Fitness progress...

[johnpalmer]

Okay... I learned that there's two kinds of lunges. There's the kind where you take a step forward, and, well, kinda lunge forward, bringing your opposite leg's knee to the floor (or just above it). Then, I saw to my surprise, you can do the same thing in reverse... take a step back, end end up in the same position.

And then I learned that I could do four in a neat pattern, right foot forward, left foot forward, left foot back, right foot back.

I'm not doing them very well... I'm sure I could be improving my core and my balance, but my key thoughts are to strengthen my legs in a way that seems to help them support my knees.

But today, being only slightly stupid, I managed to do 160 of them without stopping more than a breath or two. And while I might try doing more lunges total in a day, I think I'm not going to try to break 160 in a row for a long time. (At least a week. Okay, a week in which I notice that I can do 160 in a row and it's no longer even slightly-stupid feeling.)

My knee still has some residual ache, so I'm going to keep doing my other exercises until it's been non-achey for a while. If I'm losing some of my endurance, well, I can get that back much more easily than I can recover from a really bad bout of tendinitis.

Plus... to be honest, I never thought I'd be able to keep up the discipline of this kind of exercise program, pushups, abdominals, lunges, squats, kicks, etc.. I kinda like proving that I can stick to it.

Comments

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I don't really do lunges at all because I'm too uneven, but backward lunges are less unstabilizing to do than forward lunges. I don't think lunges are a very direct way of doing what you want to do ("strengthen my legs in a way that seems to help them support my knees").

I think you're better off doing squats (which it looks like you already do), walking, and stretching. Stretching out your hip flexors, ITB, psoas, and everything else that attaches your hips to your pelvis so you can move more relaxed and efficiently.

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

As one about to resume exercise (gradually) after a considerable absence therefrom, I both sympathize and intend to profit (intellectually) from your accounts here...