I'm sick of my Ph.D. killing my fitness!

[jaxsan]

I'm Jax, and I'm a competitive epee fencer. That is, I was, until my Ph.D. candidacy exams and an injury to my leading knee hit at the same time. The Ph.D. exams were one oral on everything I know about physics post 1900, one written on everything I know about physics pre 1900, and one oral on what I want to research (neutron star structure and gravitation, incidentally). The knee injury was a bad strain caused by my knee buckling while I was making tea, caused by my patella scraping against my femur - boo patellofemoral pain syndrome.

I have a hard time motivating myself to work on my fitness without it being fun. Fencing is a great motivator because I love doing it, but my club's attached to the university and disbanded for the summer a few weeks ago. Physical therapy was a great motivator because my PT consistently challenged me. I've also got pretty significant ADHD, and whim works to my advantage - I was pointed to Nerd Fitness because I was musing that stuff I could do on the living room floor when the "hmm I should exercise" thought crossed my mind would be helpful.

Goals:

• I want to get my knee stable. Not having to wear a knee brace to walk a few miles on uneven ground would be nice.
  
• I want to get back to looking and feeling strong. I'm losing my beautiful calf definition, and although I'm the same weight plus or minus a pound or two, I don't like that the weight's migrating from my leg muscles to the squish on top of my hips.
  
• I want to convince my shoulders that doing a push-up is a thing that is possible. Preferably dozens of times in a row. My arms are totally strong enough to do them, but my shoulders lock up for some reason.
  
• I want to get back out there and fence, and I want to win! I've had enough success at the club level for me to think I could cross over into USFA and pick up a ranking.
  

Plan:

• Interval training - the basic interval training laid out is coincidentally the "epee duty cycle", 30 seconds on, 2 minutes off. I'm going to try it on the elliptical to start, my knee doesn't really like running.
  
• Bodyweight workouts, written down and put somewhere in easy reach so I can use my impulses for good, not evil.
  
• Get out for a walk or a hike every week. I've got a nature area right out my back door, I'm moving to a remote, beautiful area with lots of mountains, and I already have a standing invitation to go on hiking trips.
  
• Yoga every week. For my body as well as my attention span.
  
• Fence every week, even if I can only handle a few touches.
  
• Plan my meals better. Both for health and to shave a few bucks off my grocery bill to be put towards floor fees and equipment upkeep.
  

I'm debating if I feel crazy enough to try doing laundry and a bodyweight workout in the 90 minutes before bed. I might just feel that kind of crazy today

[Mixy-Chan]

Who knew making tea could be so deadly.

Physics....i love it...I'm not exceptionally good at it, but it was really interesting to me,..funny how I did better in that class then I did math....(class I would rather not think about) However, I'm an English person...I write novels... So physics and English are two different territories.

I was never in a place where I could fence, so I applaud you, if it is something you have loved don't drop it out for some injury. If you are looking for a workout, I'm tring to design a Pokemon workout if you;ve ever heard of it lol.

As for being crazy before bed...I don't like workouts before bed because then I don't sleep....until I hit a "you're dead, go to bed" type thing. Which I'm sure I will experience soon enough...I did a lot of workout stuff today that might send me to bed...and who likes to go to bed sweaty. However that being said. Do your laundry, s you have plenty of socks for the morning.

Welcome and good luck!