Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

If you have any kind of mobility issues, existing or chronic muscular or skeletal issues or anything like that I *highly* recommend giving purely bodyweight training a go in conjunction with some yoga as a warmup or cool down.

BW exercises are a lot gentler on the body than weights and the body learns to adapt and compensate for injuries (though check your form).

I don't remember it at all.

I'm pretty cheap and tend not to pay extra for mere conveniences. While I don't consider alts mere conveniences mules certainly are.

They again I hadn't retired yet when I played XI and did have spare cash. Still, $5/month extra is the kind of thing I balk at.

/confused

This is why I don't like to make "friends" at work. Other people are either co-workers(people with the same temporary goal), managers, clients, or competitors(who gets in my way for MY promotion? Kick them out with subterfuge skill!). IMO there is entirely way too many potential conflict of personal benefit in workplace to build true friendship without the risk of ruining it.

When I have emotional need for friends, I go search for people with absolutely zero chance to have potential conflict of personal interests. It's much easier this way.

Paying the extra 2 bucks a month to save yourself the effort of running all the way across Vana'diel, just to find out that the other auction houses(they used to be separate) don't have what you want. Worth.

You probably did the right thing, though. At work people are either productive and useful, or unproductive and not so useful. If someone become unproductive for personal reasons, then someone else has to be the bad guy to get things right..... that's part of life.

Stop giving bad advice.

Obviously he is wrong.

And so do you.

Not implying that it's easy to accept/get over, but the silver lining is that I'd take a workplace "friendship" down the drain as an outcome of your situation over anything else that might negatively affect my work/career.

As someone else put it: be friendly with your co-workers, not friends with them.

I had two alts and five mules. The AHs were separate back then. I started on NA release and left before Rhapsodies.

I may need to research elsewhere.

It was like that as long as I can remember. I only had the 2 mules in the cities other than main. People weren't really doing the alt thing until much later unless it was a teletaxi or camping ToDs.

The only thing that was different was the billing cycle.

You quote the wrong thing, Panta. You should have quote this instead. I thought you are light aligned? You can't even condemn bad behaviors properly!!

I missed the convo earlier but how do you maintain the motivation to go to the gym every day? I enjoy using the treadmill when I can gather the energy together, but it's so difficult to form that habit.

You don't. Do it anyway.

Goes back to finding something you like doing - more likely to do it if you enjoy it.

There is a sort of heuristic that I personally believe.

Everything you do for over 2 months straight, ends up becoming a habit.

And that is basically the trick to do improve your own life: figure something you need to do routinely, actively do it for those months, and before you know it, you stop actively thinking about the said thing.

Some people actually like working out for them its easy. Many have a daily or weekly schedule they adhere to.

If you feel you must just grit your teeth and carry on.

Do not buy exercise equipment to motivate yourself with guilt. That leads to oversized dust catchers blocking up a room.

it might help to schedule a specific time, as others have said repetition over a month or two is key. much easier than waiting for the mood to strike.

Its not about motivation
Its about routine

Going one day every 2 weeks because you woke up “motivated” wont do *** all

That doeent mean you need to go every day either, but going once every two weeks is essentially paying $50 a month for two workouts. Thats just financially dumb.

Excuse me, ma'am. My Peloton serves a vital purpose of hanging clothes on and reminding me to go outside and ride so I don't have to listen to those *** annoying instructors.


Others have covered the motivation thing. I think it helps a lot to have a personal trainer. My observation is that people will never push themselves as hard on their own esp when starting out and will do a lot of imbalanced exercises, it also gets a set time and gives you someone to talk to. I hate going to the gym but my PT gets me up when I don't want to go. Even if you do it for a few months then go out on your own, it can help you set up routine and get more comfortable/confident.

Also find something that you enjoy doing that motivates you to be better. There are a lot of things you can do that aren't traditional "exercise" and you'll find you may make friends/community around that. For me, it was (and kindof is, although not to the extent before CTS) mountain biking. It's exercise but it also motivated me to goto the gym so I could be better at it, so it not only gets you out in the woods doing stuff, it also helps motivate you to do gym stuff when it may otherwise not be something you want to do. Rock climbing, cycling in various forms, hiking, backpacking, trail running, kayaking - these are all things you can get exercise in and you might find you enjoy.

I did try sea kayaking for a while, also, but it was one of those "better in theory" things for me. You are in a small small boat in a big big body of water and...I couldn't do that. Maybe if I lived somewhere I could actually see through the water (FL).

yeah if you like the gym, great. but there are countless ways to get exercise outside, or even without leaving your house.

