Consistency is becoming more important

I stopped exercising for 8 days because I was afraid the ciprofloxacin (sip-roe-FLOX-a-sin) I had to take for 7 days would make the tendons in my body rupture. Ciprofloxacin is an antibacterial medicine that can cause tendon rupture or swelling of the tendons, especially in people who are over 60, exercise, or have had tendon problems in the past. I am 59 and have had tendon problems in the past, so I suspended my daily meeting with kettlebells, the pull-up bar, and push-ups. I meant to walk every day, but didn’t.

My first day back was Friday, 25 November and I planned what I thought would be an easy restart… 3 sets of 10 halos with a 12-kilogram kettlebell, 3 sets of 10 deep body weight squats, 200 one-handed swings with a 20-kilogram kettlebell, and 5 sets of 5 push-ups. Before taking 8 days off, I typically completed one-handed swings with a 24-kilogram kettlebell and performed 5 sets of 5 push-ups as often as every other day.

I felt a bit winded while doing the one-handed swings, but otherwise felt good exercising again. That night, however, I felt the swings in my shoulders and back. The next morning, my chest was painful from the push-ups. I can’t remember the last time I felt pain from doing 25 push-ups.

Sometimes light exercise is the best way to ease soreness, so I trained again on Saturday to help loosen my body up. I repeated the halos and deep body weight squats. Instead of swings, I did 10 get-ups with the 20-kilogram kettlebell. I was using the 24-kilogram kettlebell for get-ups before the break, but now the 20 felt challenging. I did 2 sets of 10 dead bugs and 2 sets of 10 head rotations, 2 sets of 5 sandbag overhead presses and 2 sets of 5 sandbag rotational lunges. The exercise helped.

I took Sunday off and trained again today… 3 sets of 10 halos, 3 sets of 10 deep bodyweight squats, 100 one-handed swings, 10 get-ups, 2 sets of 10 dead bugs, and 2 sets of 10 head rotations. I recovered quickly from each set of swings this time, but the get-ups remained surprisingly challenging. I don’t think I am weaker than before taking a break, but my endurance is down and recovery is harder.

Apparently, consistency is becoming more important as I age.

I discovered the secret to exercising consistently just this past summer. I rarely miss a session by scheduling workouts at 8 AM.

I sleep until 7 AM, start my computer, drink 3 glasses of water, and publish the first updates of the day to my forecasts of precious and industrial metal prices. I am the Senior Metals Analyst at Elliott Wave International. I started exercising at 8 AM during the summer to escape the heat because I train outside in my driveway. The unscheduled demands that interfere with training rarely arise by 8 AM, so my training consistency improved when I started at 8 AM.

Now if I can just not need a potent antibiotic like ciprofloxacin again.