I had never done a step of aerobics or lifted one pound of weights in my life until 2005. I slowly built up to working out six days a week, I dropped visibly noticeable poundage and inches, and I felt great. But then, for reasons not worth repeating, I stopped for more than a year. I gained back all the weight and then some.
Two months ago I started again. It's been more difficult this time because now I have a memory of how much conditioning I had achieved, and I feel bad that I let it slip and I'm clearly not at that level now.
So... today I did Kathy Smith's Step Workout. This thing is HARD for me. It's divided into three stages: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Two months ago I could only do the beginning segment with no arms. I had progressed in August to doing segment 1 with arms. Well, today I decided to push it, and I was so thrilled that I could do all of segment 2! Ok, no arms on the intermediate stage yet, but I'm getting there. It sounds like such a small thing as I write it here, but it was a big deal to me because I can remember going all the way through all 3 segments at my peak. And now I'm one step closer to getting back there. So that is my little victory.
Now for the questions...
1) I work out in my living room. After two years of pounding on the carpet and underlying padding with my exercising, it is easy to feel where that area of carpet has lost thickness and springiness. What is the best kind of floor mat I can put down to continue aerobics comfortably over that pancake of a carpet?
2) I really hypersupinate -- I walk on the outside edges of my feet. The soles of all my shoes are ground down on the outside corners. I wear cross training sneakers every time I work out, but my feet still end up hurting at the end of every aerobics session, no matter whether it's walk aerobics, dance aerobics, or step aerobics. What can I do or buy to correct this supination, especially during exercise?
Geri