<p>Good luck MOWC! Hope you have fun and keep relatively pain free!</p>
<p>And maybe you could talk your company into getting one of those treadmill desks!</p>
<p>My experience with the heart rate monitors on the elliptical or on the treadmill is that they are often incorrect and with respect to tracking calories burned–the equipment is not even close to the actual numbers. I have a heart rate monitor that I use religiously. I work with a trainer and she suggested that I buy it. I was reluctant at first, but now I’m hooked. I like to be able to see how long I stayed within my training range heart rate and also to know how many calories I burned. I keep a training diary and write everything down. I found that as I lost weight, I had to work harder or longer to burn the same amount of calories. That was important information. I also was able to figure out that my heart rate is definitely affected by working out when temps are high. I would definitely recommend getting the monitor. I have a Polar heart rate monitor. I like it because it has a soft strap (the part that you put around your chest). I used one that my H had (which was sitting in the closet) and that strap was pretty uncomfortable. This is the one that I have.</p>
<p>[Polar</a> FT60 Heart Rate Monitor FT60M FT60F Fitness Heart Monitor: Bodytronics.com](<a href=“http://www.bodytronics.com/p/polar_heart_rate_monitors/POFT60]Polar”>http://www.bodytronics.com/p/polar_heart_rate_monitors/POFT60)</p>
<p>Eighth day in a row of exercise and I’m taking a day off tomorrow. Did my 6th bout with Spartacus and in might have been my toughest yet. Never even gave a moment’s thought to a third set. 42 minutes, counting the 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down on the Airdyne. Averaged 82% heart rate with a peak of 96% for the 42 minutes. That’s a lot of panting like a dog.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting stronger at the exercises and doing them more aggressively, but my heart rate was up and stayed up. The lowest I saw at the end of any of the exercises was 87%. The most recovery I saw during a rest period was down to 82%. I started the final squat presses with a heart rate of 91%. This thing is hard core interval training with dumbbells. With the iPod soundtrack, it just keeps coming in “5… 4… 3… 2… 1…”</p>
<p>Back to iPod nazi next week. Two weeks in a row of Spartacus is enough. I’ll be back, though. I love this workout. I gets every muscle in my body firing including a whole bunch of them I didn’t even know I had.</p>
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<p>The last time I did these was November 7 according to my weightlifting log. The dumbbells at the YMCA go up to 125 pounds. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen anyone use those over 100 pounds.</p>
<p>You’d be surprised at how strong some of those side muscles are. I think that this exercise could be done with a pulley machine too.</p>
<p>Heh, heh. My idea of strong side muscles is being able to do 45 seconds of side plank and then flip over and do 45 seconds on the other side! I’m doing the lunges with a twist holding one 8 pound dumbbell and 45 seconds is gracious plenty. It’s all I can do to keep from falling over, but at least my lunges are getting better. Speaking of which, I was able to get a look in the sliding glass door reflection tonight and I was getting my goblet squats down all the way to my thighs parallel to the floor. That’s a huge improvement. The thought of that would have killed my knee six months ago. Turns out it probably wasn’t the knee at all, but a lack of muscle strength all around the knee.</p>
<p>My big flourish in the heavy iron category is 12 reps of squat presses at the end of Spartacus, with two 14 pound dumbells. I am so sick of that exercise. It gasses me in the iPod nazi workout and it gasses me as the final exercise in Spartacus.</p>
<p>Good morning to all you awesome, supportive folks on this thread! I’m up and ready to load up the bikes. I’ll try to update this afternoon from Lynchburg. One of our group (the senior-most VP) already had to bail due to a back problem (perils of an aging workforce). Off to see Mr. Jack Daniels!!! It’s 47 degrees and, well, it’s dark right now but will be sunny and nice.</p>
<p>Yay, go MOfWC! Have fun and be safe! we are off to explore Paradise (now I have to figure out if the visitor center is still open).</p>
<p>Good Luck MOWC!!! Sending speedy and safe thoughts your way! I always send healing thoughts too! ;)</p>
<p>Well yesterday was a good day for me…finally reached another five pound goal…35 pounds lost! I am so very surprised and happy! This last five was harder to lose for some reason. Now on to another five pound goal and a size 8!!! 
