60-year-old full time RVer looking to get fit.

[VanGrrl57]

Hello.

I'm VanGrrl57 and I'm a 60-year-old widowed mom of three. I also RV full time and after getting the all clear from my doctor, I'm currently working for the 2017 season at Yellowstone National Park. After recovering from debilitating health issues, I have started my fitness journey. I don't like going to the gym because I feel intimidated. Enough said. Also, I live on a tight budget so when I did a search and found Nerd Fitness, I felt at home and especially after checking it out for myself. Since strength training and distance walking interest me, I am pretty sure that they will make up the bulk of my fitness routine. However, any ideas anyone here has for me will be greatly appreciated. I look forward to getting to know others here as well.

 

VanGrrl57

[Wobbegong]

Hello VanGrrl57, and welcome to Nerd Fitness! We're happy to have you

 

What kind of fitness journey are you looking to go on? Weight loss? Strength/endurance building? Breath control? Mobility? Depending on what your goals are, we can cater our advice to suit your needs. 

 

Distance walking is fantastic! And strength training is so great for you and easy to get into. You can do bodyweight training for free anywhere, or if you're on a budget you can grab some resistance bands to give your training routine a little more oomph. Just make sure you're maintaining good form, or you'll be courting injury. There are lots of great form videos on youtube if you're not sure, and a mirror is always helpful if you can get your hands on one. 

 

Let us know if you have any questions! There's always someone around. 

[VanGrrl57]

10 minutes ago, Wobbegong said:

Hello VanGrrl57, and welcome to Nerd Fitness! We're happy to have you

 

What kind of fitness journey are you looking to go on? Weight loss? Strength/endurance building? Breath control? Mobility? Depending on what your goals are, we can cater our advice to suit your needs. 

 

Distance walking is fantastic! And strength training is so great for you and easy to get into. You can do bodyweight training for free anywhere, or if you're on a budget you can grab some resistance bands to give your training routine a little more oomph. Just make sure you're maintaining good form, or you'll be courting injury. There are lots of great form videos on youtube if you're not sure, and a mirror is always helpful if you can get your hands on one. 

 

Let us know if you have any questions! There's always someone around. 

Hello Wobbegong. 

Thanks for responding. I guess I should have explained better what I'm wanting to do. LOL!

Weight loss and strength/endurance building is what I'm wanting to do. When I have my next days off, I will try to get me some resistance bands. When you work at Yellowstone National Park, it's 40-50 miles to any of the exits which is why we have to wait for days off! ROFL! I was really surprised at that. If one wants fast food, forget it. That's a good thing in my opinion. LOL!

Anyway, thanks again and have a great day.

 

VanGrrl57

[Elastigirl]

Hi there! As a 52 year old, I love it when I see other older women getting into strength training. What kind of work do you do at Yellowstone? The NF main site has several good bodyweight workouts.Another good place is darebee and startbodyweight.com. I really enjoy Kettlebells. The book Simple and Sinister is where I get my workouts from. Kettlebells are nice because they don't take up very much room. Distance walking around Yellowstone sounds amazing! 

[Wobbegong]

A lot of people here really made a difference for me by responding to my first posts and encouraging/welcoming me in the community, so I like to return the favor  And I'm happy to do it! 

 

For weight loss, definitely what you eat will play a roll. It's kind of great that you're "trapped" in the middle of a National Park, because it makes it easier to avoid temptation, doesn't it? It's so much harder to say "no" to a donut when you're sitting at KrispyKreme than when you're out in the woods, since out in the woods there aren't any donuts around! Make sure you keep it that way in your RV, too: don't stock up on crap to keep on hand if you know you're going to be tempted to eat it. 

 

On the other hand, making a bunch of extreme changes all at once is the enemy, so if you're currently soda-dependent (just a random example), try weaning yourself off slowly. It's a much more sustainable method and far less painful to get through. Willpower is a limited resource, so be mindful and try to set yourself up for success! 

 

For strength and endurance, the #1 and #2 most important things (not sure which order, haha) are "Just do the work" and "Don't get injured." If you keep at it, little by little, the gains will come. But just like with food, don't rush! You've got plenty of time to make the changes you want. 

 

We're almost done with our current 4 Week Challenge, but you can poke around the Rebel Guild and get a sense of what the challenges are like, and take a look at the Planning Worksheet if you're interested. 4WCs are a great way to get accountability and to ease into being on the forums. 

