Pentagenarians & Beyond: October 4, 2026

Good morning. It's Friday! Now if it would just hurry up and get over with so I can get to the weekend. Yesterday I tried something new. I wrote down a list of various low impact lateral moves (no rapid-fire squats, etc. that Cathe loves - those bother my knee, and deep bends put strain on the hamstring tendon). Then I did five minutes of those moves alternating with five minutes of leg work. It kept the heart rate up and didn't bother my hamstring. And I made a point to do an extended stretch afterwards.

Then I sat down and made up a new weekly schedule:
Monday - Legs and higher intensity low impact floor cardio
Tuesday - Upper body, abs and (hopefully) easy walking on the treadmill
Wednesday - Balance and flexibility
Thursday - repeat Monday
Friday - repeat Tuesday
Saturday - Flex day - makeup day if I need it, or repeat Wednesday
Sunday - Off.

I hope that my easy walks on the treadmill will eventually progress to more challenging intervals, or at least figure out why the treadmill bothers me so much. I really need to use it since I spent a lot of money on it. Sigh.

Carolyn - Nice work with LMR Functional Lower Body. That's a good one.

Valerie - I'm glad you had another nice bike ride. Walking uphill on the TM really bothers my dumb hamstring. Somehow I need to resolve that issue. You know, some people just can't do step, and that's okay. Lots of people could never do all the outdoor hiking and stuff that you and DH did for so long, either. We have lots of deer out here. When I had a garden, I put chicken wire around it. As for ornamentals in my yard, well, I don't have much! I got tired of trying to keep them alive during our brutal summers, so I just let everything die. So now I don't have to worry about the deer, either.

Hello to Judy and Cathy.
 
our treadmill was expensive too but we wore out our first one and replaced it with a similar one. that one had an electrical defect that was hard to identify but it kept giving me shocks when i ran on it when i touched the rail. Precor replaced it at no added charge with a nicer one than we had paid for
, so this one is fancier than the original. i will never forget the look on the face of the service rep when he saw me generate a spark while running.
we are older now and have never did much mileage on it. it goes up half degrees of elevation at a time. very gradually. for me a little uphill is much easier than perfectly flat. i was 3.5% this week. it has a load of programs where it speeds up, slows down and changes tilt.
i would just google sciatica and look for exercises that way. very few of us are structurally perfect and doing the same movements over and over cause imbalances and soreness. PT is pretty expensive if your health ins doesnt cover it. i would we do more indoors than we used to but we keep on keeping on. not always the same thing.
 
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Today I did JS One Mile of Motivation for 15 minutes, then STS 2 Chair Yoga which was 22 minutes. The chair yoga was just what I needed today. We are in the path of Hurricane Isaias so I’m expecting high wind gusts and a lot of rain late tonight and tomorrow.

Valerie, nice job walking on the treadmill. My treadmill is more advanced than I need. I bought it at Costco years ago and it’s still in great condition. My husband used it much more than I ever did.

Shannon, your workout plan looks good. You will eventually fight out what works best for you.

Hello to Cathy and Judy.
 
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Well I made it through the hurricane weather without a problem. The risk of flash flooding continues throughout the day, but I have no plans to go anywhere. There’s debris scattered around the yard but nothing major.

Have a great day everyone.
 
I shopped on Thursday. Then on Friday, was was trying to do Turbo Barre and got 20 minutes in and my internet connection failed, switched to my phone and that worked for a few minutes and I started getting bad connection notifications. That really was necessary as it was pretty evident. Tried switching to the disk but I was in the middle of a long chapter and I was having trouble finding where I was so I gave up and stretched. Today I did Live Cardio Crush and Live Bands, Loops and Weights Oh My! It was really nice today. 70’s again. DH was gone all day, so I was able to move things and clean in the kitchen and do other things that his absence makes easier.

Valerie, that’s good news that the doctor agrees that you need a new hip. My sister definitely found that her deer do not read tags, to know what they are and aren’t supposed to like? I believe they ended up putting a temporary fence around their new landscaped area.

Shannon great that your stretching and foam rolling helped your hamstring.

Hi Judy and Carolyn.
 
Tuesday I did a Peloton barre workout, Wednesday and Thursday I did Peloton walks, yesterday I did 40 minutes of Peloton strength work and today I did a 45-minute Peloton ride. I also did my PT work every day.

Shannon-I’m sorry that your sister has sciatica. Ice can help. Also, wearing a low back brace helps me. This is the one I have:

Amazon.com: Vriksasana Posture Sacroiliac Hip Belt for Women and Men That Alleviates Sciatic, Pelvic, Lower Back, Leg and Sacral Nerve Pain Caused by Si Joint Dysfunction| Trochanter Brace (Regular, Black) : Health & Household

The best thing I can recommend is to find a good physical therapist or chiropractic office that has experience with sciatica or if that isn't possible, there are a lot of good physical therapists on YouTube that have videos about sciatica. Like Valerie mentioned, you can find a lot of programs and exercises online too.

Carolyn-Great job with all of your workouts this week. I’m so glad you made it through the hurricane.

Valerie-I’m really glad you found out what you need to do to relieve your hip pain.

Cathy-Great job with all of your workouts this week. I’m sorry that you had internet issues.
 
I have several back braces a little bigger than the one judy gave you a link to. mine has a stiff section mid lumbar area. it overwraps with a big velcro attachment in the front. it was in the $35 range. used it for years. it definitely helps. i am convinced no two people have exactly the same problems with their back areas. i also use large lidocaine patches. that i get at costco. they are sticky and surprisingly seem to relieve deep pain. i used one last night and again during the day today and i was much better. i still need a new hip but i think this will help, hips seem to be much less drama than knees.

i did shopping today and then rode the roads near our house for 45 minutes including the big hill. i cnt understand why, but riding seems to help. also did about 15 min of rapid fire upper body work.. im doing it multiple times a week to keep from losing there. some exercises involve the hip area although it would not seem like it. not doing anything to aggravate that. i might be waiting several months, first to see the surgeon and then to get on his schedule.

cathy deer are illiterate. they dont know how to read what they should eat and what they should not.

carolyn good to know you got thru the storm ok. losing power is always our main issue.
 
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