<p>What I like about this challenge is it’s not a team thing, no group stuff. I can just challenge myself…at least I think so. They say it’s all about the club helping to meet your own personal goals. Will go to the “big” club this afternoon and get more information. Have to decide by the 7th!</p>
<p>BTW, this WalMart dumbbell set is a really good deal. $34 delivered to your door (plus tax), took less than 24 hours from the time I ordered 'til it was dropped off by FedEx (I must live near a distribution center).</p>
<p>Crude Chinese quality metal-work, but it’s all metal with cast metal weights (no sand filled plastic). It all works. It’s solid. With the stuff in the box, you can put together a pair of dumbbells in any of the following weights:</p>
<p>2 x 3.6 pounds each
2 x 8.6 pounds each
2 x 13.6 pounds each
2 x 18.6 pounds each</p>
<p>I wouldn’t want to be changing the weights between every exercise, but just buying a pair of 8 pounders at KMart is $25. I don’t think you can buy a pair of 15 pound dumbells for less than the price of this set. Just build up the pair that is appropriate, knowing that you can increase to a larger weight down the road.</p>
<p>The cheapest you could put together just the 13.6 pound pair buying these exact handles and four 5-pound weights is $40 plus shipping. So they are giving you the four 2.5 pound weights, the storage case, and a $6 rebate for getting the package!</p>
<p>If I ever need even bigger dumbbells, I’d just order a second package. Two more bars so you could have two different bars assembled at a given time, or throw all the weights from both sets together or a pair of 33.6 pound dumbbells – a pretty hefty dumbbell.</p>
<p>The bars take standard weights with 1" holes, so you can buy extra weights from 1.25 to 10 pounds, but the separate weights cost more than the package.</p>
<p>If you have hundreds of dollars to spend, buying separate dumbells in every size is the nicest way to go, but this is a great way to get a lot of weight for cheap.</p>
<p>So I started out looking for a recumbent bike workout that I could download to my ipod (still looking) and got distracted reading some biking articles. I usually do HIIT every day but have been doing interval speed workouts rather than interval resistance workouts. I had been doing this because I set the machine on fat burn and it automatically sets the resistance based on HR. I am ALWAYS intentionally above the fat burn HR . Do you think there is much difference in doing a longer speed workout as opposed to a shorter resistance workout? Does one burn more calories than the other? This is so confusing to me!</p>
<p>If you’re above the fat burn HR range, don’t you risk ketosis? I think that the best approach for burning fat is to keep your HR in the recommended range as going above that may mean that the body can’t metabolize fat fast enough to keep your body supplied with the sugar that it needs to maintain the exercise.</p>
<p>The recommended “fat burn” cardio heart rate ranges on these charts and exercise machines are a total joke. They are way too low to burn calories, unless you are willing to just sit there and pedal for hours and hours and hours. These charts and machine protocols say that the “fat burning” range is in the band of 60% to 70% of maximum heart rate. Now, it may be different for an olympic runner, but as a fat guy trying to lose a few pounds, that’s not even breathing hard. It’s like walking downhill. I mean, not that’s it’s bad for me, but that’s burning a lot of calories or improving my aerobic fitness in any meaningful way. At least for me, a heart rate in the 70% to 80% range is a nice steady state workout pace. I’ll be breathing a little hard, but I can still talk comfortably. A little sheen of sweat. Nice pace that I can keep up for an hour. Above 80% is a nice little kick – like walking up a steep hill, but not panting like a dog. Above 90% is hard core. I can’t keep that up for long and it’s definitely panting territory. A perfect workout for me would be an average heart rate of 70% to 75% and a peak somewhere around 85%.</p>
