February 2025 - Fran's Fitness Over 50

My workout was so hard today

If you do the same exercises every week, you’ve probably experienced this. One day you breeze through your workout and the next time you do that workout it’s so hard! Why are are some days so much harder than others? It happens to me, especially on my running days. I do a run/walk workout a couple of times a week and some days it’s not exactly easy, but other days my workout was so hard!

I’m gasping on the hard days

On the hard days, it’s all I can do to get to the speed I want and then I’m practically gasping for air. (Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration.) But on those days I complain to anyone who will listen, “My workout was so hard today!”

I really like it much more when I push that up button for speed and inclination on the treadmill and just get back into the story that I’m listening to. I don’t have to think about every foot placement. And I’m not watching the time for when I can push it back down.

We know that exercise is crucial for our healthy aging. But why is it so much harder some days?

Several factors at play

So, why are some days of exercise so much harder than others? According to Houston Methodist on Health, there could be several factors. If your nutrition isn’t well-balanced, you could be feeling tired and weak. But if you consume the right combination of nutrients at the right time, you should be well-fueled and have enough energy for your workout.

Your recovery from your last workout could also play a role. If you’re not fully recovered, and if your muscles haven’t rested sufficiently, you could also feel sore and not able to perform at your highest level.

And if you’re not getting enough sleep, then you absolutely will not have the energy to fly through your workout. Your body needs sleep to regenerate. Coffee doesn’t do it.

Nutrition, recovery, sleep, but also mindset

Your mood can also play a factor. If you’re distracted, then you’re not focusing on your workout and it might seem harder. If you’re feeling depressed, then not even the most light-hearted audiobook will make your workout seem effortless.

So when you say, “My workout was so hard today” it might be for one or more of these reasons. As I’ve mentioned before, the keys to success in achieving any fitness goal are having the right nutrition, exercising wisely, and having a positive mindset. Work on those and your workouts will get easier.

Don’t minimize your celebrations

I’ve written about all the noise around us coming from so many sources. The national news here in the US is crazy. The winter weather won’t let up. It’s all too difficult to muster up the motivation to do anything toward any goal – big or little. But it’s important to keep going and don’t minimize your celebrations for any achievement.

This last weekend my Village was without water for days due to a major water main break. It started very early last Friday morning. Our usually exuberant water pressure was gone. And a boil order was put into place. This last may not seem like much, but think about it. We didn’t have bottled water. We depend on our tap water for all our water needs. My family thinks our tap water tastes good! And when I did venture out to the stores, bottled water was hard to find. Hard to wash, hard to brush teeth. And no showers, so no vigorous exercise. No laundry. I couldn’t do my regular cleaning chores. And we had to really think about our meal preparation.

If you're feeling anxious and stressed, meditation can help you focus on health and well-being.

There was no timetable for repairs and temperatures were forecast to plummet in a couple of days. It would have been really easy to let my mood plummet as well. But I knew that there was absolutely nothing we could do about the situation, so I turned off the screaming screens and organized a shelf in the linen closet. The next day I let myself listen to the audiobook I usually reserve for my runs while I did some needlework.

It was the perfect way to pass a quiet hour while not running water. It was a celebration of sorts – for not descending into a really bad, ugly mood. Instead of becoming angry with the world for the situation I found myself in, I took some time to enjoy two pastimes I love. I enjoyed a really good book and did some needlework. Every celebration increases our resilience and our optimism. That’s so good for our mental health and our healthy aging. Don’t minimize your celebrations. Especially now when we all need every bright spot we can find.

When everything else is out of control

Lately it seems like everything is happening so fast that there’s no time to even catch your breath. The news headlines, reactions to them. Even weather systems are coming fast and furious one right after another. It’s easy to sit and keep scrolling your social media looking for the next thing. Needless to say, that’s not healthy long-term behavior. When we’re so busy focusing on the negative we don’t pay attention to what’s going on in front of us. It’s easy to neglect our health and our home. And, again, that’s not good for our healthy aging or our resilience. So, when everything else is out of control, let’s focus on what we can control.

