Pentagenarians & Beyond: November 23, 2025

This morning I did my yoga/mobility for 18 minutes.

Diane Sue, great job with CDorner and Jessica’s Valant workouts.

Cathy, great job with Live Kickbox Crush and Restorative yoga.

Hello to Judy and Valerie.
 
Today I did LMR Functional Upper Body and Icy Core 1.

Diane Sue-Great job with CDorner Old School aerobics and the Jessica Valant workouts.

Cathy-Great job with Live Kickbox Crush and Restorative Yoga.

Carolyn-Great job with your yoga/mobility work.

Hi to Valerie
 
I was trying for something i could do myself. DH is perfectly willing to do back massages but i still would like the ability to do it when i want it. all the things i tried so far were aimed at that. i liked the hand held massager but he wont use it anymore because of a chance it might interfere with the pacer. we had used it many times before with no issues. it was the new device that caused the issue . i might try again with soft rollers but there is not a lot of space between my spine and my ribs where the muscle is. hard to get at it without hammering everything else.

i was thinking it might be a musical. i generally dont like them. i have never even gotten thru the whole wizard of oz movie. ive seen enough sections of it to know the story but i could not stand judy garland. something about mannerisms and voice that is like nails on a blackboard. i would try watching if it gets to home screens.

just sticking to therapy work today.
 
This morning I did the barre sections from Xtrain and Lower Body Blast. I rarely do anything from Xtrain just because I really dislike the set. It's my least favorite of them all.

Judy Garland does have a distinctive voice though it's never bothered me. I haven't seen the Wizard of Oz in years, but we pretty much watched every year once it went to the yearly TV broadcast. Right now Wicked is on Prime Video and Peacock. Since I know my husband's Amazon password, I set it up on my Roku TV which he won't touch. LOL

Valerie I hope you are able to find something to help your back. I know I really miss Derek being here to get the knots out of the area below my shoulders that sometimes gets knots. I haven't found anything else as effective.

I do hope we have the new videos by the end up the year.
 
I accept I'm a crank about judy garland. everyone else loves her. oh well. the new Wicked movie did well we haven't used Prime much since they went with commercials. poor Jeff hasn't made enough money yet. DH mutes ads if he cant skip over and runs them all ads muted before he starts watching anything. i have no clue how to run the system in our living room. i have major problems with the apple TV device and he wont take time to show me how it works. he holds the device in a way that prevents me from seeing what he is doing and says you just click, swipe, click and bingo there you are. 3 remotes needed. im not stupid but i dont do well on this topic and we cant talk about it. that ship has sailed. i use the basement set up if i want to watch anything.

i get the most relief from stretching. we tried the hand roller device . its ok, but its pretty hard too. when i go to PT later this week i will see if they can suggest anything. i believe all their roller devices were very hard.
 
Today I did Low Impact Sweat, workout one. That was 28 minutes, 168 calories burned, average heart rate 129, and maximum heart rate 157.

Judy, great job with LMR Functional Upper Body and Icy Core 1.

Cathy, great job with the barre sections of X Train and Lower Body Blast.

Valerie, it’s a great idea to ask the PT‘s advice on a massager or foam rolling.

Hello to Diane Sue.
 
Today was a rest day. I did some stretching and pt work.

Valerie-I hope the PT can suggest something useful for you.

Cathy-Great job with Xtrain barre and Lower Body Blast.

Carolyn-Great job with Low Impact Sweat, workout one. My OPTP soft foam roller arrived today and I love it! It’s so soft and comfortable to use. It feels like it’s working but it's not as harsh as the hard foam rollers. Thank you for mentioning it.

Hi to Diane Sue
 
I did several therapy sessions and then a 5 min spin warm up and then stacked upper body. our deck is moving right along. so glad i convinced DH this was WAY too much for us to do. he loves doing projects but this is a huge one. 4-5 guys working on it all day. we would have been working on it for a year! its so funny to watch the cat taking this all in. he sits in the window and at the door and watches everything but even with the chance, he doesn't try to go out. its like he knows there are strange people out there working in "his" territory. there are only joists out there so no solid surface to walk on. we expected to be fighting to keep him inside but he's behaving really well.. not sure if this will continue after there is a solid surface to walk on out there. but it will be a while yet before there are stairs, and solid surface.

i will take a look at that specific roller you mentioned Carolyn. if both you and judy like it, it must be better than what i tried.
 
Thanks judy. i looked at these yesterday and i think i will give it a try. DH is less enthused. he thinks rolling anything around my surgery site isnt a great idea. I can tell in a heartbeat if its too hard and can return if it wont work.
 
Today I did Stacked Sets Upper Body, 46 minutes, 150 calories burned, average heart rate 108, and maximum heart rate 166.

Judy, nice job with stretching and PT work. I’m glad that you like the foam roller.

Valerie, great job with the therapy exercises, spin warm up, and Stacked Sets Upper Body.

Hello to Cathy and Diane Sue.
 
Sunday was a rest day. Yesterday I had to get up early to get to an 8:45 appointment for a chest CT. No workout.
Today I did CDorner All Standing Tabata after doing the warm up of today's new tabata workout which is not doable for me. It started out with some a close stance lunge touching hands to the floor. My knee was not happy with that. This was 34 minutes, 206 calories, heart rate 125/162, 2,509 steps. I then did Jessica Valant Full Body Pilates and Caroline Jordan Full Body Pilates with a mini ball, 30 minutes, 58 calories. Carolines workout was 18 minutes and no ads, and Jessica's was 13 minutes with one grouping of abs. I do not get hers having so many ads. Some of Carolines moves were a bit hard for me. Holding a ball between my feet lying face down and lifting my feet off the floor did not happen and bear hold with the ball was not good for my wrist. I made some adjustments. These were not listed for osteoarthritis though. Some moves were the same as the scoliosis and osteoarthritis workouts that I have done.

