Kiba's Journal

[Kiba42]

Hi there, I'm Kiba and this is workout journal.

Right now I'm working on getting back in shape after the birth of son two months ago. I've been fairly active in the past doing things like a half ironman in 2012, mountain climbing, and rowing. But I've let things slide a bit this past year and want to make some improvements.

Where I am now:
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 150 lbs
Body Fat: 33% (estimated with the navy body fat calculator)
Chest: 37 inches
Waist: 32
Hips: 39
Thigh: 23

Where I want to be:
I don't have an ultimate weight goal since I'm still getting to know postpartum body. I do know that I want to get to 18% body fat, so whatever weight that happens at is good with me.

What I'm going to do to get there:
Do cardio every day - jogging, rowing, going to the gym. Planning with baby is hard so instead of a solid schedule I'm just taking advantage of whatever time I have by doing what I can in any given hour.
Do strength training - I'm following the "You Are Your Own Gym" basic program. I'm not a huge fan of strength training but I recognise the merits of it.
Eat sensibly.

Starting photos:

[Kiba42]

Today I did:

Cardio:
Walking/Jogging - 8 miles/2 hours

Strength:
Upper body - 1/2 hour - 7 minutes each of:
Pushups - best 4 in a row
Table pull ups - best 6 in a row
Seated dips - best 6 in a row
Rowing style door pull - best 15 in a row

[Nokie173]

Hello and welcome to the community

Here are some drills/Plyometric workouts if you want to try some.

Drills: (1 side of the room to the other side)
Side shuffle
Run knee up
Squats & Side kicks
Run forward/ run backward
Walking lunges

Plyometric: (14-24)
Line Jumps
Ankle hop
Jump Kicks
Tuck Jumps
Broad Jumps

X Repeat starting with drills (2 sets total)

...and if you want to workout your cores...
CORE: (2x15)
Leg Raises
Scissor Cross
Planks
Ball plank
Ball crunch
Dead bug ball
Sumo kick

Good luck and have fun!

[Boss Man]

Hey Kiba it's good to have you on board and great name by the way, it's unusual as I've never heard of it before, but I think it's beautiful if that's not being too formal.

I also wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS on the birth of your little boy, I really hope you and he have many wonderful Mother and Son moments, for many years to come and judging by the way you've looked after yourself for such a long time and done some pretty inspiring things, I think he's going to have a fantastic role model to look up to, learn from and be proud of and I wish you so much happiness and great times as a Mother and I found your past exploits pretty awesome and I'm proud of you for how you have lived your past and looked after yourself and achieved some pretty awesome physical feats .

The one thing I would heed though is the training every day. I'd suggest two rest days per week, split up and apart from one another to avoid 5 consecutive days of training, but if you feel you need a sixth day, then of course do that, but I'd still say have at least have one day off, just to keep yourself from potentially over training and going a bit stale fitness wise .

As for the strength training it's a great boon for anyone, Ladies included. If it's done with the right levels of intensity and consideration for technique, not overloading the weight and not doing exercises like behind the neck stuff and wrist curls that increase joint and / or connective tissue risk, then it's fine and the added muscle can help to burn fat and the training can help to strengthen bones and connective tissue and provide you with a body that potentially can last you a lifetime, so it's a good thing and maybe if you've had a few mental / emotional downers towards it before, through a slight lack of enthusiasm, then sometimes it might help to change what you're doing, or try doing it whilst listening to music, or exercising with someone you know to make it more interesting.

I'm not certain about that body fat calculator you used as I don't think you look 33% fat, I'd estimate using the "naked eye" method you're around 24%--25% approximately and don't forget if you're using any measuring devices or software / apps, to ascertain something like BMI, then BMI doesn't allow for muscle mass, so if you have slightly higher muscle mass than many females, this might facilitate a slightly skewed conclusion about your body composition.

