I got lucky with the hair, but that's all it is. Luck.
the rest is down to work.
***
Interval training is hard /easy, over and over again. When I was competing in high school our classic Monday work out was a four mile warm-up run, followed by stretching and 10 hundred-yard wind sprints (this was back before metric).
Then we would do twenty-five laps around the track. Run a lap (about 72 seconds for me) and then walk a quarter lap (which took about another minute). Rinse and repeat twenty times.... So twenty x 440 yards (400meters) with a 110 yard (100 meter) "rest" walk in between.
And yes, this was just as demanding as it sounds.
Tuesday might be 30 interval 220's at a faster pace... so a shorter total distance but faster pace.
The point of this work out, is that eventually the hard intervals would send you into oxygen debt, and your body would have to rebuild muscle and blood vessels to recover. By resting in between the runs, you could go farther at a high pace, but you also would burn more energy than a long run would do.
Its the best way to burn fat, and believe me, none of us was fat. We were also a nationally ranked cross country team.
Its hard to do by yourself, and I don't really practice it, but its affected my work-out regimen. I don't go real long; I go shorter but at a stiff pace. Stamina, rather than endurance.
@SteveHorton, interval training is where you run hard for a preset distance, then slow to a walk or jog, then repeat.
I had an easy workout in the dojo last night. Today, no time for a workout, but I walked to and from the station and then all over the city running errands.
@marvinmann Yeah, it's funny. I did 650 in thirty minutes on the eliptical, which did seem a little high to me. It wasn't the one I usually use though. I guess some machines are calibrated high. I did 450 on the treadmill. I'm sure it all averages out somehow. I'm never really sure how much stock to put into those numbers anyway, but at the very least, if you use the same machines over and over, it gives you a relative measure of how you're doing.
I just joined a gym in burlington for 2 months. We'll see how it goes. Otherwise, no exercise today, but yesterday I walked for 1 - 1.5 hours to my wife's work and back.
@dinocaruso ; I did 525 calories and 4.5 miles in 42 minutes with a resistance of 13 on the elliptical today, and my legs are tired. And I agree that calibration may be different, plus they may not be calculating by weight (I don't enter mine) and muscle/fat ratio (more muscle will burn more cals) so.. basically you're right. You may not burn what they tell you, but you don't get cheated by it because you burn what you burn and you get multiple check points to measure progress.
@marvinmann Yeah, it's funny. I did 650 in thirty minutes on the eliptical, which did seem a little high to me. It wasn't the one I usually use though. I guess some machines are calibrated high. I did 450 on the treadmill. I'm sure it all averages out somehow. I'm never really sure how much stock to put into those numbers anyway, but at the very least, if you use the same machines over and over, it gives you a relative measure of how you're doing.
They're not even vaguely accurate, no, but what you mention is the way to use them. I always kept my time static but tried to beat the calories expended, which was a good benchmark.
I used a treadmill in Japan that would flash a picture of a food item equivalent to the calories it reckoned you had burned. A piece of sushi, a banana, a slice of bread...
There were a lot machines in that gym that I didn't recognize.
An incline will probably burn calories and exhaust you faster, but your working on different muscle sets as you do so. I keep the elliptical slightly flatter than the default because I want to work my hamstrings as well as my quadriceps.
@marvinmann Yeah, I keep the eliptical flat, but I really play around with the incline on the treadmill. It makes a big difference on the calories burned. I like the machines that show a pictorial reference for which muscles are being worked with the various inclines and courses.
The machines at my Y all have an individual TV on them as well. I don't usually watch it. I prefer to listen to podcasts, but yesterday I couldn't help it. There was a season preview for the Jays on the sports station. It made the time pass really quickly.
They're not even vaguely accurate, no, but what you mention is the way to use them. I always kept my time static but tried to beat the calories expended, which was a good benchmark.
I keep a calendar on my desk and keep track of the type of workout I did and the amount of time it took and the calories burned if applicable. I find it really motivating. It feels like a big accomplishment when I write something down on it. It's also a simple visual kick in the pants when I see too many blank boxes in a row.
(hmmmph...I should do something like that for comics too).