When everything else is out of control, focus on your health

The one thing we can control no matter what else is going on is our health. Focus on Number One. Yourself. Be sure that you eat nutritious meals and exercise. And no matter how bad the news seems to be, try to maintain a positive outlook. Those things will help you get through all of this.

We’re bombarded 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by our screens. It’s easy to forget to shop. And it’s much easier to grab a burger at the drive-through than to cook healthy meals. But the act of cooking in itself is a great way to turn off the noise from outside. When I cook – which is not every day – I’m able to be in my own little world. And when you cook, you have to pay attention to what you’re doing so that the food doesn’t burn or get too tough. So turn off the noise and cook healthy meals!

Your future self needs you to keep moving, eat right and set achievable goals.

Exercise is truly the way to control your health. Every exercise you do is paving the way for your healthy aging. That’s especially true if you truly focus on your moves and make sure you have good form to get every benefit from the exercise. A biceps curl is much more effective when you’re focusing on the muscle that’s supposed to be working.

With the noise bombardment, it’s really easy for our mindset to spiral downward. It is for me, anyway. Bad news on top of distressing happenings sure depresses my mood. I try to catch that downward trend as quickly as I can and turn off the screens. I’ll do something else on my Get Stuff Done Funtime menu. If my brain still won’t turn off, I’ll try a guided meditation. Taking a walk outside – without headphones – is another good option.

If you feel compelled to take action about something that comes up in that noise that’s bombarding you, do it. Take action. You’ll feel accomplished, like you’ve done something positive to put your life on track. Taking action for something you believe in can build your resilience, form connections and generate a positive mindset. Here’s a caveat, though. Unless that action you take directly benefits you or people you care about, put a time limit on it. Don’t go too deeply down that rabbit hole because the rest of your existence could suffer.

You can see that you have options. When everything else is out of control, focus on what you can control.

Affirmations work for self-doubt

I tried pushing it, and then I had doubts

So, you know that my goal this year is to be able to run at 7.8 miles per hour for three minutes straight at 2.5 percent incline on the treadmill. I’ve been doing almost that speed but just for one minute alternating with walking at 4 mph for another minute. And the speed? Just one or two intervals at 7.5 during my workout time. The other day I decided to do 2 minutes straight at speed and incline. I could do it, right? After all, I’ve been doing this for some time. And I’ve been increasing speed and incline regularly. No problem, right? And then I started having doubts. Just one minute is hard. How much harder is 2? Could I do it? Was I crazy? But then I told myself that I could always back off the speed if I needed to. I can go as fast as I can go. But I can do it. This was a test of whether affirmations work for self-doubt.

The perfect pair

Affirmations and self-doubt are a match made in psychological heaven, as it turns out. The knowledge that I could back off the speed whenever I wanted helped me think that it was actually possible to maintain it. The fact that I was at an exciting part of the book I was listening to helped!

How affirmations work

Angele Close, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist, says that affirmations work by “shifting our mental attention towards our intentions.” And that “has the potential to help us steer away from negative thinking patterns and create a positive change in mood, mindset, and energy.” It’s natural to doubt ourselves. On that run, I was thinking that I couldn’t possibly maintain the speed for the duration. An affirmation turned it around and gave me the boost that I needed to try.

That positive change in my mindset gave me energy. I could keep on running, even though I was tired and sweaty. And that’s what we all need to keep us going, That boost of positive mental energy. It increases our resilience and our optimism, and makes for a great workout, too.

When should you use affirmations

Dr. Close says that affirmations are best used to evoke experiences. So, for me, I thought of how it feels for me to run. It’s not comfortable, and it’s not easy. So I thought about pushing that speed and maintaining it, feeling what I feel, and knowing that I would make it through. And I did. That affirmation helped me keep going. I didn’t quit, and I know that’s good for my own healthy aging..

Dr. Close also advises us beginners not to go crazy with too many affirmations. Our brain will be overwhelmed and the affirmations, positive though they may be, won’t do us any good. Keep it simple. If you’re troubled, though, try one. I speak from experience – affirmations work for self-doubt.