<p>Kettle bell exercise I like in particular- balancing on one leg with the other one stretched out behind you (well, not so much straight behind me in my case) and doing a one arm row. Switch between using the arm with the planted foot and the arm with the extended foot and switch. I need to be near something (bedpost) to touch to catch myself when I lose my balance.</p>
<p>Valslides- a really good addition to a home gym. I do a set or two of the slide the hands out 6-12 inches things from straight arm plank position before bed. It’s hard, and at least I’m doing something. </p>
<p>I just realized that it’s seriously time for me to taper. I’m tired, and weekend after this I am doing something I’ve never done- full marathon Sat followed by half marathon on Sunday. New territory and it won’t be pretty, except that I have some very slow paced friends to accompany on the half. Anyway, time to let Mr. Bunny gain a few miles on me and hope I make them up next weekend. This morning it was 24, so I stayed in bed. Supposed to be near 50 after work, so I’ll do a VERY slow 3 miles or so.</p>
<p>I wondered that too - and that is what made me decide to post that offer - it will be done soon, but this is the watch they were offering - what type of device is everyone using to monitor their heart rate???</p>
<p>My H has both. He has found that the one with the strap is better for him because he doesn’t have to stop moving to get an accurate HR reading. With the watch only, he is supposed to stop moving and pinch two parts of the watch. When he was in cardiac rehab, the nurses there much preferred the one with the strap. It’s more of a hassle to put on; I don’t notice it once it has been on for a few minutes, though.</p>
<p>Even a 2:1 ratio (40 seconds rest:20 seconds work) is pretty demanding for short intervals on the Airdyne. I consider that to be more of an advanced goal than a starting point. You might want to consider doing 3:1 (60 seconds rest:20 seconds work) a few times. I also find that 50 seconds rest: 10 seconds work is a fun one.</p>
<p>To give you an idea, I did 6 quarter mile intervals on Saturday. Those take me 35 to 38 seconds or so. I then pedal easy until my heart rate falls back to 70% of my max, so the recovery period is whatever it takes. Here is how long the recovery took after the six intervals:</p>
<p>So, you can see that I started at about 2:1 ratio and increased from there. Not sure what happened on the fifth interval. I think I had reached the point where my heart rate just really wasn’t going to fall below 70% until I got off the bike. There’s definitely a cumulative effect with each interval.</p>
<p>The tradeoff with using longer rest intervals is that you will pedal harder on the work intervals. I find that the Airdyne is quickly self-adjusting and that I end up going as hard as I can for a give length of interval and a given level of exhaustion. With short rest, I’ll ease back on the intervals just to get through the workout. With longer rest, the danger is starting each interval too hard and slamming into a wall. I’ve learned not to do that! Getting greedy on the Airdyne doesn’t pay.</p>
<p>The newer models (Polar and Timex) used encrypted and/or digital signals so 30 people can be running cheek to jowl on treadmills in a gym and not pick up other people’s signals. That’s not an issue for me</p>
<p>I’ve now graduated to a Garmin GPS watch which also has a chest strap. They use a different wireless signal (called ANT+) with a assortment of optional sensors (heart rate monitor, foot pedometer, bike speed sensors, temperature sensors). I’ve never looked, but I’m pretty sure the Airdyne will not display the Garmin heart rate. Doesn’t matter. I just strap the watch next to the display on the Airdyne.</p>
<p>I don’t think people have particularly good luck with anything but the chest straps for exercise heart rate monitors. It’s hard enough sometimes to even glance at a watch and digest the reading when you are panting like a dog! The less you have to do, the better.</p>
<p>I worried about the chest strap but you don’t really notice it once you’re off and running. I like all of the cool things that you can do on the Garmin website too.</p>
<p>Pretty much stuck with chest strap. One of my female running friends got some serious abrasion on Sunday (bra-band chest area) from a long run in the rain with heartrate monitor strap. I generally don’t have any trouble- occasional minor abrasion. The LuLu bra that accepts the Garmin transmitter right onto the bra is just awesome, but it has become scarce online. I have 2 of them and always wear them for racing.</p>
