My Diary

Well I didn't really have any soreness today from the cycling -- although during spin class I felt in inner thighs and top of legs...

As for the meds, remember you may not be on them all for the rest of your life. This is just a small adjustment for now and there is nothing wrong with a goal of being off meds in 6 months or a year!

The positive thing is you kept your blood sugar under control and your "bad" cholesterol sounds like it is ok as well! Look at the progress you have made and be proud of that!
 
Beemss said:
Well I didn't really have any soreness today from the cycling -- although during spin class I felt in inner thighs and top of legs...

As for the meds, remember you may not be on them all for the rest of your life. This is just a small adjustment for now and there is nothing wrong with a goal of being off meds in 6 months or a year!

The positive thing is you kept your blood sugar under control and your "bad" cholesterol sounds like it is ok as well! Look at the progress you have made and be proud of that!
Click to expand...

Do you use a heart rate monitor (hrm) when you take spinning? If not, you might want to look into getting one - just another tool to help you make sure you're where you should be.

As for the other stuff, yeah I know I've made progress - was just hoping it was enough to ditch the meds for good. Ah well there are worse things of course.
 
No heart rate monitor was used. I should get one of those watches that keeps it. I was tracking by miles as well as speed.

So I would range from 55 - 120 mph and I think this time I rode just under 10 miles (according to the bike...) I did one 4 1/2 long up hill climb...that was fun!!!
 
You should get one, because it will give a better indicator of how hard you're working. I know my instructor uses percentages a lot - in fact we're having a race day coming up where we'll have to maintain 85% the whole ride. I know I'm a lot slower than my instructor, and wouldn't cover the same amount of distance, but I can work hard enough to get my heart rate high enough to hit that mark.
 
Workout 6/8

Warmup:
Elliptical 3 minutes
Walking Lunges
Lateral Lunges w/opposite hand reach and touchx10
Inchwormx3
T-Pushup (from bench)x6
Ball Bridge
Russian Twistx3 each

Deadlift 1x15@60, 1x15@70
Step Up 1x15@30, 1x15@40 each supersetted with
Dumbbell 1-arm Shoulder Press w/Lean 1x15@15, 1x15@20
Close Grip Lat Pulldown 1x15@130, 1x15@140 supersetted with
Reverse Crunch 2x20

I'm still ticked about having to miss spinning last night (had to work late), but I did have a good workout today. Break-in B3, which means I do these workouts a couple times more apiece before moving on to the other programs in the book. So far I'm liking the workouts a lot - I mean I know I started with very light weights (and probably am still on very light weights as far as a lot of people are concerned), but I can definitely say I've made progress. And it's reinforcing what the book says - that the weights are just a tool to get to your goal, rather than being the goal themselves.
 
Relay for Life 2007

Participated in this year's local edition of the Relay for Life. Having lost a very, very dear friend to cancer just after last year's event, this year's was fraught with memories good and bad. I ended up going later than I'd planned since my uncle called to invite my dad and I over for an impromptu barbecue.

It was a cool and still night, but for a periodic, idle breeze. Stars flickered and blinked, neither confirming nor denying their attention. The traffic from the nearby highway purred like a sleeping cat, content in its oblivion. On the track, the sound of footwear striking dirt served as a way to bind me to the place, before the thoughts in my head carried me away from it. Reading the luminaria, people had begun writing messages to the loved ones' names already noted - the few simple words reflecting a deeply felt loss. It was very moving and a reminder of one reason why we were all there. The other reason, as Pandora too discovered, was Hope - and they that have Hope have everything.

If you can, try to participate in one such event this summer.
 
Workout 6/11

Elliptical 3 minutes
Walking Lunges
Lateral Lunges w/opposite hand reach and touchx10
Inchwormx3
T-Pushupx6
Ball Bridge
Russian Twistx3 each

Squats 1x15@70, 1x15@80

Static Lunge 1x15@30, 1x15@40 supersetted with
2 Point Dumbbell Row w/Elbow Out 1x15@15, 1x15@20

Pushups 2x20 supersetted with
Swiss Ball Crunch with Medicine Ball 2x20@15

30 Minutes, Treadmill 4.3 speed, 2.0 incline
 
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Workout 6/12

Spinning

Loop class - not sure why it felt difficult but it did, maybe because I didn't do as much cardio as I am used to last week.
 
Workout 6/13

Warmup:
Elliptical 3 minutes
Walking Lunges with Twist
Lateral Lunges w/opposite hand reach and touchx10
Inchwormx3
T-Pushup (from bench)x6
Ball Bridge
Russian Twistx3 each

Deadlift 1x15@70, 1x15@80
Step Up 1x15@40, 1x15@50 each supersetted with
Dumbbell 1-arm Shoulder Press w/Lean 1x15@20, 1x15@25
Close Grip Lat Pulldown 1x15@140, 1x15@170 supersetted with
Reverse Crunch 2x20

Today's the kind of day where you dread having to go work out, but you turn out having a really good one. Some personal bests:

Walking Lunges with Twists - this is the exercise as it's meant to be done (with the twist that is). Although I had to stop and rebalance after each lunge, it's FAR, FAR, FAR better than I've EVER done at this exercise.

Deadlifts - still going up in weight, but I REALLY do need to watch for proper form.

Step Ups - I've been using an aerobic step, but I think I might try the bench (and drop dumbbells) next time.

Shoulder Presses - I can see what they say in NROL about inefficiency working the body harder. For some reason I could just NOT go immediately into the presses from the step ups - I had to put the weights down for about 5-10 seconds before doing them. Still, I did much better than I thought I would with them.

Close Grip Lat Pulldown - Again, have to watch for form here, but since the rest of the workout was going so well, I figured I'd set the cable machine to the highest weight in the stack and give it a go for my second set. And I did it :) Next time I do this workout I'll have to be sure I'm doing it all properly, but still, it felt good to be able to complete that second set.

Reverse Crunches - doing these more properly, including trying to hold and squeeze the abdominals, in addition to making the whole exercise more controlled.
 
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Inchworm, revisited

This is the part of the warmup everyone asks about/looks at me while I'm doing it... lol

"Stand with your legs straight and your hands on the floor. (You'll probably need to begin with your hands a couple of feet in front of you.) Keeping your legs straight, walk your hands forward as far as possible. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds. Then take tiny steps to walk your feet back to your hands. Hold again for 3 to 5 seconds. Repeat for a set of five."

When I'm out as far as I can manage, I do a slow pushup, then start inching my feet back to my hands.
 
stingo said:
"Stand with your legs straight and your hands on the floor. (You'll probably need to begin with your hands a couple of feet in front of you.) Keeping your legs straight, walk your hands forward as far as possible. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds. Then take tiny steps to walk your feet back to your hands. Hold again for 3 to 5 seconds. Repeat for a set of five."
Click to expand...

How many times have you explained this!

You are doing awesome and I have learned a lot from you.
 
Beemss said:
How many times have you explained this!

You are doing awesome and I have learned a lot from you.
Click to expand...

That was the 2nd time only - I think it's the exercise most are unfamiliar with, as even the woman who manages the gym I go to hadn't heard of it.

Thanks - as you probably already know, my strength routines come from The New Rules of Lifting, by Lou Schuler and Alwyn Cosgrove - very much recommended if you've any interest in strength training.
 
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