<p>The reason they talk about “fat burning zones” is that the PERCENTAGE of your calories burned in that range is almost entirely from stored fat. As you increase the intensity, the PERCENTAGE changes to half burning from fat and say half burning carbs. But, what they don’t tell you is that the TOTAL calories being burned goes up dramatically as you increase the intensity. So, you are burning more calories, some from stored fat, some from carbs you’ve eaten (which is also good!). Plus, the intensity raises your metabolism for hours and hours after your workout.</p>
<p>Here’s what [iPod</a> nazi has to say about those charts](<a href=“The Biggest Cardio Myth...Finally Exposed! - YouTube”>The Biggest Cardio Myth...Finally Exposed! - YouTube).</p>
<p>NMINN: I could pretty much guess that you are either pedaling against very low resistance or that you are very, very fit just from the fact that you stay on that bike for 70 minutes. I couldn’t pedal the Airdyne for 70 minutes if you held a gun to my head. My arms and legs would give out. The speed intervals you are doing are really good. They will certainly burn calories and get your heart rate up. That’s what I used to do on my yard sale exercise bike – pedal like a maniac against no resistance. Ideally, though, you’d like to be slowly increasing your resistance and still doing higher speed intervals. Not crazy resistance. You don’t want to be straining to pedal the thing, especially with your knee, but pedaling against very low resistance means that you have to go for long, long sessions. I would find the resistance and pace that slowly increases your heart rate up to 75% or so. That’s probably going to be your steady state “talk test pace” – breathing a little heavy, a little glisten of sweat, but still able to talk comfortably, not panting. That’s your baseline warmup and cool down pace and then do your speed intervals from there returning to the talk test pace for recovery intervals.</p>
<p>The talk test pace will change over time. Mine started out at 36 to 40 rpms on the Airdyne. Now, it’s 50 rpms.</p>
<p>I breathe hard and have sweat dripping from me when I work out. My shirt is soaked and my hair is plastered to my head. I am definitely working hard regardless of the resistance! I will try to do more resistance tomorrow and see what happens. My HR is about 140 and above when I do high intensity interval and 120 on resting interval. I am in the (ahem) mid-50’s age range. My legs are strong…just stupid knee is weak.</p>
<p>BC…do you play USTA tennis? I used to play for a USTA team.</p>
<p>No question you are working hard! I don’t know how you can do it for 70 minutes!</p>
<p>I don’t either. I’m very impressed.</p>
<p>I bow down to N Minnesota! I just did an Airdyne interval workout. The first full one I’ve done in a while. 35 minutes as follows:</p>
<p>5 minutes warmup at 50 rpm: Heartrate rose to 65% of max and stabilized</p>
<p>5 minutes intervals (ten intervals), 10 seconds hard (70 rpm) alternating with 20 seconds easy (45 to 50 rpm) : Heartrate rose to 93% of max.</p>
<p>5 minutes recovery at 45 to 50 rpm: Heartrate fell back to 80% and stabilized</p>
<p>5 minutes intervals (five intervals), 20 seconds hard (70 rpm) alternating with 40 seconds easy (45 to 50 rpm) : Heartrate rose to 95% of max.</p>
<p>5 minutes recovery at 45 to 50 rpm: Heartrate fell back to 80% and stabilized</p>
<p>5 minutes intervals (three intervals), 40 seconds hard (65 rpm) alternating with 80 seconds easy (45 to 50 rpm) : Heartrate rose to 96% of max. Thighs absolutely on fire as the long duration intervals brought on oxygen depletion in the muscles.</p>
<p>5 minutes recovery cool down at 45 to 50 rpm: Heartrate fell back to 80% and stabilized. Legs still burning. Breathing hard. Absolutely drenched.</p>
<p>Got off bike and could barely walk up the stairs, legs burning. 35 minutes. Average heart rate 80% of max. Peak heart rate 96% of max. I’m a little out of Airdyne shape, but 35 minutes of intervals was all I could handle. Sure does work different muscles than walking. The backs of my thighs are feelin’ it. 70 minutes is in a different league. No way I could do that with intervals, no matter how easy the resistance.</p>
<p>Interesteddad, I still don’t understand why you can’t do the same workout on an exercise bike that provides less resistance, so that you’d be pedaling faster for the same heart rate. Pedaling hard at 45 rpm is bad for the knees and back. And if you ever envision riding a real bike, pedaling hard at a slow rpm would be a bad habit you’d want to break.</p>
