<p>Sounds like Best Fitness, another of the relatively recent chains. They can charge so little because lots of people sign up and don’t use the place. The nice thing about membership at a chain is that you can usually use their other facilities - we have people at work that belong to chains so that they can workout near home or near the office, even though we have a nice fitness center at work. The fitness center at work can get pretty crowded sometimes.</p>
<p>I do the same thing with the YMCA though the YMCA usually doesn’t have as good coverage.</p>
<p>That sliding contraption might be the Smith Machine.</p>
<p>I noticed an older version at the Y tonight. You put the barbell on a support which you can move up and down. Then you put the weights on the ends and take it off the supports and do your thing. Not as safe as a Smith Machine because it’s on a track but it looks like it was a lot cheaper.</p>
<p>A club is only as good as how much you use it but it’s great having an additional option for working out.</p>
<p>One other thing: these places tend to be places where singles check each other out. I prefer the more family environment of the Y where there are lots of other fat guys working out (in addition to the people from the police department, the navy and the marines that work out there).</p>
<p>Fun night! Went to hear Chris McDougall (author of Born to Run) speak at F&M. He was so entertaining - a great storyteller. I am not sure I am going to abandon my shoes, but I do believe in his basic premise - that we need to remember the joy, the playfulness, of running or just being outside.</p>
<p>The $10 a month membership only gets you access to that one club. For access to all the clubs in the chain, you have to go the the deluxe $29 a month package (which also includes unlimited free tanning!).</p>
<p>Yes, the barbell on a rack looked like what you had described as a Smith machine. I was getting the official tour ™ and trying to get an overview of stuff I might use. Nothing really of interest in the cardio section (treadmills, ellipticals, and bikes). The freeweight area – dumbbells, benches, and this barbell contraption looked like something I might use. Possibly some of the strength machines – although I’d have to be sold on the merits of isolation exercises.</p>
<p>I just wanted to see what the place looked like. As long as everything is new and it was empty like it was this afternoon, it would probably be a good deal. I’m kind of thinking down the road, after iPod nazi Phase III when I’ll need to figure out new stuff to keep it interesting. Of course, at that point, I’ll probably be able to put together my own circuits.</p>
<p>There are fitness places that fit your description. They are the old-school body builder and athletic training joints, like Mike Boyle’s place in Woburn (#1 gym in country, says Men’s Health Magazine) and Eric Cressey’s place in Hudson. These would be the places worth paying money for training programs, IMO.</p>
<p>The machines allow you to build strength in a way that isn’t possible with bodyweight and barbell/dumbbell exercises but only targets certain muscles. Do you want that type of strength? The rotary torso (twisty abs machine) allows you to torque 200 pounds with the small muscles in your side. They probably have an abs crunch machine that allows you to do 250 pound crunches. That’s pretty serious stomach strength for the small set of muscles trained. But just because you can do those 250 pound crunches doesn’t mean that you can do 100 crunches with just your bodyweight.</p>
<p>It’s also useful if/when you have an injury. You can do everything that you need to do with freeweights and using your own body weight. But you can do some other things with the machines.</p>
<p>Our monthly membership at the YMCA is $75/month. This is for a family membership and the main benefit is the free court time which would otherwise cost $25/hour. I usually play about six to ten hours per week. My son also uses the place. I have had little success getting my wife and daughter to use the place. So $10 sounds pretty good. It sounds like it would be cheaper to get memberships near home and office than it would be to go deluxe.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, Mike Boyle Strength and Fitness only has one “machine” that’s a moving sled that you sit on and push the seat up an incline against band resistance. He uses it as a “jumping” strength excercise for athletes who are injured and can’t take the impact of their body landing after a real jump.</p>
