Back to fitness.

I know that a lot of people look unfavourably at AI (or what's currently being described as AI: large language models, or LLMs). I admit that there are issues that I have with it, too. My job is increasingly at risk due to AI and I think it's entirely likely that I will be made redundant within the next five years as a direct result.

And don't get me started on AI-produced "art".

But it can have its uses if you know how to utilise it. That's half the battle. Creating a good prompt can yield incredible results, but writing a good prompt is a skill in itself.

For example, I could ask Google about chronic back pain.  Which would give me thousands of results.

Or I could write a comprehensive prompt, which is what I did. I described my pain, how long I've had it, the fact that I've not yet had a GP diagnosis, my own suspicions about my sedentary lifestyle being a factor and it give me a result.

To be fair, it did advise going to see a GP as one of its first comments, but it also suggested that my theory about my inactivity could be a factor. I then asked if there were exercises that I could do to help ease or remove the pain and it updated its response with a 6 - 8 week plan. I then added that I had some basic exercise equipment and listed it to see if that would change things, and the LLM made slight adjustments to add the equipment after a few weeks.

And finally, I asked it to create a collated collection of its responses with detail descriptions of the exercises in a printable format for offline reference. And it did that, too.

I still have to contact my GP, and it's still hugely advisable to double-check what an LLM tells you (as should be the case for any internet search, especially medical) but a lot of the basic exercises are the same as those in my Yoga programme. A cursory search looks like there's nothing massively incorrect in what the LLM has given me, so that's something to get on with, I think.

Get flexible.

I wanted to make an effort to get back into yoga this week, but my motivation levels are near zero. We've been busy in work, so I am not getting the chance to do it during my lunchtime, which is when I've done it before. When it comes to logging off in the evening, I'm mentally exhausted, which is sucking my motivation.

The upside of being super busy is that the days are flying by. Well, two of 'em this week. 

Urgh.

My back has been giving me grief for the past few months, sporadically. I really need to get back into my yoga. But last night was a particularly bad night. I feel asleep quite quickly, but I woken less than an hour later, then spent nearly two hours trying to get back to sleep.

Additionally, I had to start early this morning,  so that meant waking an hour earlier and boy am I feeling it this morning.

Lots of coffee, I think. 

Zzzz.

This sleep thing is still an issue. As reported before, getting to sleep isn't an issue, but waking at 530 AM and struggling to get back to sleep is an issue.

However, the new mattress does appear to be paying dividends. My back is noticeably less sore than before. I still need to be more active, and that's proving more difficult to motivate myself into. I'd like to both get out of the house more and get back into the yoga. I don't know if that would help the sleep issue, but it's something I should be doing regardless.

Meh.

 Motivation is at an all-time low. I have a few messages I need to reply to, including one from FP's widow from the start of July and I just don't have the energy for that.

I also need to get back into yoga. Again, it's something I dropped at the start of July but not picked back up yet.

I don't know what it is. I don't think I'm funking... but this lack of motivation and lack of energy is concerning.

Sigh

I had promised myself that I'd get back into the yoga today. It's been like four weeks since I last did it and while the back pain from my injury (I can't remember if I blogged about it, but I missed a stair at home and jarred my back) is mostly gone, I can feel the other back pain returning. It was busy in work and I wasn't able to do it at my usual time at lunchtime, so I'm hoping I can still motivate myself to get a short session in once I log off.

Ooops.

Maybe KfW2 had a point. I realised this morning that I'd not done any yoga in about a week. This was partly lack of motivation but partly a recurrence of the back pain. Maybe I should have continued the yoga with a view to seeing if it eased, but I am super-paranoid about back pain.

Oh dear.

For the second night in a row, I got terrible sleep. Additionally, for the past few days, my back pain has returned to the levels that I had pre-yoga. Because it's by back, I am super-cautious about it, so I've not done any yoga since before the weekend. But I feel like I should try something.

Stretch goals.

So, it's about six weeks since I restarted the yoga, and I have to say that, overall, I do feel better. I can't say that I've lost any weight, but that's not a short-term goal. Admittedly, I'm still not doing it daily and June's stats are averaging out at once every three days. I want to be doing it more frequently than that. Even with a couple of periods where discomfort in my back flared up, I should have maybe been looking at 1 workout in 2 days.

But, I can definitely feel the progress, and that's motivating me to keep going.

Dance the night away.

I really enjoyed the gig last night with M. A lot of people turned up for doors opening time, so by the time we arrived (only 15 minutes after that) there wasn't a seat to be had. So we spent the night propping up the bar. We managed to have a chat, too. It appears that G has been home as he said he would, but he just wasn't in touch with me. And he mentioned that one of my old school crushes had split with her husband, which piqued my interest until M said that he thought she'd already found herself a new partner.

And I couldn't shake the feeling all day that Chloe was going to be at the gig. I've no idea if the music was her type, but I do get these gut feelings sometimes which almost never happen.

I don't think that standing for 3 plus hours plus doing the odd bit of swaying/dancing has done my back any favours, so yoga might have to be cancelled today. I'll play it by ear this afternoon.

Let's go.

I got around to doing the amalgamated workout today. 39 minutes (including cool down) and burning 537 calories. As I said in my last post about the workouts, there are certain exercises where I am not going as intense as I could, so there's a lot more to come from this specific exercise.

