<p>That’s a long workout. How are you liking the agility ladder so far, iDad?</p>
<p>DadII- I wouldn’t want to do back to back long runs even at my stage of training! I woukd make the weekend day after the longer run a 3 or 4. Any runs are valuable, even short runs. </p>
<p>IDad- wow. That is a great workout. I’m tired reading it!</p>
<p>So far, so good on the agility ladder. I think it’s going to be a nice little addition, but – boy – does it get me winded. That was kind of my thinking – to add something to an indoor workout to get the heart rate up. It’s going to take two kinds progression – learning how to do the drills and then doing them without getting winded. It’s surprisingly taxing. That’s a pretty good sign that I can benefit from these drills.</p>
<p>The [Ali</a> Shuffle](<a href=“Agility Ladder Drills - Ali Shuffle - YouTube”>Agility Ladder Drills - Ali Shuffle - YouTube) got me today. I can do it (slowly), but a little bit goes a long way. I can’t even really hop entire the length of the ladder on one foot. That one will take some work. I may have to put that one on the shelf for a while.</p>
<p>A lot of those ladder exercises look fun but difficult!</p>
<p>Plant mom, congrats on the 25 minutes, now that I know what the heck the c25k is! If I weren’t such a chicken about impact I might try it. Instead, I will see if the method can be applied to aqua jogging this summer. I should have 8 good weeks of pool weather, and the fact that I continue to survive the evil hills for a half hour each morning may have me in decent starting condition!</p>
<p>Do any of you use a weight vest to train? I am getting faster on my Treck but don’t have the time in the am to extend it, so i thought maybe a vest would increase the value of the work. But I’ve never used one and have no idea of the pros and cons. So any tips are welcome.</p>
<p>idad, just be careful you don’t do too much too soon! Plyometrics are an easy way to get injured and what I’ve found is because people just take off. Plyometrics can be pretty intense and can quickly wear out the CNS along with significant pounding on the joints…</p>
<p>[Gym</a> gives woman the boot for chatting on cellphone](<a href=“http://news.msn.com/us/gym-gives-woman-the-boot-for-chatting-on-cellphone]Gym”>http://news.msn.com/us/gym-gives-woman-the-boot-for-chatting-on-cellphone)</p>
<p>I wish the cells are not allowed at all. People are taking as much time as they wish on the machines sitting there and texting. Most of the time I cannot finish my routine, becuase of this or they just sit there and chat with others, sometime taking 2 machines. They should get up between sets, but nobody does. I go to another machine, then come back for another set. Or sometime 2 people take turns on one machine and that could take over 30 min.They keep forgetting that it is not their private place. And nobody cares about time, weird. They spend so much time sitting between sets, when the whole routine could be done in about 15 min. or so if you move fast between machines and go back for a second or third or n’s set. I bet these people claim that they spend 2 hours in a gym. Well, I see how these 2 hours are actually spent.</p>
<p>My pet peeve at the gym are women who arrive slathered in scented lotion or tons of perfume. There may be men who do this as well but I haven’t encountered them! There could be 20 open cardio machines at the gym but they pick the one next to me. The scent is overwhelming! I haven’t noticed cell phone use being an issue. And Miami, I agree - I quickly lost interest in doing a 30 minute circuit at the gym (designed for that purpose) because there were far too many people who didn’t understand or didn’t care how the circuit was supposed to work. Oh well.</p>
<p>That’s one reason why I prefer to do free weights at the gym.</p>
<p>^I would be crippled by my ability to hurt myself. No free weight here. In addition, what is a point to go to gym to do free weights, you can do it at home.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>It depends on what you have at home. I have two tens and one fifteen in fixed weights. I have three dumbbells with plates but we leave two at 37.5 pounds for my son and I usually leave the other at 21 pounds. At the gym, you have a lot of fixed weights so that you don’t have change plates around which somewhat detracts from your weight-training.</p>
<p>My home gym only has a fixed bench. At the office and Y, we have decline/incline benches which allow you to do a wider variety of exercises.</p>
<p>The gyms also have mirrored walls so that you can check your form while you’re doing the exercise. Our office dumbbells go up to 50 pounds and a pair of those is good for farmers walks. The Y has dumbbells that go up to 125 pounds which is something that I cannot replicate with my plate dumbbells at home. I don’t have a particular need for dumbbells that heavy but I do use 80 pound dumbbells for one particular exercise that I do and I don’t think that I could fit 80 pounds of plates on my dumbbells at home.</p>
<p>I do better in keeping up my workouts if I go to the gym. At home, I tend to find excuses to shorten or skip various things. Plus, I don’t have room in my house for all the stuff I use, like the stability ball, and I would have to move furniture around every time I did a workout.</p>
<p>I don’t really have a good separate room for the gym at home. I usually work out in the living room, and go outside for medicine ball slams, and upstairs for the only door in the house that I can use the TRX stuff for. I cleaned out the basement so there is theoretically a bit more room, but until I get a new furnace it’s pretty unpleasant down there. It’s spewing out exhaust smells at the moment - despite getting tuned up not too long ago. (But not Carbon Monoxide according to the detector.)</p>
<p>I do have enough around to get a good work out though:
dumbells: 10 and 15 pounds (lighter ones too somewhere)
kettlebell: 15 and 20 pounds
medicine ball: 10 pounds.
stability ball
TRX set
coffee table for some of the stuff you’d use a bench for
yoga mat</p>
<p>Exercise yesterday was short walk (just over a mile) - it was just too darn cold and I didn’t get out until after 5 pm.</p>
<p>Yeag, Having a full rack rack of dumbbells at a gym is really nice for working out. The really fantastic gyms have sets that go up in 2.5 pound increments instead of the usual 5. 5 pounds is a LOT when you are increasing from, say, 15 to 20, or 20 to 25, even 30 to 35.</p>
<p>I prefer a decently equipped home gym, but heading to the dumbbell rack and weight benches worked out really well for my few months at a Planet Fitness. Even at 5 pm rush hour, when every cardio machine in the place was going, I could get a spot with a weight bench for my little workout. By planning my workout for the gym, I could even alternate back and forth between two exercises in a superset.</p>
<p>And, yeah, the few times I encountered it, the perfume at the gym literally made me gag.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not much risk of that! It’s pretty self-limiting when you start huffin’ and puffin’ after two or three 15 foot passes down the ladder!</p>
<p>If anyone has recommendations for additional good, low risk exercises with dbs, I’m all ears. I know weight bearing activity is supposed to be good for the bones, but I’m tentative about trying new exercises because I’m not always sure how light I need to start, and muscles may not let me know until after the fact. Thanks.</p>
<p>Well, my WallyWorld kettlebell arrived. It’s a good ol’ American kettlebell (made in China, of course!) marked in pounds. I felt sorry for the FedEx guy. Just a plain black iron lump. And, I was, at least, able to carry it down to the basement!</p>
<p>Deb. I’ll try to post links to some exercises later. But, in general, you want to pick a weight that you can do for 6 to 15 reps. If you can’t do 6 reps with a weight, it’s too heavy. If you can do 12 to 15 reps with a weight, then it’s time to start thinking about a heavier weight. So, as a practical matter, you end up going from 6 to 8 to 10 to 12 to 15 reps, then going to the next heavier weight and starting the cycle over again. You always want the last rep of a set to be hard.</p>
<p>Walked 3 miles at a brisk pace again this morning. Still no foot pain!</p>