<p>Everything else is free weights or barbells on some kind of rack. </p>
<p>The theory is that every muscle you could train is used, in the real world, as part of a chain of muscles in the body and, therefore, should be trained as part of an overall chain. They don’t like the isolation of individual muscles. On the other hand, their focus is professional athletes. Boyle is famous for NHL hockey players and prepping college football players for the NFL draft. Eric Cressey is famous for major league baseball players, specifically pitchers.</p>
<p>That reminds me of the Total Gym, the system that has Chuck Norris as the spokesman.</p>
<p>There certain abs, back and side muscles used in tennis in the serve that I think can benefit from isolation exercises. The strength needed is not symmetrical. I find benefits in performance and safety with tennis when I am current with my abs routine. It takes me about three months to get up to the max weights on the machines if I have not been doing the exercises regularly. That is the strength goes away as fast as it is developed.</p>
<p>At any rate, it is something that is an interesting experience in lifting well over your own weight.</p>
<p>After reading that fast food thread yesterday, I ordered a large veggie sub. I felt like a slice or two of pizza too. Instead, I just ordered a small pizza to go with it. I think that the two come out to 2,000 calories. I had 1,200 calories for breakfast and lunch. So that was a lot of calories. The thing is that I was still hungry last night and this morning and am hungry now. I do think that there was some afterburner effect from the long run (8.5 miles - most I’ve ever run in my lifetime) on Monday.</p>
<p>I’m going to play tennis in about three hours. Haven’t eaten anything for about 14 hours. I will probably have a snack and then go out to play. I still feel thin and my belt agrees. I think that the weights last night helped with the calorie burn too.</p>
<p>My weight is stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck! Yes, I know about plateaus, and lean muscle weighing more than fat and blah, blah, blahbety blah blah. I want the scale to move! How many calories does pitching a hissy fit burn?</p>
<p>I played better today than I have in quite some time, perhaps the best that I’ve played this year. More power and spin on the serve and I was consistently putting away weak returns. My body felt solid on the court. I suspect the weight work and recent focus on the quads helped quite a bit. No signs of tennis elbow either. The downside is that we finished fifteen minutes early as I worked on closing out points quickly. I didn’t get as hard a workout so I may go for another round of weights tonight. I think that eating a lot last night, especially a lot of carbs provided lots of energy in the tank for playing today. Any hunger that I had during the match was easily taken care of with a few sips of Gatorade.</p>
<p>I just looked it up. Pitching a hissy fit burns 126.35 calories.</p>
<p>I hear ya on the plateau thing. My weight recently has been moving in fits and starts with entire weeks where I don’t lose an ounce. My patience gets tested, but I’ve made a personal vow not to complain about it. I figure this whole move more, eat less thing doesn’t owe me a darn thing at this point. It’s all gravy from here on out.</p>
<p>I just keep at it. I track my calories every day now and I haven’t eased up on exercise at all (as I brace myself for another round of Spartacus).</p>
<p>I think a lot of has to do with just not having as much fat to lose. It’s pretty easy to shed fat when it’s 40% of your weight. To lose 5 pounds, I only had to lose 5% of my stored fat. Now, to lose 5 pounds, I’ve got to lose over 10% of my remaining body fat (and a good chunk of that body fat is not “losable”. So, of course the rate of weight loss has to slow as you near the target weight.</p>
<p>I am also stepping up my weight lifting significantly. This a huge plus for fitness (I can feel it) and it’s changing the shape of my body (pants on the ground), but it’s not making the scale jump as quickly.</p>
<p>Remember what time of year it is, folks. I believe (seriously) that there is the “winter coat” factor and it becomes harder to shed stored fat in fall/winter. I have seen this over the years in many of my athletic friends. Same level of training- weight bumps up a few pounds. It also has to do with not being as chronically dehydrated.</p>
<p>I think that is a distinct possibility. Not only have I noticed unexplained jumps in weight, the body fat readings from my scale have been going crazy with the change of season.</p>