Judy, nice job on the stretch and PT work.

Valerie, nice work on getting in several PT sections and 5 minute spin warm up with Stack Sets Upper Body. That is great that the cat is staying in and being watchful. That foam roller Judy posted looks like it has some give to it. I think I will hang onto that link. I have had mixed feelings about trying to actually roll on my back anywhere around the spine. Just lying on it lengthwise to open up chest and loosen up a bit does not seem like it would be bad. When I try to look up advice I get mixed reviews on it. Amazon is good about returns. I like it better if I can return at CVS though rather than driving to the UPS Store that is a large ultra busy shopping and restaurant area. Big things we cannot do that with.

Carolyn, good job on Stacked Sets Upper Body.
 
No workout today as I had to leave early to take my brother for the injections in his back. Part of the hold up was his blood pressure, but today it was 180-99 which apparently was low enough. I'm glad because last time he was there, thankfully with his wife, they told him they couldn't do it and he had a complete melt down in the waiting room. No workout tomorrow as I want to be out of here at 7:30 to shop.

Valerie other things I watch on Prime Video have commercials I can't skip, but oddly Wicked only has about a minute before the movie starts. And after I told both the boys don't watch the second one if you haven't seen the first, tonight Derek went to Wicked for Good with a friend. I can't imagine how that would go without knowing the rest of the story, but...
 
i walked uphill fast on the treadmill for 35 minutes. used a hand weight during it too. did therapy x3 today and other ab work. looking around i found OPTP has soft foam rollers and also super soft rollers . if you look at the videos on the individual products, you can see how much "give" there is to compare. the firm and moderate ones are way too hard for what i wanted. my next therapy is friday so i will wait til then to get PT opinion on whether this will help or not.
Cathy i can live with the ads that run before the movie. i will pay more monthly to avoid them. when they get inserted into the middle of the program i am done and if i cant FF thru them I am totally done and shut it off.
Does your brother have a home BP cuff? if he takes his BP routinely and records the result, along with day and time, it does 2 things. it gets him conditioned to getting his BP taken and not get so stressed. it gives the doctor a record of what his BP is like under normal conditions. . he should bring his record with him when he goes to his doctor. my DH gets so stressed before procedures he has to take anti anxiety meds to keep his BP from being ridiculously high. he takes a huge amount of BP meds routinely, but it still goes sky high before a procedure or even someone else taking it. at home under normal conditions his bp is fine. on the low side actually. the last time i had back injections my BP was ridiculously high but it was due to the injections themselves. not getting more of those. took an hour to come down after.
 
Today I did KCM’s Cardio Quick Fix, workout one. That was 26 minutes, 172 calories burned, average heart rate 132, and maximum heart rate 156.

Diane Sue, nice job with CDorner Jessica Valant, and Caroline Jordan workouts.

Cathy, it’s good that you could take your brother for his appointment.

Valerie, nice job with walking on the treadmill.

Hello to Judy.
 
Today I did Gloved Up and Sweaty 40 minutes, 208 calories, heart rate 122/161. I finished with Caroline Jordan Posture Stretch, 10 minutes, 20 calories. I forgot I did this before and had to do some different moves to avoid the thoracic rotation. She sits on her knees while doing neck stretch. My knee did not like that. That was it today. I was busy this morning and did not even get to the workout till noon.
We already had Thanksgiving on Sunday so I think I will just make a pumpkin pie for tomorrow. My husband works.

Cathy, that blood pressure is really high. Mine goes up most of the time when I visit doctors. I am sure I am not calm, and I climb stairs when I see my cardiovascular doctor. I have had some really perfect numbers a few times and I think maybe it was because I took ashwagandha and melatonin before bed so I could relax and not lie awake all night worrying about the doctor visit and travel.

Valerie, good job on the fast uphill treadmill with hand weights and 3x therapy today. Good idea to check with PT.

Carolyn, good job on KCM Cardio Quick Fix.
 
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This morning I did Live Low Impact Hiit with Active Recovery and the bonus LMR2 Upper Body Back, Biceps and Shoulders. Tomorrow I'll do the other upper body one. So, once we got beyond the warm up, I never used the weight Cathe did. This is a true heavy weight workout. And I REALLY want one of the purple tanks that Jenn and Kristen are wearing that say, "I got my butt Kicked by Cathe...again."

Valerie I can tune out commercials, but I do like that when I record and watch stuff on YouTube TV I can forward through commercial, just not when I watch live. But, watching shows on Prime, I just have to tune out all the commercials. At least they tell you how long the commercials will last.

My brother has been having major health issues for the last few years, and he's been in and out of the hospitals, especially ER's a lot, so he can rattle off all his prescriptions and procedures off the top of his head, and he regularly takes his BP. That morning he deliberately didn't because it can affect his mental state. After he had the injections, a lot of them, in his upper back, his BP had dropped from 180-99 to 113-72! And it took the pressure off his lungs, so he could breathe normally again. I really hope the affects last for awhile. He still has other issues, but simply being able to move around and do things again will help a lot. He's one of those people who has always been active and rarely sat down, when he could be doing something, so all this time of not being able to do anything but sit, has really affected his mental state.

We have a second storm coming on the heels of the one we have, which so far has been on the minimal end for us. I think we have maybe 2" and at first it was melting and the road and sidewalk are still mostly clear as it didn't stay. but starting tomorrow were getting another 4-8". I won't be getting to my parents until at least Tuesday as they are getting more than we are.
 

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top