This. Example:

My best friend, conically overweight since she hit 30, arranged for an ex to settle a debt by adding her to his gym membership. She went sporadically for a few months to swim and exercise. It didn't last.

Some years later she was able to buy and build the goat farm of her dreams. She happily lugs 40 lb, 18 kg, sacks of feed and deals with other heavy items while loosing weight and building muscle tone.

The goats are cute.

I otoh think that is a huge waste of money and most PTs don't know wtf they're on about.

Someone to push you, yes. That can be a gym buddy, you don't have to pay them (kek).

Think the issue here is that the average person knows far less about fitness than the average PT. If you're above-average IQ and take the time to research and plan, a PT is just a gym buddy. That doesn't encompass everyone though, and some people do need their hands held either to build confidence or to avoid injury.

Someone being paid also has more motivation to be consistent than a gym buddy. If you got friends consistent enough to meet you at the gym 4x a week, you should definitely treasure them.

Yes, actually. Both issues are on my dominant hand side, my right side.

Back when I had regular(free) gym access in college and The Navy, I didn't have any issues.

Got my bench up to 245 when I only weighed 150. Squat to 425.

But I haven't lifted in a regular free weights setting now in about 7 years. Haven't tried(also am cheap).

Issues started, like I said, from body resistance exercises and the shoulder thing out of the blue.

Haven't felt like I've been compensating for anything, but maybe it's a combination of all the stuff and putting on pounds. I'm about 19 pounds overweight from what would have me rope and choked by Navy PRT standards.

Vyre, you are no longer 20 and immortal.

This should be a mantra you repeat to yourself every time you go to exercise, preferably while stretching and deep breathing.

I didn't notice it either until my PT pointed it out, it's subtle but I do find that my problematic side (left) I tend to lean on more and compensate for the lack of strength in a lot of ways, both in the gym and out. If you do measurements of grip strength, you may see a difference, but also certain exercises PTs will have you do might show one side has more strength/endurance than the other.

I had no issues until about 8-9 years ago, that's when I first noticed it. I spent two days at a lift access bike park and upon returning home, I had a clear loss of dexterity in my left hand. Over time it became worse and worse to the point about a year ago I had surgery and it was bothering me 24/7. I saw various doctors in this 8-9 year window and had no luck getting any of them to treat it b/c the EMG was negative. I could describe I was in regular pain and having problems but they just kept telling me to stretch more. Some surgeons like to brag about their low surgery rate but seem to ignore their patients are in constant pain. I finally got surgery when one listened to my symptoms and the surgeon said it was clearly badly damaged. Some surgeons rely 100% on the EMG but the neuro who did mine said it doesn't always tell the whole story. My neighbor has the same problem and she loses feeling/control in her hand randomly but they just keep telling her to do Yoga and it never gets better. It's real frustrating, I will probably need it again b/c my surgeon didn't relocate the nerve.

Point being - keep an eye on it. If it is continually a problem then you should see a hand specialist. Being blunt, being overweight tends to make it worse, as does poor diet (inflammation) and sitting at a computer all day esp if your posture is bad. I'm guilty of all of the above and it's likely why I have problems, but don't be me and let doctors gaslight you into thinking there is no problem - find one that listens. This is a running theme with people who have nerve issues.


I've seen/met bad ones, I've also had really good ones. Mine was referral from a PT who had a history of working with PT patients in conjunction with the PT. My current one is similar. It's something you could do on your own, sure, but if I'm honest I just don't have the energy to think about it and, more importantly, it keeps me accountable to go.

yeah when I can actually get the stars to align, I do really enjoy the act of going to the gym and feel satisfied about the workout I did

seems like sucking it up and doing it when I don't feel like it is going to be the challenging part

Personally I stopped chasing big numbers after my 20s were over.

IMO, and this does not necessarily apply to everyone else but it does for me, chasing big benches and squats is more of an ego thing than a fitness goal.

You don't really need to go that heavy to get strong or get health benefits. Some exercises should also be avoided IMO because of the risk factor they carry even if you do them perfectly - deadlifts, heavy squats.

If you look at what the professionals do, NBA trainers, pro sport trainers, none of them train Olympic lifts unless they happen to be competing in Olympic lifts.

For the pros it's all split squats, walking lunges, farmer carries, leg press machines, that sort of stuff.

On PTs - sure they might keep you accountable but what happens if your PT moves or goes to another place or you have to change your times and can't see them anymore.

If you're beholden to someone else to keep you training and you can't do it without them then that will be a problem in the long run.

lb?

I would hope not kg.

You're both wrong

its 150 stone

Like a typical galka

Lets discuss some normalcy here, ok?