<p>Spartacus today. I swear, this damn thing is getting harder, not easier. I think it’s because I can actually do all but one of the exercises now. I can finally do a full squat, with my thighs parallel to the floor. I can finally do a real lunge, with the back knee almost touching the floor. I can even do the lunges with a twist – holding a dumbbell at my chest and turning my torso to the side with each lunge. And, much to my amazement, I can even do the split jumps – lunge, scissor jump to the opposite lunge and back and forth – OMG, that will gas you in no time flat. The only exercise I can’t do very well is the side lunge. Step way to the side, and lunge down bending one leg, keeping the other straight (a sure recipe for a groin pull). I’m supposed to touch the ground with two dumbells when I lunge all the way down, but I can’t get close without just bending down (not really the point). Oh, well, I’ll keep trying; it’ll come.</p>
<p>Because I can do the exercises now, I exert more effort and the whole 10 exercise circuit takes more of a toll. Counting an easy five minute warmup and five minute cooldown on the Airdyne, two sets of Spartacus was 42 minutes today, average heart rate of 82%. Max heart rate of 99%. If it were 43 minutes, I don’t think I could do it. Crazy. Anything to lose five pounds, I guess!</p>
<p>Just back from the gym. Once again scheduling was crazy today. Had to sit around waiting for the workers to come and blow out the irrigation system then had a workshop to attend. Oh well…at least I got an hour in. Had a great veggie and egg white omelet for dinner with some wonderful raspberries and strawberries! Yum!</p>
<p>I got stuck all summer long. I’m determined to get back on track. I didn’t gain weight - just didn’t get the walks in due to the heat and had a few too many good meals out.</p>
Oh, I have no right to complain. I’m spoiled. And I agree about the dehydration factor and the cold weather factor. I’ll keep plugging away. Trainer at 7 tomorrow morning; I’ll be walking funny tomorrow night.</p>
<p>Hey, at least you can walk. I do so many lunges and squats in Spartacus that I can barely get up the stairs afterwards. Can’t even pull myself up with the handrail because my arms are shot from the presses and rows.</p>
<p>I was so mad. The tenth exercise is the squat press: pressing dumbells overhead while rising up out of a squat. It might be the single most exhausting exercise I do, because it works so many muscles simultaneously. Anyway, I was totally gassed when I started it, but I figured it was the last exericise, so go for it. I did ten hard reps with two 15 pound dumbells and was basically jello on the 10th rep. </p>
<p>I breathed a sigh of relief and then I heard THAT voice on the iPod saying…"begin 10th exercise in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… "</p>
<p>OMG, I skipped one. Looked at my cheat sheet and realized I hadn’t done the squats with one-arm dumbell swing. So there, I was in the tank and I had to start another exercise: squat with a 15 pound dumbbell between your legs, then push up with the legs while swinging the dumbell out and up to shoulder height. Another killer, big muscle workout. I do 9 with each arm in 45 seconds. I did 'em, but I was in some kind of ugly place. I think that must have been where my heart rate hit 99%.</p>
<p>Spent about 35 minutes doing weights at the YMCA. The Boyle page says that three hours per week on weights is all you need to do to maximize fat burning from weightlifting. I imagine that you can spend more time and build more muscle but I guess that doesn’t help in losing fat. I usually do no more than 35 minutes of weights as I am somewhat constrained in what I can do so I guess I’ll try three times a week on weights at the YMCA.</p>
<p>Had a large 1200 calorie veggie sub for dinner. Oil, vinegar and cheese. Only had about 500 calories for breakfast and lunch so it’s been a light day.</p>
<p>Looks like everyone is working out and watching the calories.</p>
<p>I seem to be watching the calories go in my mouth. The day job is a little intense right now and I’m packing to go to PA for my high school reunion (20th I think ) My heart rate hit 99% as my PT was digging into my hamstring and calf today. Pain. All I had time to do tonight was a 2 1/2 mile walk and it started raining.</p>
) My heart rate hit 99% as my PT was digging into my hamstring and calf today. Pain. All I had time to do tonight was a 2 1/2 mile walk and it started raining.</p>