The row of TVs at the front of the treadmill room (with individual headphones) is one the reasons I don't use them. I'm afraid that having the Fox News channel and assorted daytime programs on within my line of sight might cause early-onset dementia.
Did 20 minutes of jogging, then 5-10 minutes of uninspired swimming. The problem with listening to music while jogging is that sometimes a song will drain the will out of you.
One of the channels at the gym shows music videos at random. No rhyme or reason at all to the selection. And this is the song that gets played over the PA, but there's a two second lag between video and audio.
I have an old iPod Shuffle that gets loaded with random songs from my library. But I don't have the patience to create a special playlist filtered for lyrical content and mood. Normally I just skip over the quiet or downbeat songs, but this was an upbeat and inspiring song... or at least it was when I was young and in love. :-<
@SteveHorton Treadmill interval settings (which I do use just for fun) tend to not be dramatic enough to get the benefits Marv describes on their default settings. You need to really adjust them finely, both in incline and speed to get the right effect.
On a side note, I find it awfully amusing that THIS THREAD is now way more popular than the actual DO THE WORK thread. This might be why we're not getting the work done.
Until a month or so ago I was taking 1-hour lunch breaks and spending most of that time drawing. Now I'm taking 2-hour lunch breaks (coming in an hour earlier), and spending about 1:20 of that going to/at/coming from the gym. So exercise is cutting into my productivity.
Hit the gym tonight - 30 minutes of weights, 30 minutes on the elliptical (about 2.85 miles). After a pretty carb-y day (coffee cake, rice noodles, cereal bars), I had scrambled egg whites and mixed veggies for dinner, my go-to high-protein, low-calorie/non-fat/low-carb post-workout meal. I could eat that forever.
I did very little today. I was at the local movie theater helping out. I broke a sweat a few times -- but that's because I sweat so easily. However, I ate a box of buttered / salted popcorn and now I'm home drinking Kahlua and milk. Yeah, I'm gaining more than I'm putting out. I'll get back on the track.
Comments
However, my back is...er...back to normal, so next week I aim to get in five days of stuff.
the rest is down to work.
***
Interval training is hard /easy, over and over again. When I was competing in high school our classic Monday work out was a four mile warm-up run, followed by stretching and 10 hundred-yard wind sprints (this was back before metric).
Then we would do twenty-five laps around the track. Run a lap (about 72 seconds for me) and then walk a quarter lap (which took about another minute). Rinse and repeat twenty times.... So twenty x 440 yards (400meters) with a 110 yard (100 meter) "rest" walk in between.
And yes, this was just as demanding as it sounds.
Tuesday might be 30 interval 220's at a faster pace... so a shorter total distance but faster pace.
The point of this work out, is that eventually the hard intervals would send you into oxygen debt, and your body would have to rebuild muscle and blood vessels to recover. By resting in between the runs, you could go farther at a high pace, but you also would burn more energy than a long run would do.
Its the best way to burn fat, and believe me, none of us was fat. We were also a nationally ranked cross country team.
Its hard to do by yourself, and I don't really practice it, but its affected my work-out regimen. I don't go real long; I go shorter but at a stiff pace. Stamina, rather than endurance.
(OK, it was actually half of all of those numbers.)
Sunday...60 minutes of cardio machines at the gym for 1100 cals.
In thirty minutes I'm getting around 400 cals.
They're not even vaguely accurate, no, but what you mention is the way to use them. I always kept my time static but tried to beat the calories expended, which was a good benchmark.
I like the machines that show a pictorial reference for which muscles are being worked with the various inclines and courses.
The machines at my Y all have an individual TV on them as well. I don't usually watch it. I prefer to listen to podcasts, but yesterday I couldn't help it. There was a season preview for the Jays on the sports station. It made the time pass really quickly.
(hmmmph...I should do something like that for comics too).
Still using machines rather than free weights, but everything is feeling pretty good.
Did 20 minutes of jogging, then 5-10 minutes of uninspired swimming. The problem with listening to music while jogging is that sometimes a song will drain the will out of you.
On a side note, I find it awfully amusing that THIS THREAD is now way more popular than the actual DO THE WORK thread. This might be why we're not getting the work done.
But yeah, it improves my energy levels and helps control my depression, which means I get more done overall.