I certainly however want to wish you GOOD LUCK and best wishes with everything, including Motherhood. You seem like a really amazing, warm and interesting person and I hope we can help you to find or rediscover the person you want to be physically and if there is anything we can do to help you, no matter how many questions or comments or ideas you want to express and get feedback on, we will try to be here for you when we can be and in whatever ways we feel are best for you .

It's great to have you on board, so take care, best wishes, chin up, be strong and no worries, as you've done some pretty amazing stuff before, so I'll back you 10,00,000% to succeed at this, because I honestly think you CAN do it and I really look forward to seeing how you get on and lending a few hopefully sage words and useful support / motivation sometimes.

[Kiba42]

Thanks for the ideas Nokie and thank you for the kind and encouraging words Boss Man. This seems like a great community and it's nice to be welcomed so warmly. When I do cardio every day I do light days and intense days, light days may only mean going for a walk. brain does terrible things with "days off" and suddenly I'm convincing myself that means cupcakes and pizza and six hours of video games. But if I tell myself it's not a day off but light cardio instead, it's usually enough to keep brain's irrational but oh so convincing excuses at bay.

Today I did:

Cardio:
Walking/Jogging - 8 miles/2 hours

Strength:
Lower body - 1/2 hour - 7 minutes each of:
Back lunges - best 10 in a row
One leg RDLs - best 10 in a row
Squats - best 12 in a row
Swimmers - best 6 in a row

[Boss Man]

I understand what you're saying now Kiba, about the heavy and light days, so therefore I personally think you training 7 days a week seems fine on reflection .

[Kiba42]

A short update because family is visiting for the week. Thursday and Friday I did usual 8 mile, but didn't do strength because whole body was feeling sore.

[Boss Man]

The soreness could be DOMS, (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). Many people get it at some time or another and some on a regular basis, but the main thing is it's not pain and your body should get used to it over time and feel less sore.

It does not mean you're over training necessarily as you could get it training adequately and ultimately it doesn't mean that if you don't get it you're not training right, as you might be but not not necessarily.

The main thing is just to get back to the strength stuff as soon as possible, because obviously it's very beneficial and it's also your right to be strong and feel empowered if you want .

Have a great time with family and keep on pushing yourself, because I think you're doing a superb job and you should be proud of yourself.

[Kiba42]

Thanks Boss Man! I concur about DOMS, it happens every time I start back up with strength training or try a new exercise.

I unfortunately didn't do anything too exercise related all week, but about to head out for a morning jog in a few minutes.

husband and I are considering running the Montreal Marathon on September 28th this year. I'm really hoping we go for it because running a marathon is something he's always wanted to do and I think training for it would be a fun way for us to spend time together.

[fitoverforty]

Hi Kiba, welcome to Shapefit! You look great for being only 8 weeks from having your son. Congrats on that and for getting right back into working out and running.
I think it is an awesome idea to do a marathon with your hubby, it's a good way to spend some quality time together and get in great shape at the same time!
The marathon is only about 10 weeks away, so not much time to train, be careful not to overdo it. I think the strength training is really important in helping you crosstrain and improve your total body strength. It will definitely help you with the marathon. I'm sure you are no stranger to training, since you have completed a 1/2 Ironman - you go girl!! That is awesome.
I remember when I had son, I got one of those baby joggers, and we went many a mile together, up until he was about 4 years old. I even ran some races pushing him.
Good luck with everything! You are doing great.

[Boss Man]

I definitely concur on the strength training, but I also concur on the marathon and I know you'll find a way to adapt both things into your weekly schedule and I'm sure you'll kick butt in that marathon, because you're done things like an iron man, so you're no stranger to training for these kinds of things and I know that you've got the heart and the mind to do it, because your past exploits prove that more than adequately.

So GOOD LUCK configuring your weekly schedule to accommodate your strength and Marathon training and I would say be careful with the calories you're eating, because if you're going to up the workload on the body, you'd be wise to increase the calories.

