<p>A friend of my husband’s does this. I see him at the gym almost every day. He gets on a stationary bike or an elliptical machine and reads the NYTimes–he folds the paper in half and turns the pages as he reads. He barely seems to be moving. I get on the elliptical and get off soaked with sweat. If I don’t pay attention or start watching tv–I take it easy and don’t get much out of the time I’m putting into exercise. I guess people have different motivations for doing exercise and each of us is different–YK–different strokes and all that. </p>
<p>Today was the first time in two weeks that the weather cooperated and I was able to go outside and walk. Did a fast 7 miles with a walking friend–it was very cold, but we were moving and I was sweating by the time we finished. We did 7 miles in just under an hour and forty-five minutes.</p>
<p>I see a fair number of people that walk on the treadmill with a magazine or use the elliptical or bike. My thoughts are that it is better than nothing. It probably gets the heart rate up a little, builds a bit of muscle and it may burn a few calories.</p>
<p>I prefer a vigorous workout and music is usually the only external stimulus and the purpose of that is to keep the pace up.</p>
<p>Ran 1.5 miles today. Haven’t run in almost a month. The run was very easy. Also used the Smith Machine and the dumbbells. Will do something at home tonight too but I’m not sure what. Maybe stretches, situps or the barbell.</p>
<p>From the limited reading I do on these things, it seems that the jury is still out on the long term health consequences of working up a sweat vs. leisurely moving on an elliptical or taking a stroll. I remember reading a recent study that said the biggest benefits from exercise can be had by a 20 minute walk/day, and that it isn’t necessary to go all out. I think this was for the 50+ crowd. Can’t recall where I read it (probably the NYTimes) but if I find it I’ll post. I think there’s general agreement that exercise is very important, but not over the quality/quantity of it.</p>
<p>That said, I do get a “high” from working out at my maximum that I don’t get through my more sedate sessions.</p>
<p>I confess I sometimes read the morning paper on the exercise bike. It’s so BORING (the bike, not the paper) that I need some incentive to get started. After five or ten minutes I put the paper down and start getting my heart rate up & the legs pumping.</p>
<p>Maybe we should get a TV for the basement where the bike is?</p>
<p>I think it depends on where you are on the fitness curve. The way I was a year ago, – total couch potato, ex-smoker, 70 pounds overweight – any exercise at all would make a signficant difference because it would be much more intense than the level of exercise my body had adapted to. As I became more fit, however, an unchanging level of exercise would become less and less beneficial – certainly in terms of fat loss and continuing fitness gains. That’s the trap of doing the same workout, over and over, year after year. The body simply adapts to do that workout routine very efficiently and you stop seeing gains. It may be enough to keep you treading water, but it is continually forcing the body to make adaptations to new challenges that increases fitness. The good trainers all build progressions into their workouts for that reason.</p>
<p>I agree that doing any kind of exercise for 30 minutes is the baseline and will always pay dividends over not exercising at all.</p>
<p>Have you tried exercising listening to music? Of course it would have to be music that you like and you would dance to. I run and could not do it without it. If you go to a gym you may want to try out a spinning class. It is fun and you burn a lot of calories. There are classes for different levels. My husband just started exercising and hates to run. He goes to a beginner’s spin class and loves it.</p>
<p>When I was at the athletic shoe store, buying shoes for my hard to fit son, I overheard a guy telling the sales clerk that he needed shoes because he was planning to go from couch potato to (I think) half-marathon in a matter of months. And blog about it.</p>
<p>He had a plan he had seen online for increasing the workout and length of runs daily. At the time I was recovering from stressed knees and I thought bleakly to myself, “You’ll be fine until your knees give out.” </p>
<p>I wish I had asked him the title of his blog so I could follow his progress. And I hope his body doesn’t have any weak links!</p>
<p>Return to Spartacus for me today. First time this year. Two sets. It felt like I was doing some of the exercises with a different body. I’m a lot stronger. Still completely gassed , though. That is a serious cardio/interval training challenge. Whew.</p>
<p>So I listened to a podcast with strength coach Dan Johns today while I was doing my workout. He’s a kettleball expert and spent quite a while talking about kettleball swings, or dumbbell swings as I do. He made two points: minimal knee bend, maximum hip bend. He apparently has a DVD out and I found a clip that might be interesting to anyone here who does swings or wants to start doing swings. I learned a lot. [Fantastic</a> teacher](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>I’ve been doing the inverted row that was discussed upstream. Very difficult for me but I’m seeing results already – those rippling muscles in my back!!</p>
<p>I was rather sore and tired last night so I just worked for a few hours and went to bed early. Still sore and tired this morning but I did some stretching and felt much better - actually quite good. Today is tennis day.</p>
<p>The main workout is getting into the office though. I carry a 15 pound backpack, my workout bag which is about 15 pounds and my tennis bag (6 or 7 pounds). Walking up the stairs and getting through the security doors is a bit of a headache as I run out of arms.</p>
<p>^I googled it and Couch to Half Marathon is a 3 month program (Couch to Full Marathon is 5 months!) Of course there’s a catch: </p>
<p>“You should have at least six months of running under your belt before embarking on one of these programs.”</p>
<p>So…not exactly starting from “couch.”</p>
<p>BCEagle–my DH power walks in Manhattan with a (I swear) 30+ pound laptop case on one shoulder and a stuffed overnight bag on the other. He claims he gets all his exercise running for buses, subways, trains, and planes.</p>
<p>I have a friend that moved to Manhatten and he lost 30 pounds by running to work. I don’t know how he managed his laundry. We have people in the office that bicycle to work but it’s easy to carry a change of clothes on a bicycle. Walking around with that kind of weight gives you a pretty good exercise. Consider also when you have to use your hands to take your keys or keycard out or take money out of your wallet to pay for the ride. That means that you have to load everything on one hand or arm for a few moments or put stuff down on the ground. Lots of different exercises there.</p>