 

Best of luck with your fitness journey, and don't forget to keep us posted! 

[VanGrrl57]

3 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Hi there! As a 52 year old, I love it when I see other older women getting into strength training. What kind of work do you do at Yellowstone? The NF main site has several good bodyweight workouts.Another good place is darebee and startbodyweight.com. I really enjoy Kettlebells. The book Simple and Sinister is where I get my workouts from. Kettlebells are nice because they don't take up very much room. Distance walking around Yellowstone sounds amazing! 

Hello Elastigirl.

I am also glad to see there are others here that are older. LOL! Thanks for telling me about darebee and startbodyweight.com as well as about Simple and Sinister. I also thought about kettlebells but I'm not exactly sure what weight I should start out with. There's so many neat places to hike here at Yellowstone that I have no doubt it will take quite a few seasons of me coming back here to do them all. That's a good thing, too. As for what I do, I work as a cashier/floor supervisor for a company that runs all the general stores in the park. I work in Canyon Village, which is 7,918 feet above sea level. It also snows up here and can do so well into June at times. The weather up here can be very strange. Being that my state of residence is South Dakota, well, I'm used to it. The season will end for me on November 5th which is the last day the store I work at will be open. After that, once we totally stow everything away and get the store shut down for the winter, everyone will be out of the park by November 7th. I will then go home to South Dakota as my youngest child will be getting married November 28th.  After her wedding and after Thanksgiving, I will then head out to possibly Colorado to work at one of the ski lodges for the winter or at Grand Canyon National Park. I will also be attending the 2018 "Rubber Tramp Rendezvous" (RTR for short) in Quartzite, Arizona in January. It's one of the biggest get togethers of RVers there is and it's a blast, too. Then, I will be back at Yellowstone for the 2018 season. 

 

VanGrrl57

[Elastigirl]

That all sounds very adventurous. I can't wait to hear about all your hikes.

[Elastigirl]

I forgot to mention that I have purchased several workout with downloadable videos from https://gmb.io/. They also have some free workouts, so you can give them a try. They have some fun bodyweight or minimal equipment workouts.

[zeroh13]

Welcome!

 

Working at Yellowstone sounds amazing! I like to do some hiking at a few of my local parks, but it's nothing like out west.

 

I hate going to the gym, so you aren't alone in that. I do a lot of bodyweight training, as well as a ton of walking. The sites Elastigirl recommended are really good. I've gotten several good workouts from darebee. I've also had fun with their daily dare, but that can get intense sometimes! And I've found some good information on easier variations of exercises from startbodyweight.

 

Good luck on your journey! 

 

[Guzzi]

Ok, now I DEFINITELY want to be you when I grow up!  (Not that I have any plans to "grow up" right enough)  

 

We have a few things in common too.  I love the outdoors and hiking too, I'm also recovering from some pretty serious health problems (from a motorcycle crash), and unfortunately I'm also a widow so I understand how large a part of your life that can be and I'd like to just say how sorry I am for your loss.  

 

As for exercise, I think strength training is a great idea.  It's unfortunate but true that as we get older (sorry!) we need to work to maintain the strength in our muscles and bones.  It not only makes our daily life easier but can vastly improve our quality of life and prevent/reverse certain conditions.  Then again if you're already into long distance walking then I'm probably telling my granny how to suck eggs, lol!  

 

like Elastigirl said, kettle bells are good because they don't take up much space, and there are a variety of lifts/workouts that you can do with them.  The same can be said for dumbells.  Personally I think barbell work is the most fun, I love doing Olympic lifts but it's something that you would probably want to work up to, if you even wanted to try it at all.  Gyms might intimidate you right now, but you might well find that changes over time as your confidence grows.  And remember that almost everyone in the gym probably felt exactly the same way when they first started going too. 

 

Bodyweight exercises are great, and you would be AMAZED at how much strength you can build using only your own body.  Strength Unbound is a really great example, it features one of our members, Waldo, and shows his progression from skinny-fat, weak 50 something to a totally ripped dude who is incredibly strong, and it's all been done without any equipment or gym membership.  It might not be what you were thinking of but it's really interesting and worth checking out, even just to be nosey (read: check out his abs)