<p>Whew! The gym was hot and humid this morning. Pounded out my time on the bike, did my pushups and threw the kb around. My knee is still swollen but not as sore. Good news. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new magazine subscription called Clean Eating. I have picked up the last two issues at the store and found some yummy new recipes. I also picked up some oat bran to add to my meals. Will see if it makes a difference.</p>
<p>PT this morning. Now I have a long piece of bright blue tape up the back of my leg. It’s a “look”! Picking out a work outfit to match. I’ve seen this before. Also- instructions to try not to sit at my work desk anymore than I have to. Guess I’ll go back to the standing desk setup. (involves very large law books all piled up under my monitor and keyboard. Probably a safety hazard and our company is obsessive about safety (we win awards). </p>
<p>Then- went and ran 5 miles in heat and humidity, but I’m not complaining after being cold for so long.</p>
<p>Sounds like the tape that they use on pro tennis players.</p>
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<p>Yeah, it sounds like “Kinesio-Tape.” Personally I think that stuff is a waste of money. It’s like $10-15 per roll…</p>
<p>Sun was out today when I left the gym–it’s been gloomy and cloudy for days. As I walked out, l felt like all was right with the world. Did pilates boot camp and cardio intervals on the new elliptical machine. The new machines in my gym are much better than the old ones–I don’t know how to describe it, but the range of motion is greater, which makes moving your legs harder; it’s also easier to raise your heart rate by going faster. I’m finding that as I am getting fitter, I’m not burning as many calories doing the same kinds of exercises. Can someone give me a short explanation–is it because I weigh less (about 46 pounds) or because I’m fitter or some combination of both. This (working hard, but burning fewer calories) is across the board with the exception of spinning–I still burn lots of calories in an hour (anywhere from 525 to 575 calories).</p>
<p>We also got great new machines. But gym is the least favorite of all my exercises. No matter what, it is inside. Nothing beats being outside. Congrats to everybody who successfully lost weight, I successfully gained being on all inclusive vacation in a span of 4 motnhs and then various events in my life that caused me to go out more. Oh, well, pounds should leave my body when I start swimming in 4 days. Can’t wait for being in a water, buy, buy gym, walking, rollerblades, you do not measure up.</p>
<p>I’m running into the same issue - the same distance doesn’t burn as many calories - I’m simply doing less work. With tennis, I don’t have to haul as much weight around the court so there’s less work there too. So I’m bumping up my speed slowly. My schedule has made it harder to bump up distance lately. The school stuff is over with the kids so that’s giving me a little more time but I’m taking care of overdue appointment type stuff that needs more immediate attention, some car repair stuff and I’ll need to take care of some home repairs soon.</p>
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<p>Both. Actually, there are probably three reasons:</p>
<p>a) You weigh less, so you have less mass to move, requiring less energy.</p>
<p>b) Calorie burn is highly dependent on oxygen consumption. As you get more cardio-vascular fitness, you won’t be breathing as hard or have such high heart rates for a given exercise.</p>
<p>c) The more you do an exercise, the more your body learns to do the exercise more efficiently – even on a subconscious level. Little cheats and adaptations to expend less energy.</p>
<p>BTW, it’s a good problem to have! It means that your fitness is improving, which is the whole idea! It does mean that you have to progressively ramp up the intensity of your exercise.</p>
<p>That’s one reason that interval training works so well. It’s easy to kick up the intensity of the intervals as you get stronger. Same thing with weight lifting. Both almost automatically adjust to your level of fitness, i.e. I pedal the Airdyne harder now on a 1 minute interval than I did six months ago.</p>
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<p>Both.</p>
<p>When you weigh less, exercise that involves moving your body around (walking, running, pushups, pullups, dips, etc.) requires less energy (calories) to do.</p>
<p>And when you get fitter, your muscles work more efficiently. The speed that a Tour de France champion bicycles “slowly” at may be an all out sprint (or unattainable) for many other people.</p>
<p>^^ Both.</p>
<p>What is the new elliptical at your gym? Is it the ARC trainer (I think that’s a Cybex) or maybe the AMT (Adaptive Motion Trainer) by Precor. I like the AMT and find it to be a hard workout, but it’s a little touchy for my hamstring compared to the regular elliptical. ARC is also good.</p>
<p>Well, it’s the first day hot enough in New England to need a sweat towel, so I put on my Livestrong short shorts and a cute little matching black shirt, fired up the iPod playlist, and headed out for a nice warm 5k walk/jog.</p>
<p>I take back everything I ever said about running. No wonder everyone has sore legs. That was a hot sweaty workout on a muggy 80 degree day. My heart rates at the end of the five 2 minute jogging intervals were:</p>
<p>91%
99%
101%
95%
100%</p>
<p>The ol’ (formerly) fat guy was huffin’ & puffin’ out there.</p>
<p>Ran 3.5 miles but ran it about 20 seconds per mile faster than yesterday. I think that I either need to run faster or farther to get a decent workout. I don’t want to run faster too fast because of potential joint problems. Farther is a problem given my schedule but that should improve in a week or two.</p>
<p>I think my trainer tried to kill me today. I’m going to need someone to feed me my breakfast in the morning! Toughest new move for me–put a resistance band around my wrists, hold them far enough apart to create tension, then do front raises. Ow.</p>
<p>MoWC, can you put the blue tape down both legs and pretend you’re wearing hosiery with seams?</p>
<p>They have flesh-colored tape too.</p>
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<p>Ouch. That hurts just thinking about it. All the shoulder-specific raises like those and lateral raises are hard as heck. I will never forgive iPod nazi for the lunge walks with lateral raises. Good lord, those are brutal. I’m trying to work up the courage to go back and revisit that workout.</p>
<p>I know from using the minibands several times a week for monster walks and lateral walks, that the resistance is deceptively difficult.</p>
<p>It’s been interval cardio week for me with a seven day break from slinging around dumbbells. The basement is dry, so I’ll probably tackle Spartacus tomorrow.</p>
<p>1/4 mile run
20 Burpees
30 DB Floor-to-Overhead
40 KB Swings
100 foot Lunge Walk with 35 pound plate overhead
1/4 mile run</p>
<p>M of WC–the new machines are the Precor AMTs. I like them.</p>
<p>We have 4 Precor AMTs at my gym; they’re my favorite as well. I do an interval workout that I found on active.com or coolrunning.com:</p>
<p>Start at level 5, stride for 1 minute
Go to level 6, stride for 1 minute
level 7 1 minute
level 8 1 minute
level 9 1 minute</p>
<p>Drop to level 6, stride for 1 minute
Repeat process up to level 10</p>
<p>Drop to level 7, stride for 1 minute
Repeat to level 11</p>
<p>Drop to level 8
Repeat to level 12</p>
<p>Drop to level 5
Cool down for 5 minutes</p>
<p>Do not forget to relax during your exercise routine. It is my major relaxation time and the most important reason to exercise. Do not be too intense about what you are doing, enjoy, it is very important to enjoy, otherwise, you will drop activity altogether after awhile.</p>