<p>Remember that he is using his arms, too. It’s not really like cycling- it’s more of a combination cycling/strength workout.</p>
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<p>You can certainly do interval workouts on higher rpm exercise bikes. That’s basically what “spinning” classes are.</p>
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<p>Yes. The Airdyne is really more of a whole-body exercise machine than an exercise bike per se. In geneology, it’s the grandfather of the elliptical.</p>
<p>It’s not like trying to pedal a bicycle in too tall a gear and putting tremendous strain on the knees. I can physically make the thing go fast, it’s just that you are using all the big muscles in your calves, thighs, core, arms, and shoulders and you get gassed in no time at all. Actually, the trick to getting higher speeds on the thing is to firm up the core and engage the arms more fully. I’ve never felt any twinge of discomfort in my knees or back, nothing like the agony of standing up and trying to pedal a tall gear up a hill.</p>
<p>The reason that cyclists want to turn fast rpms is that it is the most efficient over the long haul. It’s using aerobic capacity instead of muscle capacity. You don’t necessarily want efficiency in exercise equipment. The whole idea is to work the muscles and burn maximum calories, not stay on it all day burning as few calories as possible.</p>
<p>The thing that I love about the Airdyne is that there are no settings. No fiddling with pace or resistance. No adjustments. You just get on it and pedal. To do intervals, you pedal easy for a while and then you pedal harder for a while. The speed and resistance increase and the intervals will flat kick your butt. I actually was much more concerned about injury on the old yard sale exercise bike when intervals consisted of pedalling really fast against a lower resistance that really wasn’t suitable for those rpms. It’s like going fast downhill in a climbing gear – no resistance and it feels like your feet want to fly off the pedals. But, if I cranked up the resistance for the fast bits, then it was brutally hard to pedal at lower speeds with the strain on the knees that Cardinal Fang references.</p>
<p>OK, thanks, now I understand.</p>
<p>Hey, I just go out on my bike and do what feels right. I admire you Idad and Nminn for being able to stick with equipment as long as you do. Even with an ipod, I don’t last more than 15 minutes. I need the breeze and the scenery to keep me going. I find I can even bike on REALLY hot days as long as I keep hydrated. Sometimes for hours. Doesn’t bother my knee but it sure makes me tired! </p>
<p>Had a big eggplant sitting around and lots of tomatoes, zuchinni and peppers - so I made a a huge batch of ratatouille tonight and served it over brown rice. Good stuff!</p>
<p>I used to play in NELTA tournaments, and in college but that was a long time ago. These days I play with local players. They play tournaments but I do not. I generally can’t make the time commitments but I’m not in any kind of shape to play tournaments competitively.</p>
<p>Ran 6 miles today. It was relatively uneventful - mostly just cruising.</p>
<p>I came home early, had three glasses of water, one with a vitamin/electrolyte pack and a plate of gyoza. Went to sleep for about 90 minutes - very tired, very hungry, very thirsty. Woke up later and we went clothes shopping. I tried out sizes 36 and 38. I could fit into size 36 but not comfortably. 38 was easy. My old belt says that I’m a 37. I bought a new belt too. I’ve been wearing a 40 for a while even though it was too big - I hate buying clothes.</p>
<p>So my total distance this week is 23 miles. I’m inclined to relax tomorrow, do weights on Saturday and tennis on Sunday. Then prep for the 5K. I’m a bit concerned that I’m doing too much right now - especially the distance. The thing about running is that you can try to do more and more and more if you have a self-competitive nature.</p>
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<p>Ha. I just checked and the last time I had done a full 35 minute workout on the Airdyne was three months ago. I have 16 minutes of warm up, cool down, and intervals on the Airdyne as part of my iPod nazi workouts three days a week, but I’ve been taking advantage of the weather to do hill walking on my off days.</p>