<p>I just had an offer for another sponsorship deal which wouldn’t conflict with what I do for Brooks. I decided to decline (I initially accepted). Is anyone familiar (BCE, you would be most likely) with kickstarter? It is a fund-raising method using supporters promoting the product all over social media for fund-raising. This company aims for $500K in the kick-starting campaign and if they get it, they will sponsor invited athletes (after you torture all your friends and acquaintances with the product info for a month) for a pretty nice sum, including some race travel money. My concerns are not with the product (used to be on the market but the developer had some family issues and backed away for a couple of years), which I liked and used (female only item), but with my suspicion that $500K isn’t going to happen. I also didn’t like the indemnity agreement. It all felt a little too “grass roots” to me. I am flattered, though, and if the product makes a come-back, I will let y’all know!</p>
<p>I’ve seen kickstarter projects work out quite well. The investor/customer gets a product that otherwise wouldn’t be made and the inventor gets the critical mass to manufacture the product and presumably gets a company off the ground with the momentum.</p>
<p>Of course there are risks. You send your money and the product might not work out for various reasons. I would think that there are scammers that try to get money from people for this sort of thing and I don’t know what kickstarter does to keep them out. I do love the concept though.</p>
<p>$500K is a pretty big number for kickstarter. I think that amounts of $30K to $100K are more likely. The projects that I’ve seen are typically things that geeks would spend $20 to $100 on and it would take a lot of “sales/investments” to get to $500K. My feeling is that the developer isn’t making much (or maybe taking a loss) on stuff that’s successful. Someone trying to make a payday on kickstarter is probably in for disappointment.</p>
<p>Thanks, BCE. I think the bottom goal is $50K with the “stretch” goal of $500K. I would be a little more interested if the sponsorship came at the $50K mark. I also felt a little conflicted since I basically work for a retail company and even though it doesn’t compete in any way, I just wasn’t comfortable with spamming the world with information about this product.</p>
<p>Idad - I was a little confused about your statement about walking (running/swimming) that it takes more to get the same effect (hr) as you get fitter? Wouldn’t that apply to any form of exercise? I know that when I was 40 lbs heavier 2 years ago my hr was higher on 15 kettleball swings, 400 meters at 90 seconds, etc. than it is today. It seems as you get fitter— you need to increase intensity to keep your hr close to max for any type of aerobic or anerobic exercise?</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback on heart rate monitors. You guys are recommending the same thing as my husband: chest strap. Grumble. Can you tell I’m resisting this? (do I get workout points for that?)</p>
<p>Gym workout today.</p>
<p>1/2 mile warm-up run
Intervals, .15 mi each
7.0
7.4
7.7
8.0
7.5 mph
1/2 mi cool down run</p>
<p>bicep curls
tricep kickbacks
military press
rows
pushups (hands on bench)
inverted rows (pitiful)</p>
So they are paying people to promote the project using funds raised by the kickstarter campaign? Is this disclosed?</p>
<p>Maybe I am naive, but to me this seems to be against the spirit of kickstarter, which I see as more of a grassroots type of effort. I would be unhappy and unlikely to participate if I knew that people were getting paid to promote it.</p>
<p>The chest straps aren’t much of a bother. The new soft-straps are more comfortable than the old-style with plastic across the front, but even those are OK. The only aggravation I’ve ever had with the straps is that putting on a backpack, when hiking, tries to push the strap down. Otherwise, I don’t even really notice it. It’s not like the strap is ruining the profile of ripped washboard abs in a skin tight workout shirts! I guess it might be more of a bother with a sports bra…</p>
<hr>
<p>Those hip lifts work better if you just dig your heels into the floor (toes up) instead of the whole foot flat on the floor. iPod nazi has a good tip of squeezing the cheeks before lifting. So he counts the exercise with a four-count:</p>
<p>Squeeze
Lift
One
Two</p>
<p>Squeeze
Lift
One
Two</p>
<p>Squeeze
Lift
One
Two</p>
<p>That cadence helped me a lot to really cue on the glutes (butt muscles). Until you start firing the glutes, you’ll cheat with the hamstrings. This exercise gives almost everyone hamstring cramps at first.</p>
<p>notrichenough- You are not understanding what I said. No one is getting paid to raise the funds or promote the project. If manufacturing is funded, there will be sponsored athletes who will endorse the product. This is not unusual.</p>
I guess it might be more of a bother with a sports bra…</p>![http://www.rei.com/media/ii/771df7ad-98cf-4ed9-941e-a66334c7cc68.jpg]Front[/url](http://www.rei.com/media/ii/771df7ad-98cf-4ed9-941e-a66334c7cc68.jpg%5DFront%5B/url){kind=link}
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