<p>The weights involved aren’t very high, so I don’t think most body builders would go for such high reps and low weights. The split squats are just body weight and the kb is only 12 kg, which is no big deal, even at 50 reps, except for the putting them all together with no rest and the quarter mile run part. I think the idea is more along the lines of metabolic conditioning, where to some degree the goal IS to feel like you are going to faint or puke. In which case, mission accomplished!</p>
<p>I am enjoying this class, believe it or not, but where it differs from Crossfit, is that there is almost no real heavy weight strength component, but I am too tired to hit the heavy weights on the off days. </p>
<p>Also, I am super focused on the nutrition right now. Have been keeping my carbs quite low, am tracking overall calories etc. and I really want to see more of the fluff disappear. Having “done it all” workout-wise in the past, I really have taken Taubes’ advice to heart, to not focus on the exercise as part of the weight loss solution, instead to exercise for other health benefits and focus on the diet. </p>
<p>In the future, I may revisit this approach, but I don’t want to overthink or second guess too much, since I know (for me) from marathon training to heavy weightlifting to spin classes and everything in between, the exercise won’t be very important to the weight loss process.</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s been posted posted before, but which GPS/heart rate monitor to buy? Nothing too expensive… just looking for a starting point. I have a HR monitor, but it’s broken so time to consider a replacement…</p>
<p>This thing is fantastic. I’ve been feeling it for a day afterwards each time. I have found that so many of the hip/glute/butt exercises are difficult to master and really feel like you are working the right muscles. This one is really deceptively simple, with the only snag being that it might make your hamstrings cramp up at first.</p>
<p>Give it a whirl. I can’t think of any reason that all of us geezers wouldn’t benefit from doing this three times a week.</p>
<p>The first one has a button interface and is larger. The second one is smaller and has a touch bezel interface – you do a lot of stuff by tapping the bezel or scrolling your finger around the bezel. The first one plugs into a USB docking bay. The second one uploads automatically to a wireless “thumb drive” type antenna plugged into a USB port.</p>
<p>For the most part, they have the same features and both can be programmed with advanced interval workouts from the computer (a major difference with the lower-end Garmins).</p>
<p>A happy surprise here–I just tried the wall sit exercise that I had to do in PT for my knee (and couldn’t very well)…now can actually get in a 90 degree sit with only a little pain. (Wouldn’t do it if it really hurt, but before I could only get to about halfway.) </p>
<p>Must be the other exercises I’ve been doing. And I can do those squats described upthread (Mike Boyle?) Woo-hoo!</p>
<p>Of course, I have been doing a lot of ladder work…priming & painting a bathroom.</p>
<p>1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds for breakfast - quite good nutritionally but my Trader Joes only sells them in the fall. 10 grams carbs, 20 grams protein, 30 grams fat and 8 grams of fiber. 0 cholesterol and 0 sodium (unsalted). A NUTritional powerhouse.</p>
<p>Taste is not that great; almonds, cashews, pistachios and peanuts are better but pumpkin seeds are better than sunflower seeds.</p>
<p>Half-hour workout this morning: stretching, butt, abs and weights. Feeling great this morning with the combination of sunshine and rather cold, but seasonal temperatures.</p>
<p>Weighed in this morning before I workout. Talk about water retention and bloat! I lost 4.5 lbs since yesterday morning. Sheesh! A low carb day yesterday and exercise really wrung that excess water out of me. I hate feeling bloated.</p>
<p>Yeah, I read all the complaints about it before I bought mine, but I haven’t found it to be about like learning how use the touch-screen iPod nano. Both have particular idiosynchricities about how fast to touch them and how long to wait for the command to happen before touching them again. Both will occassionlly fail to respond to the first touch or swipe or drag. I think most of the complaints are probably from people who haven’t had time to learn the interface. There’s a lot in the 405 interface with touches doing one thing, touch and holds doing something else, and dragging around the circumference doing yet a third thing. After a while, all that becomes second nature, but at first you end up doing a lot of stuff you don’t intend to.</p>
<p>There are times when you want to lock the bezel during a workout. I haven’t had to for walking or jogging (no long sleeve shirts yet and I don’t go out in the rain much), but I have locked it for some of the iPod nazi workouts. I don’t do a lot of fiddling with the watch while working out. Mostly just hit the “LAP” button to start a new lap (this starts an interval on my walk/jogs and I start a new lap after each section of my NROL4A workouts). I do, however, sometimes change the display screen while walking or jogging and haven’t found that to be much of a problem. </p>