<p>We had thunderstorms hitting this afternoon, so I did a full 35 minute interval session for the first time since May 5th. Honestly, I could probably shorten it up and put together a 20 to 30 minute interval workout that would be effective.</p>
<p>The intervals make it anything but boring. It’s more like hanging on for dear life once you start on those. Ten seconds hard on the minute and half minute. That 20 second rest period is over before it even starts.</p>
<p>I feel like I’ve pushed through a ceiling on these iPod workouts over the last two weeks, doing three complete sets with no extra rest and, especially yesterday, increasing the weight considerably. It’s been a long grind to get to a level of fitness where I can do these things the right way. Done right, they are nearly the perfect workout because they combine intervals (bouts of work with short recovery) and full-body athletic large muscle strength training. I’ve finally got the endurance and strength to really have some fun with them.</p>
<p>One other good reason to lose those extra pounds:</p>
<p>[Employers</a> peg insurance premiums to health - MarketWatch](<a href=“Shape up or pay up - MarketWatch”>Shape up or pay up - MarketWatch)</p>
<p>Something that I’ve worried about for a bit is that being in good shape might help if I ever had to look for a new job.</p>
<p>There was another article that said that our nation’s tab for obesity was $149 billion a year. The first BMI calculator on Google has me at obese. If I lose three pounds, I’m just overweight. It’s a very crude calculator and I do feel overweight but not obese. I do know what obese feels like. My medical costs are extremely low and I’d guess that they are well below average. And I want to keep it that way.</p>
<p>Did my regular fast paced Fat Burning routine for 30 minutes alternating speed intensity. At 30 minutes I then switched programs to random(Level 5) that automatically increased and decreased resistance intensity for my first try at this. HR averaged about 135 but that could be from my length of time, still kept RPMs in the 90’s and above. I wasn’t glistening, I was dripping and had to towel off frequently. At my age the wet t-shirt look is not a good one! Guess I need to look for a dri-weave shirt and I really need a headband! I got my 70 minutes in counting cooldown. My legs were mush like they always are. I could feel the extra resistance but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. Will see what I feel like later! 
I did have a little headache and a little nausea. Drank my whole bottle of water. May need to hydrate better or eat something before I do this again.</p>
<p>I don’t know how you do it! I can’t hang in there for 70 minutes of dripping wet high heart rate exercise. I hear ya on the headband, though. Wednesday, I was finishing up my third set if iPod exercises with 45 seconds of “plank” on the stability ball, just having to gut out every last second, arms trembling, just hanging on. And, drops of sweat are falling from the end of my nose and landing on the stability ball under my face. Argggh.</p>
<p>I’m bummed. I gained a pound this week, the first time I haven’t lost weight in a week for six months. I’ve really stepped up the iPod strength training over the last two weeks, so who knows? I don’t really trust it for precision, but the scale says I’m up two or three pounds of lean body mass. If that trend contintues that would be a good thing over the long haul. We’ll see.</p>
<p>BTW, I came across an incredible workout put together by Rachael and Alyn Cosgrove, who are gurus of the whole bodyweight circuit, interval training approach to fitness. This is the so-called Sparticus Workout.</p>
<p>Ten exercises. 60 seconds of each (or whatever you can do), 15 seconds in between exercises. Two minutes rest in between sets. Three sets:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/high-intensity-circuit-routine/printer.php[/url]”>http://www.menshealth.com/mhlists/high-intensity-circuit-routine/printer.php</a></p>
<p>I know I can’t even do all of these exercises, let alone do them for 60 seconds or string them back to back to back. But, I’m hoping to get there. This is a fabulous approach to fat loss and fitness.</p>