Today is my day off from biking. My glutes are so sore but I will do some walking sometime today…hmmm…maybe some weights, too??? ;)</p>
<p>NM - see, we told you so! 
Awesome, awesome job! <<the cheerleading=“” squad=“” gets=“” the=“” pompoms=“” out=“” and=“” does=“” a=“” happy=“” dance!=“”>></the></p>
<p>**Fantastic, NMinn. **What is more surprising to you? That you’ve lost 35 pounds (yeah!) or that you are talking about your “glutes” being sore from exercise?</p>
<p>MOWC: Enjoy the ride!</p>
<p>Hooray for MOWC and NMinn today! I guess Happy Pedaling will work for either…</p>
So if my muscles are sore does that mean my just-slightly-more-intense-than-leisurely time on the treadmill has been doing at least a little good?
And MoWC, when I read about your adventures, the words (and I say this with great admiration for you) “brave and crazy” come to mind.
<p>Did some barbell squats with help from my son. Only 60 pounds but having him around makes it possible to do squats. I might be able to do barbell military presses too. I would have to try out one or two to ensure that it doesn’t stress the tennis elbow. I asked him if he’d like to try the squats too but he declined.</p>
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<p>Yes, absolutely! A general non-specific soreness in the muscles (as opposed to some kind of specific localized jabbing pain) is the sign that whatever you are doing is working!</p>
<p>Yay to N.Minn &MofWC - maybe I really shouldn’t encourage you - but that wussy VP and a little back issue - wouldn’t stop our gal!</p>
<p>One of the events that made me decide last winter that I had to address this fitness issue was the day my wife left her car in parking lot with a flat tire in the middle of a snowstorm. I was tasked with going to change the tire and I was so out of shape, I thought I would have an aneurism jacking the car up and changing the tire. (Of course, I probably did have an aneurism when I let the car down off the jacks and discoverd the spare was flat and had to do it again to go pump up the spare.)</p>
<p>Fast forward to this week when I had to change a tire on my wife’s car in the rain. All those squats have paid off. Not only was it a piece of cake, but I was able to squat down, take the tire off, and stand up with the tire, all without putting a knee on the ground. Same thing putting the spare on the car. That’s a real world fitness gain! I’m never going to be a NASCAR jackman, but it’s pretty darn rewarding to see that kind of direct improvement.</p>
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<p>Being confined to a wheelchair wouldn’t stop MOWC from going on that 100 mile bike ride! I’m in awe.</p>
<p>Quick check in from the tent. Good day. 77 miles. Good Lynchburg Lemonade(alcoholic). All of us but H are doing the 57 tomorrow in a rare display of good sense. Full report tomorrow.</p>
<p>Only ran a mile yesterday. I still have some knee twinges from tennis on Wednesday so I guess I should work on making the quads stronger. I spent some time on the gym and did that side pull exercise that I described yesterday. I used a 70-pound dumbbell and the hardest part of the exercise was getting it out of the rack and putting it back in again. Basically I had to use an arm that was vertical and bend my knees with square shoulders to get it out and the same process to put it in. It’s not that simple because the rack is slightly tilted. Surprisingly my fingers didn’t ache from this as they have in the past. The exercise itself was fairly straightforward once the thing was out. So that is one dumbbell exercise that can be done with tennis elbow.</p>
<p>I went to bed early and slept for about eleven hours. I don’t know if it was just the stress of the past ten days or if I have the flu that’s going around. Both kids have had it as has my manager. In the case of my kids, they had significant respiratory symptoms and I haven’t had those. My manager said that he had a sinus infection. At any rate, a few mildly sore muscles in a few spots. It’s a little cold to run outside this morning but I might give it a whirl later in the day. I may need to get some warmer clothes for the cooler weather.</p>
<p>Idad- I believe you have a heart rate monitor that also calculates calories if so do you notice any difference in the calories burned doing different exercises that surprise you?
For example on Friday I walked/jogged on a treadmill for 40 minutes and it calculated that I burned 480 calories. I went between 4.0 to 5.5 miles per hour at 1% elevation. On Saturday I did 40 minutes on the eliptical machine and it calculated that I burned 610 calories. To be honest my workout on the treadmill was significantly harder. Now I know that the calorie count on these machines may not be accurate but I wonder if using your monitor you were ever surprised by the amount of calories burned?</p>