I'd certainly say go for around another 15%-20% calories per meal, so if you consume on average about 400 calories per meal as an example, consuming around 5-6 meals a day, you're looking at another 60-80 calories per meal and anywhere between 300-480 more per day. and make the bulk of those protein and carbs, as they will complement each other and 40% of protein intake can be used for creating muscle glycogen and that requires carbs to induce the insulin that aids the process, but also the extra protein would be good for developing and protecting your muscle mass, as all the extra cardio will have the potential to hinder muscle creation and maybe even burn muscle and reduced muscle is less beneficial for fat burning, so being mindful of your calories, is a good way to go now you're taking on the extra effort.

You could go 50/50 on to approximately, or alternatively favour 40% added protein calories per meal and 60% carbs. but it's obviously not about being to the nth degree and if you want some added fats then that's okay as fats are a secondary energy source and obviously many carb based foods like flax seeds, peanuts, nuts, avocado, soy products etc, contain fats anyway

However if I'm preaching to the converted as they say, then feel free to ignore those last two chunks of words

Whatever you decide about everything though, you'll have our full support as much as is feasible and do feel free to keep us updated as much as you want to, as we never get bored of reading about peoples progress and we'll certainly be rooting for you right up to race day and whatever you do after that, so chin up, be strong and keep believing in yourself, because I think you're a terrific person and I'm proud of you for these commitments to yourself and I will back you 10,000,000% with anything you chose to do and I'll continue to push you and be there in private for any emotional support you think you might need sometimes .

You've got this Kiba

[Kiba42]

Thanks for all the wisdom Boss Man. You're super supportive and knowledgeable. I'm curious about who you are and what you do, do you just moderate or do you have your own journal/blog that I just haven't found?

I've completely neglected to do any strength training for the past little bit but am getting back into it today. I always have to really convince myself to do it.

As far as cardio goes, I did 2 pretty great things on the weekend. The first was on Saturday. I had some free time so I decided to see how I was at a long run. I do 8 miles of walking/running most weekdays where I run for 4 miles to meet husband after work, and the we mostly walk home with some running intervals. But I never really reach capacity so I wanted to test out what I could do. So I aimed to see if I could do 10 miles just running with no walking breaks. The first half went really well, I wasn't tired or sore, but then right after I turned around left IT band started to tighten up. This was disappointing but not unexpected and part of the little experiment was to see at what point it was going to happen. It's not really the end of the world because I'm pretty sure a new pair of shoes will solve the problem, I just don't want to spend the money right now. Anyways, usual free solution to this problem is to just take shoes off, but I only ever do that walking. So I decided to try stretching instead, but then the moment I started back up knee was instantly tight. I didn't really want to walk 5 miles home though, so I decided to try running barefoot. It worked out really well and I got home with no further knee issues. It was only 8am when I got home, feeling all proud of myself and whatnot, but then as the day went on I got more and more sore. All sorts of little muscles I never have to use when I wear shoes were sore. I was thinking as I was massaging out a muscle on the top of foot that I didn't previously know existed that I had probably made a bit of a judgement error in running barefoot.

Anyways, Sunday morning I wake up and am a little nervous to get out of bed because I'm worried about how much I'm going to hurt. I stand up and walk around a bit and nothing hurts at all. There wasn't even a trace of tenderness. So I did second great thing. Sunday afternoon baby and husband fall asleep and I decide to go for an easy jog. I usually jog with the stroller so going without it feels a lot lighter, and I picked favourite 3 mile route through the neighbourhood. I was able to breeze through the whole thing in 30 minutes without any sort of anything. It was as easy as walking and that felt GREAT! It's only the second time in life where I've gotten to that place. But this is getting pretty long so I'll elaborate on that in a second post.

