Using It - June 4 - 10

[Shadow]

Oh my - did I beat Ottawa to the exercise today :lol:? I hope you guys didn't think I wasn't exercising just because I wasn't posting ;). I got in extra exercise over vacation (planned sessions plus heavy duty house/garden work) and last week resumed my normal schedule.

This week looks like this:
Sunday - Kickboxing, back, biceps, abs
Monday - Legs and abs
Tuesday - Step cardio plus mowing (yes, with a push mower :p)
Wednesday - Chest, shoulders, triceps, abs
Thursday - Step or kickbox

How about everyone else? I've been thinking of listing some motivational sites for inspiration - would that help any of you? What if we discussed favorites for equipment, exercises, etc?

Whatever will help/keep everyone here inspired, let me know :thumbsup:!

[Mitra]

Any way you could get me some more energy? I think that's what I need most! I haven't done anything yet today, because our weekend visitors have just gone.

I'll do something this evening, but it probably won't be too strenuous. I'll be back on track tomorrow.

[Shadow]

Any way you could get me some more energy? I think that's what I need most!
Mitra - Believe me, if I find the secret, I'll more than happily share it with you :lol:!

I haven't done anything yet today, because our weekend visitors have just gone.

I'll do something this evening, but it probably won't be too strenuous. I'll be back on track tomorrow.
I hope you enjoyed your company but I have missed you on the board! It will be great to have you back tomorrow :). And to hear that exercise report, of course ;)!

[Mitra]

I did a short session last night, then my "normal" one today. I didn't feel terribly energetic, but my abs, back and shoulders all felt as if they were were being worked.

[banshee]

Well, I got in my 3 days of exercise last week. Yay! :D Actually, if you count the orientation session at the fitness club, I got in 4 days. During my orientation, I did a couple minutes walking on the treadmill, a couple minutes on the bicycle, a couple minutes on the elliptical, and did at least 1-2 reps on each of the exercise machines as they were explained to me. <g>

My 3rd days of exercise last week was over an hour of volleyball playing at our company picnic. Man was I sore the next day! And I have some nasty bruising on my arms and the balls of my hands - I think I may have overdone it a tad. :o I suspect that this week I'm going to have to concentrate on either aerobic classes or using the bicycle/elliptical at the club since gripping the handles on my Total Gym sounds too painful right now.

For this week, I've started with a lower body workout at the fitness club, plus I took a one hour yoga class yesterday. That may have been a mistake, as I didn't realize how many positions we'd be doing that required putting weight on your hands. My poor volleyball bruises were *not* happy with me, but I did suffer through it and it was a good workout even if I couldn't hold the positions for very long. :rolleyes: And I'm pleased with the lower body stuff I did - I've definitely got some DOMS in my legs today, for the first time since starting all this exercising! :D I also found out that the Total Gym squats were definitely not enough of a workout. I was pressing about 55 pounds with the squats on the TG, and I was able to do a full set of leg presses at 160 pounds at the club! I haven't tested my one rep max yet, but I suspect it's either 180 or 200 pounds! Hip abduction and adduction are a lot less weight at 30-50 pounds, so I'm going to have to do some extra work there I think.

I also had my free body age assessment done. It was interesting. They ask you a bunch of nutrition questions, test your bicep/grip strength, test your leg flexibility, and then do a three minute step session to test your cardiovascular fitness. Apparently they have some sort of general database that they compare you to, to see how your fitness is in relation to other women or men your age. Based on the results, they add or subtract years from your actual age to get your "body age". Mine ended up 11 years older, mostly because of high body fat. :(

The nutrition questions were very low-fat biased, but oddly enough, I tested as good in the nutrition area because I don't eat a lot of junk food and fast food, and because when I do eat grains they are whole grains. And even though the questions themselves had a low-fat bias, the lady who gave me the test was pleased with my diet. She herself concentrates more on getting adequate protein and seemed to agree with the Protein Power philosophy.

My body fat tested much higher than I'm getting through measurements. They had the hand-held impedence thingie, and I tested at 39% body fat instead of 26%. So I definitely have a ways to go yet there. :( I have to wonder, though, if that means that my starting body fat really was even higher than the 55% I originally calculated through measurements. If I add in the 13% difference from my current measurements, that would mean my starting BF was 68%. Yikes! My cardiovascular fitness was really terrible, as I would expect with the asthma. I don't know if I'll be able to make the goal the computer set for that aspect of my fitness.

