Neffie

female
Posts: 6

A Mountain Log

Hello beautiful people, I hope you all have a lovely day!

This is going to be my infrequent checking-in diary. Infrequent not because I train infrequently, but because when I´m done with fabulous Darebee workouts in the early morning, I usually rush to complete my daily tasks. While I workout daily, I will only scribble here when I get the time or feel like I have something nice to share (please forgive the stream-of-consciousness format).

I´ve discovered Darebee by a very lucky (for me) chance in the early spring this year. I had an account at Reddit – for exactly a week, before I fled that AI-infested place – and found Darebee mentioned there. Came here and fell in love, because I strongly prefer home and bodyweight workouts over gym and other alternatives.

For several months I did whatever daily workout was presented (or from the workouts library), but although those are great, I lacked the structure, planning and visible progress – goal, motivation, results – that the Darebee programs offer. When I switched to those, I never looked back. They are amazing! It´s like training with a personal trainer. You know exactly what to do, there is a change every day to keep things interesting, but following a certain path that yields a reward in the end.

Everyone is different, but with individual workouts my silly brain did this: Oh, what a nice workout of the day. But I don´t quite like this exercise... why are there so many / so few reps of this and that? Let´s look for another workout. And then another. And then another.... (Too many choices, lol! I am not capable of dealing with too many choices.) With a program, I know exactly what workout is today and tomorrow and it is to be undisputed, to be done to the best of my ability – and I hold myself accountable and do it as it is written.

So far I´ve finished (at level 3) Athena´s playbook, House of the Valkyrie and Super cut. Loved them all. Currently I´m running (mostly at the same time) the Bootcamp and the Total body strength+.

Also finished today the Iron legs challenge. It was incredible. After the whole month, the last day wasn´t really difficult for me. I am feeling the positive change this challenge had on my leg performance – hiking (walking/jogging uphill) is definitely easier somehow, it takes measurably less effort and I´m faster without breaking any extra sweat. I will be doing this challenge again some other time, but with extra 2x2 kg dumbbells.

I wonder what the September challenge will be. But looking around the archive of Challenges, I found "The Miner" and that is what I want to do next month. Digging for diamonds (and finding worms instead) had me laughing and I just have to do it. And it aligns with my current goal: get off the knees and do real push ups for the first time in my life.

In the past months, thanks to Darebee, I worked my way up to doing 3 - 5 sets of 20 knee push ups with ease (failing at 30). I´d like to complete The Miner with 3 x 5 "proper" push ups a day and earn my "jewels". (A year ago at this time my right forearm had been in a cast and a sling, having been broken in 3 places. I only got full strength back thanks to Darebee and its many planks – I never did those before and yet those proved to be crucial for my recovery.)

Okay, let´s go and finish with the stats for today.

August 31st

Program Total body strength+: Day 10 done
Monthly challenge Iron legs: Day 30 done
Walk: 12k, 130 meters elevation
 
September 6th

Program Total body strength+: Day 15 done
Program Bootcamp: Day 15 done
Monthly challenge The Miner: Day 6 done, extra: 30 push-ups
Walk: 6,6 km, 280 m elevation

I´m loving The Miner. So far I´ve been able to do all the push-ups regular (not knee), and it feels empowering. Hubby loves it too, though he has rotten luck "digging", lol! He finds mostly dirt, and dirt, and dirt, and some skeletons and worms. I have far more gems so far, haha. Perhaps it is fair, since push-ups are so easy for him and I´m really working for them?
 
September 9th - what a pretty date today

Walk: 13,4 km, 665 m elevation
Monthly challenge The Miner: Day 9 done, extra: 30 push-up
There will be some stretching and/or yoga in the evening before bed.

Yesterday was the first time I ever noticed the "Collections" section on Darebee. I am embarrassingly unobservant, it seems, considering how much time I spend here, poking around. And they happened to be yet another, perfectly-timed gift from Darebee. I am not a native English speaker and I never before heard the expression "Shark week". I clicked on it, expecting to find some collection of workouts that would make me... I don´t know, sharp as a shark? Fast? Stealthy? Lethal? Lol. Instead, I found the very exact thing I needed - as yesterday happened to be the first day of my period. In the morning I couldn´t even move, but by evening, I managed to do two posters (hip opener and back pain relief), dragged myself through the Miner day 8 and felt so accomplished...

Still not feeling the thing, continuing with programs will have to wait at least until tomorrow. And I´m on my second year of perimenopause and lately I´ve been feeling like I am starting to push against an invisible, ephemeral yet sometimes almost very solid wall, and it feels like I´m starting to have physical and mental limitations. I think - no, I know - that I need to rethink my approach and stop skipping rest days. Doing "more" is not "better" any more, but working smarter is becoming sustainable.

I´m thinking of following the Solstice training plan loosely. I love strength training - that will happen 3x a week. I love cardio and metcon too - but I didn´t know that too much (too hard) can be counter-productive at this stage of my life. I will do those weekly, but one of them will have to be a lighter version. No more 2 hard full-body workouts every day, one will do. Abs as an add-on twice? thrice? a week, one of them planking. Not skipping the rest days any more, not skipping the warm up and cool down, not skipping yoga and mobility in the evening (ideally at least 3x a week) - been doing that lately because I felt too exhausted to do it - but did I take a hint? Hint: No.

Anyway, I wish everyone a lovely day!