After thinking about it for more than three years, I’ve finally signed up for personal training so I can learn how to strength-train. We start to have muscle loss as we age:
Muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8% per decade after the age of 30 and this rate of decline is even higher after the age of 60
– NLM, Muscle tissue changes with aging
Women are especially affected because of hormonal changes as we start to leave our child-bearing years behind. Muscles have a direct relationship to metabolism and insulin sensitivity, so this is a large part why we start to gain weight usually after our 30s even though we’ve been eating the same amount of food. It probably concerns me more than the average human being because insulin resistance is linked to migraines.
I first contacted a personal trainer last november – yes like almost a year ago – but life events, covid and executive dysfunction derailed my plan. I am also quite fearful of working out in an indoor space since everyone will be breathing large amounts of air out and many places don’t bother about adequate ventilation, so the possibility of getting covid from a gym seems to be heightened.
But there was one morning a couple of weeks ago I couldn’t run due to haze, so I started thinking about going to the gym to run. One of the gyms near my place opens at 6am so I thought the risk of catching covid will be considerably less with less people and there would be enough time to ventilate the empty space overnight. They are a government-linked gym, so they offer memberships and personal training at affordable prices. I wear a kf94 mask that has been tested to have one of the highest filtration efficiency in the gym.
sidenote: I keep getting questions why I still wear a mask and am so ultra-cautious. Why is it so difficult to understand that I wish to protect my thinking faculties?
The list of neurocognitive issues that Meropol’s team and other researchers must track is extensive: cognitive decline, changes in brain size and structure, depression and suicidal thinking, tremors, seizures, memory loss, and new or worsened dementia have all been linked to previous SARS-CoV-2 infections. In some cases, these longer-term problems occur even in patients with relatively mild COVID-19.
– Scientists Are Just Beginning to Understand COVID-19’s Effect On the Brain
I mean if people’s decision is to YOLO their brains I guess I can sort of understand that – though I believe as a society we should protect the disabled and immunocompromised too – but why do people feel like they need to convince me too? I have barely recovered my aerobic fitness after 6 months and have no desire to play covid roulette.
Vaccination does not protect us from the damage covid can cause. It can only reduce the odds. There’s so many young, previously healthy vaccinated individuals on r/covidlonghaulers (and before people think it is the vaccine, there are even more unvaccinated longhaulers, geez). Previous infection would not confer permanent immunity too, and it is debatable if there is any immunity at all considering how fast the virus is mutating.
I feel like at least 50% of my ongoing depression is due to the everyday reminder that human beings will do anything in order to preserve their desired status quo. That governments around the world are complicit in this ongoing pandemic-inflicted damage by telling people getting infected is safe when it is not. What does this tell us?
</end of rant>
how the sessions went
I had my first two ever strength-training sessions this past week. One for the lower body and one for the back. The leg one was brutal – I told the trainer I run regularly so she tried heavier weights on me. I left the session with jelly legs and for many days after I was unable to bend or squat without considerable discomfort. I was warned that it would take 3-5 days to recover for a beginner. I still managed to go for a slow jog on the third day, after the internet told me that it would aid muscle recovery.
Like running, I think so far strength-training has improved my mental state. I think there is something ironically relaxing about exertion – as though I am able to push/pull all the frustration stuck in my body away, at least for a while. There are documented hormonal benefits of course, but it is one thing to intellectually know about the benefits and another thing to feel them.
I feel tremendously lucky that I seem to like exercise, though it was only the recent 5 years that I became this way, thanks to the necessity of trying to improve my chronic migraines.
why personal training
Why did I get a personal trainer? Primarily I would like to learn how to use the machines at the gym safely. I have no idea what is the amount of weight I should start with, what are the ideal routines to go through. Also it is very helpful for my executive dysfunction because it reduces the inertia of should I should I not.
I signed up for a trial package containing 3 sessions, thinking that they would be enough to teach me the basics and I could go off on my own thereafter (I just prefer to be alone). But after the first session I realised why personal trainers are an advantage: there are nuances that cannot be learnt from following a video, and a trainer can correct our form. We have no idea how our bodies are responding when we train on our own. The form is important to train effectively and prevent injuries.
how it affects blood glucose
I prick my fingers at least 5x a day to understand my blood glucose patterns. I do this primarily because of my chronic migraines but over time I just became deeply interested in the mechanics of metabolism. Perhaps it is the experimenter in me.
Running improved my glucose numbers quite a bit and it made me tolerate dietary carbs a lot more. Strength-training however – at least for the first 2 sessions – is like giving me miraculous numbers, especially post-meals. This should not be surprising considering how much glucose muscles need but I am still surprised. Considering it has only been 2 sessions I am hesitant to proclaim that this is a long-term effect, so we’ll see.
growing my internal battery
Once in a while my partner will bring up the older days of how I used to collapse flat on the floor whenever we head out, even if for a short while. We joked that I had a perpetually depleted small battery, and it can only hold a very small charge. My demeanour would suddenly change in the middle of an outing, and I would tell her I need to get home immediately.
I started to get less and less tired as we walked more and more. Again, wow aerobic fitness is really a thing. Running improved my fitness by leaps and bounds. Prior to my covid infection I could run 8km in the morning and still be out the entire day without much fatigue. Covid set me back, but after a complete break for a month I started picking up the steps again before slowly transitioning back to running. Now after 6 months I am back to running effortlessly again, though my aerobic capacity is still not back to where it was. Partially it is because I am more cautious about overtraining in case I trigger some latent covid thing or accidentally lower my immune system. So I cover less distance and I run alternate days instead of everyday.
I am curious to see how strength-training will change me and my body, assuming I am able to keep it up for a long while (please don’t let me get covid again). Will it be as life-changing as running did for me? How will it impact my psychological state?