It was actually sort of funny. We were going over the results, and chatting, and I was telling her how far I'd already come and the various health benefits I'd already seen, and she was incredibly impressed. She was also really impressed with my knowledge of fitness and health in general, and she was very pleased when she heard that I didn't care what the scale said as long as I got my body fat down to a healthy range. I got the impression that she often got women in for their assessments who didn't like hearing that and who wanted to get down to some "number" on the scale.

In fact, by the end of the assessment, she basically said, "You know what you're doing, you just need to keep doing it until you hit your goal!" :D

[Ottawa]

Mary,
Re:"My body fat tested much higher than I'm getting through measurements. They had the hand-held impedence thingie, and I tested at 39% body fat instead of 26%. So I definitely have a ways to go yet there. :( I have to wonder, though, if that means that my starting body fat really was even higher than the 55%"

The BF Impedence meters work best when measured at the same time and conditions. I use my early morning reading which is just a few percent higher than calculated results. It is higher after I eat and goes up a bit during teh day as well. For yours to be off by so much they may have entered the wrong data for you (height, weight, age, sex, etc.,.).


This week should work out to/worked out to

Sunday - chest compression bar, 5 pound incriments to 135 lbs. Regular weights and repeat.
Monday - Inclined Situps & Treadmill 45 minutes
Tuesday - Dodgeball with scouts/YM (1 active hour)
Wednesday - Volleyball at lunch-baseball after work -Compression bar inevening)
Thursday - Day Off
Friday - Volleyball at lunch-BullDog Compression bar in evening)
Saturday - Bench Weights and 30 minute run/jog/run.

[banshee]

The BF Impedence meters work best when measured at the same time and conditions. I use my early morning reading which is just a few percent higher than calculated results. It is higher after I eat and goes up a bit during teh day as well. For yours to be off by so much they may have entered the wrong data for you (height, weight, age, sex, etc.,.).
Actually, Randy, I honestly think the reading they did was more accurate than my measurements calculation. I carry a lot of extra fat in my thighs, and the measurement calculations don't take that into account, since they go solely by waist, hip and neck measurements. I've mentioned before here that I was pretty sure the measurement calculations were off, but I just didn't know how far off they were. Now maybe the impedence was a little high, but I still think it's closer to reality.

Today is a rest day for me. I got in another class at the club yesterday - a 20 minute lower body class. Man did that 20 minutes wipe me out! :rolleyes: It was very cardiovascular while using your own body weight and a medicine ball to give your lower body a resistance workout. Definitely feeling the DOMS today! :D Tomorrow I think I'm going to try some new upper body exercises and maybe do some simple cardiovascular - just need to decide whether to use the elliptical, the bicycle or walk. I think it will depend on how my legs feel tomorrow - if they're still hurting a bit, I'll just do simple walking.

[Mitra]

I've actually managed to do a couple of days of "normal" intensity - where I can feel that I'm working my muscles, and be slightly out of breath after some of the postures :cool: . I seem to have been below par for one reason or another for the last couple of months, so "normal" feels like a major advance! I'm wary of blowing it though, so I'll stick with this level for a while (like a month or so at least).

[banshee]

Good for you Mitra!

I'm feeling accomplished, too. I did upper body and cardio yesterday, and so I've already gotten in my 3 days of exercise for the week! But I'm not done yet! I have plans with my fitness center buddy to do cardio tonight, and I might do cardio again tomorrow. I'm currently just doing walking on the treadmill for my cardio - 15 minutes yesterday.

I'm not sure what my upper time limit is yet for cardio. I'm going to check that this weekend to see how long I can maintain a pace in my target heart rate zone before I get totally winded. I've pretty much decided that I'm going to try to do at least 15 minutes of walking or elliptical every day during the week to see if it helps with my endurance/breathing. Since Wed-Fri I have regular plans with friends after work, 15-20 minutes is about all I can do on those days. The other days I may do more. The fitness center wanted me to do a minimum of 50 minutes of cardio a week, but I think I can pretty easily get in more than that.

For resistance, I think I'm going to be doing a Sat, Mon, Wed schedule, with Saturday being a full body workout, Monday being lower body and Wednesday being upper body.