resistance, distance, time, cardio by 10% every three months. In addition , since I am doing several centuries in the spring and summer,we are fine tuning biking muscles and focusing on the dietary balance because I am still a bit heavy and the body fat is a bit high.

Having said all of that, it does work, or at least it did for me since I have managed to lose 125 pounds and gone from a size womens 2x to a petite 10. Mind you it takes time and lots of gym hours and riding time (for me it's a minimum of 90 minute a day, 6 days a week, plus at least one good long 4 or 5 hours in the saddle ride or the equivalent on the trainer per week, but it is so worth it because of how I look and feel.