<p>Unless you’ve got cardiac restrictions or whatever, there’s no reason to limit yourself to 90% of your max. If you’ve got the gas in the tank to keep going, it’s perfectly fine to keep going until you hit 95% or even 100% of your max (although, wow, does that feel like you are never going to catch a breath). You won’t keep going long because, by definition, the heart is only going to beat that fast when you aren’t getting enough oxygen to your muscles to sustain that activity. I try to use 90% as the “minimum effective goal” for a hard interval workout. I’m happy to go higher than that. But, if I’m not hitting 90% on an interval workout, I know it’s time to kick it up a notch, either with higher intensity or shorter rest intervals.</p>
<p>At the other of the scale, trundling along on the elliptical at 125 (73% of your max) isn’t doing you that much good from a conditioning standpoint. It’s better than sitting on the couch, but exercising at that low intensity is really only good for one thing: to improve your endurance at low heart rates (i.e. for marathon training, specifically to condition your body to exercise for long distances without increasing your heart rate). From a fat loss/fitness perspective, it’s not very effective, which is one reason so many of those people cranking out miles on the cardio machines at the gym probably aren’t going to change their body composition.</p>
<p>The only time I use the heart rate monitor to try to keep my heart rate DOWN is on my 4 and 5 hour hikes. It’s very easy to drive your heart rate up well above 90% on a steep, sustained climb. But, trying to keep that up for hours at a time is pretty tough. So, i try to pace myself to keep my heart rate below 85%, keeping in mind that I’m going to be climbing for two or three hours – not a 20 minute interval workout.</p>
<p>~ 3.5 mi run at a park I haven’t been to in a while. More shade spots than I was expecting, which is good because I wasn’t out there super early and it’s starting to heat up.</p>
<p>Abasket, your long weekend at the beach sounds like it was fun.</p>
<p>A 30 second swimming sprint would be a pretty serious workout! How many do you do? If you were do six or eight of them with 30 to 60 seconds rest in between, you’d probably see some crazy high heart rates!</p>
<p>Another really good way to do sprint intervals is to wait 'til your heart rate falls to a certain point before the next interval.</p>
<p>We do 3-6 with 20-45 seconds rest, then swim easy. So a normal long course meter main set might be:</p>
<p>4 times through:
3x 50 on 1:15 fast, main stroke, holding goal times (for me, freestyle would be 31, breaststroke 41)
1 x 100 easy
2x 100 on 2:00 fast, goal times (1:09 or 1:26)
2x 100 easy
1x 200 fast, goal times (2:30 or 3:05)
3x 100 easy</p>
<p>I use a Fitbit (my goal is 11,000 steps a day, which I pretty much hit - and some days go well over) as well as the Wt Watchers Activity Link. What’s notable about the Activity link is that a) you have to get to a baseline before it gives you “credit” (and on sedentary days, you may not even hit your baseline – which was an eye opener for me that I only walked 1500 or so steps on a sedentary day) and b) it “rewards” lots of little movements throughout the day (walking to lunch, walking to the bathroom, walking up a few flights of stairs) more so than it rewards big workouts. But the lots of little movements throughout the day doesn’t really do anything from a heart rate perspective. It seems not to “like” when I have long sedentary spells, but that’s the reality of a desk / computer job.</p>
<p>MoWC - well, like I said, its my opinion, but to me most of the stuff coming out of Nashville doesn’t sound country…more mainstream pop music.</p>
<p>I like old school country - George Jones, Willie, Loretta, Dolly, Waylon, Cash, Billy Joe Shaver, Hank, that kind of sound. To me, Dwight has that,- as Jones would say- “hard core country.” That’s just me, glad you enjoy mainstream Nashville sounds.</p>
<p>I enjoy old and new country and have for many years (way before I moved to Nashville). Eric Church is the big thing right now- and I love his music. Not sure where you would put Alan Jackson, but he’s certainly “Nashville”. I seriously doubt that you are familiar with “most” of the stuff coming out of Nashville unless you have an office on Music Row (or Music Road, as my daughter’s mother in law calls it).</p>
<p>huh. I am familiar with a bunch of the Nashville stuff - even have a friend who is a Nashville musician; she plays traditional bluegrass/rockabilly. Alan Jackson’s ok - but to me he is still not hard core old style country…hey, not trying to argue, but many have criticized Nashville in the past oh, 20 yrs or so, for moving away from hard core country/rockabilly/bluegrass. Just what I prefer, you know? As someone once said about a more modern country artist “she went to Brown University for her education; Merle went to San Quentin.” </p>
<p>This article kind of describes my reaction:</p>
<p>But styles change…for instance, when Johnny Cash first played the Opry, they didn’t allow snare drums cause that wasn’t “traditional” - (so that’s why Cash put a playing card in his strings to get that distinctive beat - he couldnt bring a snare drum at the beginning).</p>
<p>You are lucky to live in the area, its a great town, with some great music , especially in the small bars, struggling artists. I am just real old school.</p>
<p>Workout plan:
Mon: Back, traps, shoulders, biceps
Tue: Legs
Wed: Chest, triceps
Thu: same as Mon
Fri: same as Tue
Sat: same as Wed
Sun: Cheat Day:smiley:
I walk for 45 min. People really underestimate the benefits of just walking.
Diet plan:
IF(intermittent fasting) from 8pm to 2pm the next day.
Then from 2pm to 8pm I eat my required 150 grams of protein, 260 grams of carbs, and 58 grams of fat.</p>
<p>Yes, Deborah, those are the dips. Proud to say, I did her “level 3 style”. Don’t look <em>quite</em> like her, though. And, no, it’s not just the tattoo ;)</p>
<p>That’s an awful lot. Plugging it into the WW converter (based off fat, carbs, protein – doesnt count calories) tells me that you’re jamming well over twice what I eat on WW into just a few hours.</p>
<p>AlterG day. 4 miles @ 5:00 miles at 85% weight, 1 mile @ 5:00 90% weight.</p>
<p>Interesting session with acupuncturist today. (Also an MD who immigrated from china.) was discussing how color and sounds can impact athletic performance. Today my (aura, energy field?) indicated I should wear white and not green (made sure I wore a hi tech white t.) He also discussed repeating elongated words could affect performance. For instance repeated an elongated sheeeeeeeeee would sap strength while an elongated sharrrrrrrre would improve strength. Colors or sounds could change from week to week. </p>
<p>Plus didn’t have any real aches or pains from muscle/tendons after my accupuncture treatment today. Interesting how he uses this led pen to pinpoint energy fields and place needles in hands, arms and legs.</p>
<p>If the plan is intermittent fasting, then there really isn’t a problem with this, if the nutritional count is appropriate. (The carbs would be way too high for me, but may work for someone else)</p>
<p>I have to say from <em>my</em> experience the conventional, “WW-approved” type nutritional information doesn’t work for everyone and furthers plenty of myths:
Breakfast is the most important meal.
You will somehow wreck your metabolism by fasting, because your body will go into “starvation mode”
Lots of small meals, better than one or two big ones.
etc. etc.</p>
<p>These really are not applicable to everyone, and I had to toss out quite a few beliefs I had that were based on what I thought was an educated and discerning approach.</p>
<p>The only thing that ended up working for me weight-loss wise, was combining low carb and fasting. Of course I wouldn’t recommend this approach to everyone, but one should be careful in assuming it is erroneous.</p>
