Newcomer and aspie

[Aurel Bochen]

Hello fit-nerds! My name is Aurélien, I'm 25 years old, living in rural Bordeaux (France), I'm a professional horn player, and I weigh 180 lbs for 5.9 ft tall. I joined this forum in hopes of finding good advices to my somewhat complex problem. I'll try to resume it as best as I can. 

First of all, I'm an Aspie person; I've been diagnosed quite late due to a really long acknowledgement of the medical authorities concerning my situation (I'll explain it later if you wish to know more).

In short, my mom was epileptic when she was pregnant of me. What she didn't knew for a very long time is that the medicine that she took (sodium valproate) had some toxins which infiltrated the spinal chord of the fetus and would cause some irreversible damage (physical or psychological) to the child.

I was fortunate to have only co-ordination problems (learned to walk at 3 years old instead of the usual 1.5 years old, for example) in comparison to others "valproate kids" like me; some of them are quadriplegic... 

I did a good amount of sports in my teen years : rock climbing, swimming, cycling, judo, trekking... But since I started the professional part of my musical studies three years ago, I neglected to take care of my fitness level. Now that doesn't mean that I do not do any physical activity: I still do a third of my weekly travels by foot (roughly 15 miles), and I am cautious of taking a good amount of healthy meals during each week (again, I will explain it later in another post).

The thing is, I've been searching far and wide to find a relatively easy workout with comprehensive exercises, but almost every workout-dedicated website had a line that said : "You should know how to do these basics before starting taking fitness lessons." And my mind was like: "How about those who don't even know how to do these basics?"

For example, would it be fair for someone who wants to learn how to play the violin, that his/her teacher gives him as first exercises the Paganini Capriccios? (the hardest violin pieces ever written)

Now I know I'm exaggerating a bit here, but that's the kind of thought that blocks me frequently from learning anything that isn't based around my areas of interest as a non-neurotypical person.

That's where my co-ordination problem kicks in: remember when I talked earlier about learning to walk later than usual? This is my biggest concern: even the easiest exercises presented in Darebee or HasFit are complete gibberish to my brain (the second one is maybe more clearer); I do understand the few first times I watch the explanation, but when I want to try it, my brain is like: "Wait, what??"

My demands are simple: I do not ask for the most perfect workout or program ever; all I am asking for is the easiest version of the "basic" stuff (squats, jacks, push-ups, lunges, crunches, planks, etc...) with each step explained implicitly (Step 1: put your arms like this ; Step 2: move your legs like that; etc...)

Also, I should mention that, being a pro musician, I practice my instrument from 4 to 6 hours daily, so the shortest exercises the better. 

 

I thoroughly hope that my lil' story will get some future responses and advices.

 

Aurélien Beauchêne 

[Pride]

Hmm, hasfit have a lot of workouts for injured and old people where they go quite slow with the exercises. 

 

Have you difficulty in following video workouts? Where the exercises are shown to you? Perhaps you can choose a workout in yt and do it, over and over and over until it becomes a pattern in your mind

[Machete]

Hey there, Aurélien. Welcome, first of all.

 

We had a few folks on the Autism Spectrum posting here some years ago. Most kind of dropped-off. (I was diagnosed later in life as well.)

 

I've worked with folks with coordination problems, and it takes a coach who can break down the purpose and biomechanics of the movements to allow them to understand what exactly they are trying to do. (For example, a simple Elbow Plank is an exercise that many are just supposed to know how to do. Many do so incorrectly for their intent, and a long, pedantic breakdown like this one is usually warranted.)

 

A lot of times people tend to get overwhelmed by the cues and start overthinking the execution as well, and that may just be as bad. I an important part of it all is starting with why with everything, from the training, to the workout, to the exercise, to the set and rep scheme, to the execution.