[Kiba42]

So this is the story of left knee. It's really the story about most of physical challenges, and it starts with the story of asthma. I have pretty severe asthma which I was diagnosed with when I was only 3. I'm not sure if it's just because they didn't exist back then, or because they don't prescribe them to children, but I didn't have medication that helped all that much. I always just kind of took it for granted that running really, really hurt and assumed those people effortlessly jogging past house were some sort of super human trained in some secret art of overcoming pain. parents pushed me really hard in soccer and I'd run as hard as I could and lungs and throat would feel like they would tear as I was gasping for air. I would struggle so much and just think I was out of shape and I just needed to try harder. Then as a teenager I was given "advair" which completely solved the problem. It was amazing and I felt like YEAH! Now I'm going to get to be all fit and healthy and active and everything is just going to be great and perfect.

So I'm rollerblading to school feeling all this new physical freedom, I have backpack on with all 8 of textbooks, and I'm not even moving just standing there waiting for the street light to change. foot slips out from under me and I go directly down on knee. I'm feeling all embarrassed because a bunch of people saw me fall and some boys across the street were laughing at me. The weight of all books is enough to break backback and since I was a teenaged girl I was pretty focused on being sad about all that. I pick everything up and get myself together and head on to school. A block or two later I notice some blood on pants and think about how long it's been since I've scraped a knee. There was a pharmacy on way so I stopped there to pick up some band-aids. It's only at this point that I roll up pants to inspect the damage, you know, do I need just regular band-aids or the bigger padded bandages. Anyways, knee kind of looked like a horror movie prop, there was flesh and bone and all kinds of stuff that's supposed to be inside of me on the outside.

It took about a year before I could walk without an obvious limp and even now I have to specifically tell knee not to lock and when to bend when I walk. gait is still not quite natural, you don't notice how complex the motion is until you forget how to do it. The hip, the knee, the ankle, and the foot all working in this perfectly coordinated way.

Fortunately ability to run was completely unaffected. This might be because I never tried to run while knee was still hurting so I never learned a new wrong way to do it overriding the right way in brain, but I'm not sure. Anyways, I started running. I had great new asthma medication, knee didn't hurt, and it was great. I was trying to lose weight after being sedentary for a year combined with bad eating habits. I'm not sure how long it took but I got to this place where I felt like a gazelle, I could run and run and felt really free doing it.

Then I had two setbacks. I'll start with the second, which was that asthma medication, miracle drug, completely stopped working. Now this was totally as simple as being prescribed a new and stronger inhaler. Everything was great and awesome and all that until I developed one of those "severe but unlikely" side effects being an arrhythmia. This pretty much just totally sucked. There are a few different types of arrhythmias, but the kind I developed was the one where your heart starts skipping beats and adding beats and just not following a usual rhythm, which is really dangerous because it only takes a few seconds to black out and what if your doesn't start back up on its own. I only dealt with this for a day because I was taken off the inhaler immediately and it left system quickly. But now a lot of the more powerful inhalers are off the table. Instead I have an inhaler with just the steroid component to try and prevent asthma but not to actually deal with an attack. The consequence of all that is that I have to make increases to intensity very slowly. But I can deal with it and our heart isn't something you want to mess with.

The first setback however, was a lot harder to deal with and is still troubling me. And it goes back to left knee. I was out running and knee started to hurt. It was left knee, the one I had broken, and I don't have great judgement about that knee because it's incredibly sensitive. I'm used to feeling way more pain in it than whatever happening to it warrants. As in, that breeze really hurts! I was a few miles away from home and I didn't think it was too serious so I kept going. It started to get pretty bad though, and I was worried it might just give out on me so I decided to just walk. Walking hurt as much as running but I had to get home somehow and I figured a hot bath, or an ice pack, or just taking it easy for a few days would be enough to sort it out.