<p>Because you can customize all the display screens, I usually just set up one of the four screens for the display I will want to use for that workout. For example, on my walk jogs or Airdyne intervals, I set it up for just two pieces of info (so the numbers are really big): heart rate and either time or distance for the lap interval (depending on which I’m using). Every time I hit the LAP button, it starts the countdown, so I can always see how much of the interval I’ve completed. I have heart rate set up as the big number in all of the data screens, so that stays constant when I switch between them. Other screens show distance and time along with heart rate or lap distance and lap time. I don’t bother with pace or elevation because I can look at that on the computer graphs when I get home.</p>
<p>I’m sure that I could pick up the button model and be just as confused until I had used it long enough for the interface to be second nature.</p>
<p>I hear ya. Over the past week, I’ve seen the biggest swings in my weight that I’ve seen in over 18 months. I literally saw a four pound swing. Neither the low nor the high were real and I now seem to have settled in right in the middle.</p>
<p>I probably shouldn’t even pay attention to it, but I’m pretty determined to really nail down what I can and cannot do to avoid ever putting weight back on. That’s a new experience for me. The last time I was this size was at least thirty years ago and I didn’t do a very good job back then of nipping it in the bud when I started putting on a pound here or a pound there. So, this time, I’ve got to learn what a normal range of swings (seasonal or whatever) are.</p>
<p>Wall sits are SO hard. For me, they burn the muscles at the front of the thigh, just above the knee. iPod nazi started me on those when I was 250 pounds, and I thought my legs were going to burst into flame. I would be sitting against the wall, teeth clenched, drenched in sweat, just trying to hang on for another five seconds. Of course, being iPod nazi, he made me do lateral raises with two dumbells in my arms while sitting against the wall. What a nightmare.</p>
<p>Ironically, those particular muscles are probably not as important for curing knee pain as the larger quads and especially hip flexibility and the glute/butt muscles. Much knee pain results from lack of flexiblity in the ankle and hip putting stress on the knee (the other end of all the muscles attached to the hip and ankle). So the squats are probably where you are seeing the big gains. That hip hinge exercise on the elbows and knees I linked yesterday would be hugely beneficial for knee pain. Almost all of us (athletes and geezers alike) need more hip flexibility. I wish I had started doing that exercise day one 18 months ago. I wasted a lot of time doing hip lifts and leg curls badly.</p>
<p>I had a very nice walk/run this morning. Cool and breezy and the fall colors were wonderful. I ran thirty minutes, walked fast about forty minutes. Listened mostly to glee songs. So dumb but get’s me moving. Will try to make myself go use the Hoist in the basement later today.</p>
<p>Gorgeous Colorado weather here in middle Tennessee. Clear, blue skies 43 when I woke up, 50 when I started running and about 58 when I finished (still all in the same day )
Soon to change…</p>
<p>Ran for the first time in quite awhile last night. It was a short run, but my feet don’t hurt so that’s a good thing! My whole body is a little sore today, but I can’t say that it’s due to my run…</p>
<p>3.25 miles, 9:48 pace. Weight is down a bit from vacation. I really haven’t worried that much about weight for the last month but I’m going to put a little more effort (emphasis on little) into it. I’m only looking for one to two pounds per month which is a pretty low bar. It would be nice to lose a chunk of weight in one go but I think that I’d prefer to have higher fitness levels for now. I can only put so much effort into one thing at a time so more effort in fitness and less in weight works for me at this time.</p>
<p>Hilly 5K walk/jog for me. Gorgeous afternoon, sunny, 59 degrees, but very windy so I wore long running pants and a long sleeve shirt with the sleeves pushed up. It would have been cold on the walking bits in shorts.</p>
<p>I haven’t been doing a lot of intervals for the last week or two and I felt it today. Heavy legs, slow (only my third fastest time on this route). That’s OK. It was nice to get out and get sweaty. I’ve extended my bonus jogging interval at the end and I now start up the steep hill on my street and finish up my driveway which is a steep hill. I’m trying to ease into a little more uphill jogging.</p>
<p>Got a great draw on the iPod shuffle for the final jogging interval. Little Feat’s Dixie Chicken, live.</p>
<p>Back to weight lifting and core tomorrow and probably have to suck it up and do Airdyne intervals on Thursday.</p>
<p>Found a nice new group for exercising on the Ipod compliments of my hs senior: Fleet Foxes. They remind me of the Lettermen. Does anyone remember the Lettermen? But they’re cool and make me feel fleet of foot.</p>
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