I need to decide whether to move the exercise to first thing in the morning or after work in the evening as doing it during lunch can be troublesome if I have an early afternoon meeting.

Back into it.

I kinda slacked off on the yoga front at the end of last week. For a few days (Thursday to Saturday), I was just drained both mentally and physically and with that, all motivation just evaporated. And I don't use that phrase "drained" lightly.

I got back on it today, though, and gave me cobbled-together dual workout a go. I didn't get all of it done. Part of it was that it was a struggle towards the end with a few minutes to go and secondly, I lost track of time and was going to be late for a work meeting if I saw it through to the end. I did 32 out of 38 minutes.

But it was good to get back on it, and adding the core workout to the beginners stretching workout is a good move and gives me even more to grow into. I'm still tailoring the stretching workout (focusing more on stretching my legs than doing push-ups, for example), so there's plenty of room to make the workouts more challenging before I even need to consider some of the longer/harder workouts.

Let's go (part 2)

Well, that didn't take too long. I've managed to merge the two yoga workouts, cut out the intros and one of the cool down sessions. It should get me straight into the workouts and seamlessly move from the first to the second. It's a bit janky, I'm not going to lie, but the important thing is that it lets me do both sessions without getting up from the mat to find my TV remote to go from one to the other and I've stripped out about two and a half minutes of unnecessary time.

It's an office day tomorrow, so no yoga at all, but maybe Thursday, I can try it out. If it's forcing my body to do too much, I'll go back to my usual routine with the odd core workout thrown in. Just trying to build habits and keep it up.

In other news, still nothing from M.

Let's go.

Back on the exercise wagon, yesterday and today. Usual routine yesterday, the shorter, but harder core routine today. I should sit down with a video editor and see if I can't create an all-in-one that cuts out the rubbish so I can fire up the video, do the routine(s) plus the cool down and get out without having to worry about reaching for the remote.

I reckon that's about a 38 minute workout and would keep me going for a bit because there are still elements of both workouts where I'm holding back. Yeah, I like this idea. I might give it a go tonight.

Hurrah!

I think my concern/pessimism about the core exercise was justified, but I have to say that the expectation that I might suffer some additional pain was unfounded. In fact, totally the opposite. I woke this morning in less pain than I can remember. Not pain free, but it wasn't far from it. I know that one swallow does not make a summer and there's ongoing work to do, but it's little wins like this that help keep me motivated.

And I still have a walk with Nerdy Girl pencilled in for early evening.

Result x 2

I did another yoga session at lunchtime and I'm feeling good. The proof will be in the pudding tomorrow to see how my body reacts to another two-days-in-a-row of yoga. I am feeling myself stretch out, though it is a slow process. The foot and back pain is still there in the morning, but the rest of my day is relatively pain free and currently it's only stiffness or soreness from exercise that's bothering me during the day.

In fact, tomorrow could be full-on. If I feel good, I'll do another yoga session. If the weather's good (well, dry), I'm meeting Nerdy Girl, so we could play pool, have a bite to eat or do a walk  (or a combination of any of those). I think a 6-mile walk is out, but we could do a shorter walk just to test it out.

Result!

I'm slightly surprised, but more pleased than anything. The core session I did yesterday, while troublesome at the time with my back, doesn't appear to be giving me any more discomfort than it has on other mornings. And I can really feel that session this morning in my abs.

That's not to say that I'm going to be doing the core session today given there was definite discomfort and I don't want to rush into things that might end up being a big step backwards. But I might do it later in the week if things continue as they have done.

To be honest, it's designed to be more of a bolt-on session. Something to do after other sessions specifically to target the core, so it's not like I'll be doing it instead of a proper session, but I am enjoying that "pain" in my abs after a proper workout.

Uh oh.

While I wasn't able to shake the hangover-esque lethargy yesterday, I did get most of the gardening chores done. I didn't get any yoga done.

Today, though, was different. The lethargy was gone, but motivation was still low. In order to try and increase the motivation levels, I decided to mix it up with a different workout, but that might have been a mistake. I went with a workout designed to work on my core. Stronger core should equate to fewer back issues, apparently. But during the workout (which was quite short), I really started feeling it in my back. So, I'm kinda wary about how I'm going to feel tomorrow.

Back to the usual workout next time out by the looks of it. I shouldn't crunch before I can walk, lolz, I am hilarious.

However, in other news, Nerdy Girl has been in touch and we're meeting on Tuesday, potentially for a walk. Weather permitting, of course. The plantar fasciitis is still an issue, but a lot of the pain and discomfort can be mitigated with better footwear. I am my own worst enemy and seem to make things worse every week when I go into the office in my fashion trainers. Two steps forward and one step backwards. Man, the puns are flying today.

Hmmm...

I'm second-guessing myself today. I was thinking about doing more yoga, but the last time I did two consecutive days, my back pain flared up. I'm feeling OK today, but my concern is how I am going to feel tomorrow, and I am busy tomorrow with gardening chores and stuff. Maybe it's still a case of taking it slowly and doing every other day for another week or so.

Ooft.

My back was still sore this morning, and I don't think I slept well last night. In fact I don't think I've slet well for about a week.  It's weird. It feels like I wake early, but not fully then it's some kind of weird semi-sleep for a few hours until its time to get up.

But, I did a session of yoga at lunchtime, and I feel much better for it now.