I play tennis. I love it, but I'm not "good" yet. I pay ($$$) for private classes twice a week and play with other people any chance I get. I've been playing cumulatively for more than a year.

Back in my Army days, I was running 8 miles every morning with a colleague. Nowadays, at least in my current shape, I'm lucky to be able to run 2 kilometers.

Put me in the camp of those with back pain. Got hurt on the job almost 6 months ago, and they still really don't know what is going on. I am doing therapy now 3x a week. Squats, lunges, crunches, stretches, walking...I feel good, but my back still hurts LOL.

I guess they are thinking that I need to build the muscles up to try to stabilize my back or something. Before I was hurt, I had a regimen of pushups, pullups, walk/jog up this hill by my house, which I tried to do 3x a week.

I used to play a lot of basketball, but that is probably not gonna happen anymore. So I enjoy the body weight workouts alot. I do think it is important to get away from the computers and work out.

I would also advise starting a little slow, that way you don't find yourself so sore and miserable that you quit right away. Best wishes.

Ddawg

Did you try trigger point therapy ? It's basically free since all you need is a tennis ball...

Idea is that muscles develop knots, which are often latent, but they can become painful when they get active.
The knots radiate pain in the body, sometimes far away from the muscle, but following deterministic patterns which can be mapped.

To release the knot you have to apply strong pressure on it usually with a ball or a finger, which is painful, but at the end it releases on your pain does as well..

Good TP bible is Clair Davies book here:
The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition: Clair Davies, Amber Davies, David G. Simons: 9781572243750: Amazon.com: Books

It's one of the best 14 $ I spent in my life.

It allowed to release pain in my back, in my hand, a tennis elbow, etc....


Another good resource with more scientific details here:
Save Yourself from Aches, Pains & Injuries

Gomi, I don't know if this was to me, but thanks anyway. Now that you mention it. my chiro doc does what she calls "muscle work" and it really does help. Basically she just sticks her elbow into the muscle that is really tight/sore, and puts pressure on it. It hurts!!!! a bunch but it does help. It seems like it helps the muscle release...or something.

Problem is, pain just comes back. I had an oesteopathic doc check me, and he found my hamstrings are still very tight. He is thinking that may be part of the problem. We'll see.

Ddawg

So she does some kind of "trigger point therapy" on you. Except that you only go from time to time, it's not enough to actually release the knot in the muscle.

With the tennis ball, you can deep massage your muscle every day, multiple times per day.
You should aim for someting like 6-8 deep strokes, 6-8 times a day.
And yes, trigger point therapy is painful, you should be somewhere near 7/10 on the pain scale, so quite painful indeed.
But with the tennis ball you can adapt the pressure on the ball to have pain in the sweet zone.

If you give it a try, don't forget the glutes, you would be amazed to see how much pain from the low back actually radiates from the glutes.

I never got "good" at tennis. But it's a good calorie burning hobby. At times one can get "addicted" to it. Then bumming around on the court or swinging a stick or a racket at home to keep some tone but I don't go to the courts anymore with all the computer time now. (Maybe I should get a wii to at least move back and forth a few steps) At least chasing and picking the balls even if one sucks at tennis. Very hard on the knees though with all the fast sideways moves, lunges, and sudden impacts to get in place to swing at the ball.

With over-pronated flat feet I can't run (for long), and I don't want to get pads or see a doctor or such and get supports. bicycling around is ok and more enjoyable(easier) for me than running.

I love cycling, especially cycle touring. Just did a three day tour. Possibly my favorite form of exercise.

However, being over the age of 50, I need to concentrate on bone density, and cycling does not really help with that.

Walking is good for bone density. And also weight lifting.

I do a lot of walking up steep hills, and I also like doing 50M sprints up steep slopes in sets of 8. Flat-out sprints, aiming at 100% for short bursts.

Also weight lifting. I do the programmed sets of body weight exercises according to the You Are Your Own Gym iPhone app. This app is instructional, guides you along through the workout, and keeps records afterward.

Recordkeeping is just as important to exercise as it is to trading.

I am not a fan of gyms I prefer to train outside e.g., running and weights. However I've one slight problem..I live in London :-) and by the time I'm home from work not only is it raining its dark..lol.

Have any of you folks tried resistance bands for training? I was thinking about getting some, they're good if youve not got much space indoors... when its raining lol

In an effort to lose excess weight, I started going to the gym but mostly give credit to my wife for pushing me out the door to go the gym. So, my workout? Just walking on a treadmill. My gym (Golds) has a great treadmill which has all sorts of exercise routines built in. But I like to keep it basic so just walking is all I pretty much do.

In August I started walking at an angle of 10 degrees (hereafter the angle shall just be referred to as a number with accurate reference) for 15 minutes. the amount of calories burned was about 300 and I was profusely sweating. So, not bad. Don't remember the speed. Weighed in afterwards, 233lbs. Kept it up, kept at it, just walking on the treadmill, nothing more.

Now, I'm walking at an angle of 28 degrees for 45 minutes at a speed of 3.9mph. According to the machine, I'm burning around 1230 calories in that time. The calories burned vary according to different machines. On average, I'm burning just over 400 calories every 15 minutes. Sometimes I sit in the sauna for a few minutes afterwards for a heat soak to relax.

My last weigh-in was 203lbs. So, 30lbs down thus far. If you can get a high angle fast walk on the treadmill, it will definitely help your cardio.

I'm not a gym guy either but climbing gyms I have been having a blast at. Never really been a rock climber but holy smokes it's fun and works out the upper body big time. At one point my fingers were huge, that was when I got my wedding ring, now my ring doesn't fit like it used to as I have been lazy and too busy with the real job and trading at the same time.