Blackbird108

Hi all, I am a 47-year-old female yoga instructor. I have been lifting since about January, first working with a trainer on general strength and cardio, then focusing more on lifting on my own. About 2 months ago, I started to challenge myself more and increased the weights and intensity of my workouts. I also started really fine tuning my diet, which is already very healthy, to include more legumes and complex carbs as my carbs. Right around that time, I was also very stressed and ... somehow through a combination of these changes... developed a really bad case of reflux, to the point where I was coughing and hoarse from it and my chest was in almost constant pain. I backed off the lifting, took a couple of weeks just doing easy walks and hikes and yoga, and researched and fixed my diet to the point where now I barely ever get reflux at all. I miss the gym though, and I really miss what heavy lifting was doing for my body and my energy levels! My plan is to ease back in slowly, 2 days a week at first, doing mostly steady-state cardio with a few HIIT intervals and lifting lighter weights but more reps, with the lifting taking up less of my gym time. I really want to get back into higher intensity training, but I am worried that the effort required will cause the reflux to come back. Also, I have to start back slowly because during that time off, my SI joint went out as well, and heavy lifting is not recommended while that is healing up. Has anyone ever dealt with reflux brought on by training before? Any tips or advice? Will I be able to get back to it, do you think?

Thanks - I will definitely do that. My "good" shoulder is starting to have the same kinds of pain, so it definitely does seem like maybe I increased the weights too fast. I know good biomechanics and I thought I had good alignment, but maybe I took it too fast with the shoulders.

This was a really helpful post for me as I am a yoga teacher trying to balance yoga + weightlifting... probably have overdone it a little as now I'm struggling with a stubborn sore shoulder. When I go back to lifting I will remember the suggestions - THANKS and good luck to you!

I've been working out steadily for about 2 months now and cleaning up my diet and have seen some good results. I'm a yoga teacher, so already was in decent shape yoga-wise, but had gained about 10 pounds of fat over the past year that I didn't want anymore, and was really struggling with low energy. My body is so conditioned to do yoga that it isn't a taxing exercise for me at all. Lifting has been awesome and I feel very strong and - more importantly - my energy has come back. I haven't made it to my goal yet, but I feel good about where I've gotten so far. But my shoulder has been bugging me, and despite P/T for about a month, it hasn't gotten any better. Finally my P/T suggested today that I stop lifting for a week and just go back to yoga and see if my shoulder improves. She thinks that I am building my big power muscles effectively, but that my stabilizing muscles are suffering because I don't have enough time to keep up my regular yoga practice (which helps with stability) AND get to the gym. So it's back to just yoga and some cardio for a week. I love yoga dearly, don't get me wrong -it's just that I was really enjoying my time in the gym and want to keep making progress on losing the fat and getting stronger. But - hopefully some good will come out of this. I will probably sneak in a lot of squats and lunges even if I'm not actually lifting. thanks for listening - would love to hear other people's stories if you have had anything similar happen.

So I have been really cleaning up my diet over the past month, and I have been super surprised at how easy it has been to stay on track when I eat enough protein. I'm a pretty healthy eater overall, love my veggies, cook at home all the time because I have a severe gluten intolerance and also lactose intolerant, which makes most processed/convenience food problematic. My body is really used to whole foods, lots of veggies... but it is also used to more carbs than I've been having lately. I'm not on any particular diet, but have been really trying to increase protein, increase veggies, and keep carbs lower especially on non-gym days, and also try to get them from low GI sources rather than gluten free pasta. Today sucked though! I have had a good day diet-wise (eggs and fruit for breakfast, chicken on a yummy salad for lunch, protein shake as a late afternoon snack) and I have good healthy food in my fridge - and I want NONE OF IT NOW. I have literally spent the last 2 hours thinking about what to have for dinner and nothing appeals to me that would meet the guidelines of what I've laid out for myself. I don't have any desire to eat a vegetable which is weird because I love them. I do NOT want any meat. I'm hungry, but I just don't want anything that I have. I also feel a little like you feel when a cold is coming on... no symptoms, just that malaise. What is this? Does anyone just hit a wall from time to time? It isn't even like I want to cheat or overeat or binge - I just don't want to eat anything healthy. Would this be a time when I should let myself just have a cheat meal? I'm trying to compromise with some gluten-free all natural egg rolls because at least they have protein and veggies in them, but even they don't sound good. This is very weird because I usually LOVE to eat. Ugh. Help!

I LOVE Rainbow Light's Magnesium/Calcium+ formula. It's a food-based supplement with a mix of different forms of magnesium and I swear by it. No explosive effects with this one... and I tend to be pretty sensitive to various magnesium supplements.

I will try to up the protein in my meals... I grew up with the "palm of the hand" serving size of meat and that does not seem like it's going to cut it! I do sometimes eat a protein bar with hydrolyzed whey in it, but I can always tell it still affects me... I wouldn't be able to do it on a regular basis. I do notice that the more protein I eat, the less I want to graze and my cravings for sugar or carbs have gone way down... THAT has been pretty cool.

If you have access to ghee (clarified butter) - it makes everything taste AH-mazing and you don't need a lot at all. A teaspoon of ghee and a whole mess of broccoli sautéed just until crunchy bright green ... sprinkle a little salt on at the end and it couldn't be easier or tastier.

I have Orgain (pea, brown rice and hemp protein) powder and I like it - 20 grams of protein per serving and 1 gram of sugar. I can't tolerate whey or anything with gluten in it. No cheese, no greek yogurt. I feel like if I eat 3 balanced meals a day with a good amount of protein each time... and have one of those shakes as a snack at some point in the day... then I would probably get to about 85 grams a day, which would be kind of close but still on the low side of the 1 gram/pound of lean bodyweight. Thanks!

Hi! I'm new here... i've been working out and being careful about my eating for about 6 weeks. Have started to see some positive changes but I want to keep refining. My goal is to lose fat and get stronger while still looking lean. I keep reading that getting enough protein is essential and I totally get that - but eating 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight just seems like a LOT of protein to try to eat without a ton of calories. Does anyone else struggle with that? Any tips?

Thanks so much!

Greetings, friends! I'm so happy to have found these boards. I'm a 46-year old yoga instructor who's trying to get into better shape while avoiding injury and staying true to who I am. Briefly, I went through a divorce a few years ago, lost 15 pounds in a short amount of time due to stress (I would call that the hard way)... was in the best shape of my life but reeling from the emotional process, and then over time, got happy and gained it all back and then some. I love to cook and eat, have a pretty clean diet that could use more fine-tuning, and basically want to get stronger and leaner. Yoga is wonderful for that, but as I get older I find I need to increase my intensity, and I have very loose joints that need a focus on strength training now and then. About 6 weeks ago, I started working with a personal trainer once a week and then doing the workouts on my own a couple of other times. What I need now is a community, and advice on how to take it further, safely. I love to geek out on facts and science so I am excited to hear what you all know and give whatever support I can! Thanks for being here and letting me share.