Substacks, workout platforms review, and my training plan

Substacks and things: What’s your practice of deciding which ones to subscribe, paid or not paid versions? What topics/themes are you interested in? I am thinking about the answer as I have been discovering new substacks. I rarely pay for subscription at first, I paid for one for few months until I found the content not original/resonate enough. I find the experience similar to buying/acquiring new things. If I have a strong urge to know everything about it, if I am 100% certain I will not regret it, I’ll pay/get it. This happens rarely but it happens, and every time it happens, I am super excited. The good part of discovering new substacks is that you can subscribe for free, read the past free posts, and decide to keep or drop. Once I am subscribed, over time, I pay attention if I read most of the posts with care or just delete it after glance. Theme wise, it’s a diverse mix of things I’m currently interested (books, movies, parenting, running, longevity, woman’s health, travel) and things that I am attracted to but have no experience first hand like art, music. What I love about the experience of discovering new things? well… the novelty, the surprise when I find something that I really enjoy reading, like first love. I know that there is a lot of criticism about the algorithm to curate what feeds us, that’s absolutely true with FB and Insta, thus I use them much less. Substacks and blogs, are mostly curated by me. Maybe it’s my false sense of control, yet it is working and I look forward to read them in my morning quiet time.

Choosing strength program. You all know that l love running more than any other form of activity. Yet, I believe in balance and do other things for mental health, for strength, for aging body maintenance needs. Strength training is a must, I learned it through the hard way as every I stop for more than 2 weeks while continuing running, I get injured. I have yet to find a system that I can adhere to. I’ve tried many platforms, quick review and my thoughts:

Strength

Heather Roberson: Strength focused for beginner or intermediate level. I like some of her videos as it has warm up, good guidance throughout, and cool down. She has a large variety now but I don’t find them challenging to feel getting stronger anymore.

Madfit: I started doing her videos when she was not so popular. I liked her videos for short, target workouts to be introduced to strength workouts. Then I found it less challenging and engaging.

Caroline Girvan: Well designed workout plans, challenging, amazing music, targeted workouts. I did the iron series and enjoyed it. She really challenges me despite seemingly repetitive movements.

Natacha Ocean: I bought her hybrid training plan and did it on and off for a year. I like her as person, her physic that shows strength and power, and her workout plan I believe is effective. Yet, I came to realize I prefer to follow along than having to look at the app and log in repetitions and weights. It’s also gym based so not having a gym at home is less convenient, especially when traveling. I still like this workout plan, may revisit in the future when I shift my preference, which happens.

Pilates/yoga

Tracy Anderson. I have her prenatal CD (so I started in 2012 or 2013) and the metamorphosis method. I’ve done both of them more than once. I liked it at the time. It’s short (30 min), it’s challenging for lower body, and it’s low impact. The major cons is it’s the repetition. Each workout in metamorphosis is repeated for 10 days until you change to another one, still with similar exercise but more challenging. Another flaw is that I don’t think you build muscle with her workout, more like toning.

The glow method: She’s my favorite yoga/pilates/barre YouTuber and I may consider to try her app. She transmits a calm vibe, yet her classes are challenging. I just did her barre class this morning, oh my god, I didn’t know I had those muscles. She also organizes retreats that I am looking for the right place/time to join one day.

Bohol beautiful: My go to calming, relaxing yoga. I like her vinyasa flows, ying yoga, and meditations. I’ve followed her for over 10 years and still do her classes from time to time.

Melissa Wood: I subscribed to her last month as I couldn’t run much and was not in a great mental place, so I wanted something gentle. That’s also the reason I unsubscribed now that I feel back to my self. I like her work, her messages, her honesty and vulnerability, her relationship with her husband (they are so different!), but for workout, I need something else. It’s a great place for beginners to yoga, pilates, meditation as they are short. But similar to Tracy’s method, her workout won’t build muscle.

What’s my current/future plan? After trying different methods and instructors, I finally know what how I like it and what I need. I like to follow along, challenging workouts that are fit my schedule (30-40 min max), and helps with my running. So here’s what I think I will try going forward

Caroline’s epic heat program as it’s around 30 min, 2-3 times a week.

Glow methods: 2-3 times a week

Bohol beautiful: once a week for gentle movement.

I am resuming to running gradually as the knee problem seems to have resolved. For the next few weeks I’ll just enjoy running without having to think for the marathon. If I feel good and the timing works, I’ll still try to run a marathon this year.

Recently health related episodes favorites:

• Tim Ferriss episode with Rhonda
• Peter Attia’s with Rhonda
• Rich’s episode with Mindy