Retaining my Move Streak while taking a break.

[jouster]

The title seems counterintuitive, but here's my situation: I have an ongoing Move Streak of 1129 days--I last failed to close the ring in February, 2021 . To do so, I need to burn at least 960 active calories each day. I'm pretty proud of the streak, which I've maintained through business travel, vacations, (mild) illnesses, rain, snow, shine, unwilling dogs, and an occasional desire just to stay in bed past 7am for once.

I have recently been experiencing pain in my right knee. My family doctor thinks it may be a meniscus tear, which will be confirmed either way by the results of a scan. If it is, I will need a surgery--not major, but I won't be exercising for a while after it.

I wish it were possible to take a "vacation" from my streak for medical reasons! After all, I'm going to be stopping it on my doctor's orders--he wants me to do the rest, ice, compression, elevation thing to avoid further damage--not because I just couldn't be bothered keeping it going! And in truth, my exercise today confirmed that it's too painful to keep going anyway.

But I can see the issues with allowing this, and have no expectation of it happening. Bummer.

Just wanted to vent. Stupid knee.

 

[jz0309]

The title seems counterintuitive, but here's my situation: I have an ongoing Move Streak of 1129 days--I last failed to close the ring in February, 2021 . To do so, I need to burn at least 960 active calories each day. I'm pretty proud of the streak, which I've maintained through business travel, vacations, (mild) illnesses, rain, snow, shine, unwilling dogs, and an occasional desire just to stay in bed past 7am for once.

I have recently been experiencing pain in my right knee. My family doctor thinks it may be a meniscus tear, which will be confirmed either way by the results of a scan. If it is, I will need a surgery--not major, but I won't be exercising for a while after it.

I wish it were possible to take a "vacation" from my streak for medical reasons! After all, I'm going to be stopping it on my doctor's orders--he wants me to do the rest, ice, compression, elevation thing to avoid further damage--not because I just couldn't be bothered keeping it going! And in truth, my exercise today confirmed that it's too painful to keep going anyway.

But I can see the issues with allowing this, and have no expectation of it happening. Bummer.

Just wanted to vent. Stupid knee.

reduce your move goal

 

[jouster]

reduce your move goal

I am going to be on crutches for up to four weeks, and my right knee will be immobilized. I'd have to reduce it to almost nothing, which seems to me to be against the spirit of keeping a streak alive. Oh well.

 

[jz0309]

I am going to be on crutches for up to four weeks, and my right knee will be immobilized. I'd have to reduce it to almost nothing, which seems to me to be against the spirit of keeping a streak alive. Oh well.

sorry, I remember when I broke my femur, but that was before there was an AW ...
you could do some other exercise, eg weight lifting with handles, or, better ask your PT, then you could set your move goal accordingly. you're not completely immobilized.

 

[Howard2k]

I am going to be on crutches for up to four weeks, and my right knee will be immobilized. I'd have to reduce it to almost nothing, which seems to me to be against the spirit of keeping a streak alive. Oh well.

You can’t have it both ways though. Maintain the streak while not doing anything?

I would let the streak die and start building a new one. Or as mentioned, drop your goal to as close to zero as you can.

 

[Night Spring]

You can run a Play or Mind and Body workout until you hit your move goal.

 

[Saturn007]

I wish it were possible to take a "vacation" from my streak for medical reasons!

Even Cal Ripken's streak had to end one day!

I am going to be on crutches for up to four weeks, and my right knee will be immobilized. I'd have to reduce it to almost nothing, which seems to me to be against the spirit of keeping a streak alive. Oh well.

Take up knitting! One of our family members gets move credit just for making socks, mittens, vests, etc.

Or, as suggested, do upper body strength conditioning. And, reduce the move goal in light of your circumstances.

There are always ways to keep streaks going!

Could the focus on your Move streak have contributed to your knee problems? I.e., excessive walking, running, sports, etc. Lots of pro athletes end up with meniscus tears because of the wear-and-tear they place on their bodies!

There are downsides, alas, to the tech gamification of fitness.

in any event, hope the scan shows something less serious, or, if it is a meniscus tear, that all goes well for you, and that you have a good, speedy, relatively pain free recovery!

 

[arc of the universe]

...
Could the focus on your Move streak have contributed to your knee problems? I.e., excessive walking, running, sports, etc. Lots of pro athletes end up with meniscus tears because of the wear-and-tear they place on their bodies!

There are downsides, alas, to the tech gamification of fitness.
...

i wanted to write this to the original poster, but decided not to.

a 1,129 day streak is a remarkable achievement.
all that we might be able to say to him in this thread is to tell him "remarkable feat. good job"
so we celebrate his achievement.

but still, when my left knee began to feel that i was over exerting it by keeping up a very difficult fitness goal, i didn't continue, i listened to my body. i accepted that i needed to rest some times. i needed to pace myself. i admitted i was not 20 years old again.i rested appropriately so that i would be able to continue to do the kind of workouts that i loved to do, for a long long time to come. knee surgery is serious. i want to enjoy running and walking for decades to come.
apple's monthly goals that it recommends to me have never been too far different from what i can actually safely achieve. but the apple watch does not sense pain. if we have pain over and above just aches from getting into shape, we are the ones who need to reset those goals to achieve a pattern of fitness that is useful for long term health.

 

[mavis]

Dude, learn how to juggle!! I just learned last month and in the process of trying to figure it out, I found out that juggling burns 260 calories an hour. It also decreases the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's, but in your case I suppose those are secondary - you can easily close your rings by simply juggling. Start with a few balled-up socks and then I'd suggest a set of bean bag juggling balls. They're like $15 on Amazon, for I think 15 balls.