TopCat's TopFit

Hi! My husband has been following my antics with my fitness program  with considerable amusement under a long time, and while he is interested in the exercises, he suffers from a bad back since an operation gone wrong 5 years ago and therefore cannot do most of them. So I made up a program especially for him and thought I would share that. Mind you: this is NOT a program to help you overcome your bad back. This is a program that you can (possibly) DO with a bad back. Backs are individuals just like we are. What works for him might not work for you. Try out each exercise and see how it feels. You are the best judge of your back and what you can and cannot. Experiment; try out variations; if something is too hard, try an easier version, if something seems too easy, put on weights rather than add repetitions, is my advice. Equipment needed : when you are trying it out, only a towel  and a yoga mat . Once you have found out some exercises that you like, you might like to t...

Hi! As promised the second part of my current training program with the standing exercises for a painful back. In the meantime my back has healed mostly so I will soon start running again, but for those of you who don't have the luxury of healing, here it is. As always I use  ankle and wrist weights , a  yoga mat  (although the one I have is technically a somewhat thicker exercise  mat and I sometimes put extra cushioning on it for my back in the form of a box plaid my sister made for me) and a  towel  (I like the new microfiber ones). For the last 3 exercises you will need a resistance band , which are found in several strengths. I find for myself that it is somehow motivating to have cool-looking  training gear , I don't know if it is the tightness of the texture against my skin or that I look better in the mirror than having some baggy jogging pants . I love those for lounging around the house, but for exercising I need some sli...

Hi! I thought I had it under control. For a long time I used to wake with hard keratinous lips which would peel in the course of the day and I would then at least have the afternoon with normal lips; no cracking or bleeding. Suddenly last Wednesday I was too busy to keep them properly moisturized, maybe that was the trigger. On Thursday after the peeling the strips of skin would not loosen at the part where lip meets skin and the contact points were oozing wound liquid. The skin around the mouth was red and itching. Friday I woke up cracking and bleeding. Now, on Sunday afternoon, suddenly great flaps of skin started peeling off and now my lips seem pretty normal even if they are red, as if I have lipstick on, and they are very sensitive to salt, texture and temperature. I am keeping them well moisturized and am hoping for the best.  lipcare