Hi everyone!
It's been three months since I last did a fitness update, and that's because literally everything in my life changed. I've moved countries, my living situation is completely different, I'm in the process of changing jobs, it's all been a lot... but most importantly, I didn't have my biometric scale thingy so I didn't have the data that I like to include.... but I've got it now.
For reference, this is the biometric scale thingy that I use:
The app changed, which is a little annoying, but it seems to have retained my data (despite changing phones) so that's far less frustrating than it would have been.
Some of these changes have had a big impact on my fitness...
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My kitchen situation isn't great, it is so tiny and can only fit a microwave and a fridge. No stove, no cooktops, no oven.
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A friend invited me to do 'cardio kickboxing' with her 3 times a week and it has been amazing and brutal... and completely thrown off my usual fitness routine.
Here are my previous tracking reports…
Sleep Draggin’ (Apr 2025) It all comes down to sleep… (Mar 2025) Managing stress, exercise and diet… (Feb 2025) Overuse injuries and general fitness (Jan 2025) Overuse injuries – First month… (Sept 2024) Overuse injuries – 2 weeks later… (Aug 2024) Figuring out the overuse injuries (Aug 2024)
Here are the current injuries I’m working on:
Here are my reasons for rehab:
1.) Golfer’s Elbow in both elbows 2.) Plantar Fasciitis (heel pain) 3.) Stiff neck headaches 4.) Lower Back pain 5.) Hypertonic Pelvic Floor muscles
With all of the administration out of the way, let's get into the data:
[Source : RENPHO Health App]
Weight is pretty much too generic to be a useful metric, but in April my weight was 73.25kg so I am 4kgs heavier than I was. Half of that seems to be muscle (58.40kg now versus 56.9kg in April) and the other half is far (20.2% body fat versus 18.2% in April).
I both am and am not surprised with the increase in muscle... kickboxing has hit me with near constant DOMS (although as I get more conditioned its reducing pretty rapidly) so I 've barely touched a weight in months - so I look physically less muscley (smaller pecs and biceps) but I have so much more ropey muscle, especially around my core...
So I look less muscley, but I literally have more muscle mass.
Oh, I just found the comparison tool in this app, that's more useful:
[Source : RENPHO Health App]
My diet hasn't been great, but it has been fun. We've been having a lot of takeaway/takeout as we explore this new area and reminisce about foods that weren't available to us for a decade, so ironically I was healthier in the USA, but that'll change as the novelty and socializing calms down. I'm not stressed about it, I'll find healthy meals that work for my new life.
After I moved, I joined a gym that is super close, and was able to adapt my upper body workout to the new gym (weights in kg vs lb threw me for a bit) so it took me a while to get back into a groove, and then all of that got thrown out the window when I started kickboxing.
The kickboxing cardio classes we've been taking have been brutal on the upper body, there are a ton of body weight exercises that are thrown in, and I'm being pushed way harder than I would ever push myself. There's lots of pushups, lots of burpees, and obviously lots of punches.
Doing a bunch of punches is truly exhausting (as well as the mental challenge of trying to follow instructions correctly and work on correct technique).
I can't really quantify my upper body workouts in the same way I used to.
Again, really hard to quantify. I haven't been to the gym much to do my lower body exercises, but I am hoping I can get conditioned enough that I can squeeze in an upper body workout and a lower body workout in between kickboxing days.
As well as the workout of the actual kicks in kickboxing, which I've been terrible at, my hip flexibility is not good, there are plenty of lower body bodyweight exercises during the classes; jump squats, frog leap things, lunges, etc. When you attack with a knee, you should go up on your tippy toes so that can be a pretty significant calf workout.
Like this....
.... but not at all like that.
I will say that punching and kicking pads is very satisfying, even when its exhausting.
I don't have any data whatsoever for endurance... I haven't been doing any runs because kickboxing has worn me out... like, sometimes I'd really love a nap afterwards... but I do think that as my conditioning improves and I become more efficient with the techniques then I'll be able to get some runs back on the board.
This is where things get interesting...
I've been doing rehab pretty consistently in the last few months... not perfectly, but pretty consistently...
1.) Golfer’s Elbow in both elbows
In April I gave this a 'Mostly Fixed' rating and I am very sad to say that I reinjured it, especially on my right arm.
I was coping with the pushups and burpees pretty well, it wasn't an issue until we had an emergency replacement coach for one session, who normally teaches karate to kids, and after a pretty grueling session he had us do a challenge where he played this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2AC41dglnM&list=RDv2AC41dglnM&start_radio=1
And had us do a burpee every time the words 'Thunderstruck' was sung. It was very rough, and I got through it, but for the week after my elbow was very sore and it hasn't been the same since.
I started seeing an Osteopath for it who has given me a bunch of exercises for it and done some acupuncture, which seems to have helped, but movements like pull ups and bicep curls, and even just toweling myself off after a shower still cause significant pain.
2.) Plantar Fasciitis (heel pain)
I no longer have 15 flights of stairs to bolt up multiple times a day, I also haven't been running on a treadmill or running at all... so this heel pain has completely gone away BUT I also haven't done anything to test it, so I can't say with any certainty that it's fixed.
3.) Stiff neck headaches
The Osteo has been working on this as well... because these have gotten way worse since I got a new monitor for my computer desk. I use a laptop screen and a monitor, which is up higher than I'm used to (I think it's at the proper height that it should be ergonomically) and I get awful, awful headaches if I use the monitor too much. I also have a problem if I drive for too long.
Every time I see the Osteo she says that my shoulders and delts are so tight, and when she works on them she pinches them so much that hurts so much... but I'm not super sure what the long-term resolution for this is.
4.) Lower Back pain
I no longer have a standing desk so this isn't really an issue... I do still feel it if I try to lie on my stomach when I'm sleeping, but I think I've pretty much trained myself out of that now and have become mostly a side-sleeper. It really hasn't been causing me any issues but it's not fixed per se.
5.) Hypertonic Pelvic Floor muscles
Now that I don't have a standing desk, this one is flaring up again and I can't sit at my desk for more than a couple of hours. I've been pretty good with all my stretches, but the dramatic increase in sitting really has it under a lot more strain.
It does make side-sleeping a little less comfortable, and weirdly I think that the kickboxing is helping (it's a little worse on non-kickboxing days) so I think I'm generally on a good path, but it needs a lot more work.
I've just realized that I've been doing these for over a year... so it's a little upsetting that most of my overuse injuries are still an issue.
One thing that has improved over the last few months is my sleep. In April and the preceding months I was waking up pretty regularly at 2am/3am/4am, and that really hasn't been an issue here. I think I'm generally under a lot less stress.
It does happen occasionally, maybe once a fortnight or so... and it's weird because I'll be wide awake at 3am... and then just get so impossibly sleepy at 6am and fall asleep until 8am or later.
Weirdly, I still don't feel particularly rested, and that's because to get to the kickboxing classes, I'm getting up around 5am... I should probably think about going to bed earlier, but I'm very consistently in bed by 10pm and that feels pretty early already.
Hope your health and fitness are going well! Thanks for reading!
Also shared this post on my blog : https://lifebe.com.au/fitness/a-whole-new-world/