It turned out to be IT band, a common running injury, and about the worst thing you can do is keep going on it when it hurts. So continuing on knee had made the whole situation a lot worse than it needed to be and suddenly knee hurt as soon as I started running. I'd go maybe 20 yards and it would hurt, going down the stairs hurt, often walking would hurt. There's a bunch of different things you can do for it, new shoes, stretching, resting until it heals all of which I tried, these bands to wrap around your leg that I didn't try, and going barefoot which I only recently tried (I didn't try this sooner because I don't like getting feet dirty I wish I'd tried it sooner because knee stops hurting as soon as I take shoes off and I never considered that knee never hurt when I was inside). This injury made me miserable. new shoes helped a lot and I could run and walk in them without any pain for about a mile. Stretching would help for a few minutes. Resting seemed promising, but even when I tried taking 6 weeks off and just resting knee, when I started back up there was no improvement. Then finally, when I became pregnant doctor was all like, "Oooooh, you'd better be very, very careful. Make sure you stay on the couch, eat a lot of ice cream, and don't get up for any reason other." That's only a slight exaggeration but I hadn't had a baby before and I was too tired to do any research to decide what was and wasn't safe. Then at around 3 months when I switched from a family doctor to an obstetrician he told me that I could be as active as I wanted and that it was best to stay in as good shape as I could which coincided with me getting over the first trimester fatigue.

So I tried running again, and as it turns out 3 months off was long enough for knee to almost completely recover. It still troubles me sometimes as I mentioned in previous post, but it's become manageable.

Between medication failing and knee problems I thought I would never get to feel freedom running again, so it's because of that I feel so great that I've gotten back to that place of fitness. And as much as I want to feel great in a bathing suit and stuff, and I'm not there yet, getting to a place where I'm feeling strong and healthy is an awesome milestone.

[Boss Man]

Well I certainly felt what you said and I appreciate how frustrating these things must be, but you should be proud of yourself for posting all those expressive and troubling, yet beautiful and heartfelt words and I'm proud of you, because it isn't always easy for some people to publicly air their personal concerns like you did and some people do find it easier than others, I don't doubt that for a second, so good for you Kiba

Yes there are differing things you can do for inflammatory type problems, like NSAID gels, cortisone, heat wraps, icing, possibly freeze sprays as well and there are specialised techniques people can use to encourage healing, like the graston technique, which encourages the bodies natural inflammation responses when they don't kick start as per usual.

The main thing is that you have not allowed your problems to deter you, as sometimes peoples physical concerns can be worsened, by allowing the circumstances to exert mind control on the individual, where the person believes they are capable of much less than they actually physically are.

In many circumstances, but not all, there are workarounds and ways to operate within physical boundaries / tolerance levels and it seems like you have found some of your boundaries and have managed to work within them.

This is another reason for me to feel proud of you Kiba, for continuing to dedicate some of your time to yourself, even after these issues, by being sensible and intelligent enough to try and work out what you can still do and every now and then to explore how much better the circumstances get, because I think working within tolerances is best continued by every few days or once a week, testing the boundaries of tolerance a little bit, to ascertain a new happy medium, therefore ensuring that any physical regression is much more limited, allowing recovery of previous physical attainment to be more expedient in returning and in your case your situation is one that can be given boundaries to operate within, not just perceived as something that should sideline you at further detriment to your physical state, rather than just operating at below normal efforts.

It seems evident to me that you are doing a terrific job of keeping up with your own well being and you are a very good example to others, about being positive in the face of minor physical setbacks and problems and I am certain it's that strength of character that will help you to achieve similar things to what you have done in the past.

So you CAN be proud of yourself Kiba, because you've earned it and you are showing that you CAN be the sort of brilliant role model, your Son can grow up to aspire to be like and grow up to admire and respect and feel proud of, because I am certain you have the right character, heart and personality to be a fantastic Mother, I don't doubt that for a second; so be strong, keep pushing, trust in your head and heart to be your guides and no worries okay, because I truly believe in you and I personally want you to succeed for you and because I know you ARE worth it .

I hope the knee keeps behaving itself as best as possible and GOOD LUCK trying to progress further and know that we as a community are with you all the way and we ARE here for you .