I went after a different geocache today. I had fun climbing on stuff to find it. I probably did not have to climb on all those rocks to get it but why walk like a normal person when you can climb :D

Yesterday...
 

Hello exercise people! Yesterday I did the usual 45 minutes on the elliptical (ok, so usual is a strong word when you don't do it everyday, me thinks), burned the usual (there is that word again) 500 calories over 3.2ish miles. Then last night I took a brisk 30 minute walk (dogless), and my arches actually didn't hurt (never invested in new shoes).

Until now I have mainly been maintaining my weight, but I really would like to lose some of my belly. So, the plan is to tAke a brisk 20 minute walk in the morning before work and be more consistent with my evening cardio. Mornings are for sure not my forte, so this will be rough to do.

Also......CONGRATS TO OUR OWN RESIDENT GEMME FOR LOSING 18POUNDS! HURRAY!!!

Found two geocaches. The walk was about a mile and a half round trip.

I recently solved some nearby puzzle caches so I decided to go and find them today :) I had to answer questions based upon the clues to get the lat/long to enter into my GPS.

I am so glad I treated myself to a gym membership while I was
down the shore this summer! I don't think I missed more than a
day or two all summer. Now I am back home, going back into
the classroom tomorrow... but I think I have set some solid
routines to live by through this winter.

I mentioned a while back that I am cycling my carbs. A few weeks
ago, I decided to cycle my workouts too, so they coincide. In short,
my most strenuous workouts are on the highest carb days. On the
lowest carb day, I do nothing. Just rest.

200 carbs back and chest
150 carbs shoulders
100 carbs arms
50 carbs nothing
125 carbs abs

I do about six different exercises with 9-15 reps. It seems to be
going well, but I'm afraid that I'm not letting my CNS (central
nervous system) rest enough with four days on and one day off.
I'm curious what you think of this?

I'm also looking around to buy a recumbent bike. I love to walk
and jog for cardio, but it's a little hard on my knees. I can't see
doing it every day without knee pain. Hopefully I find one!

Yesterday I kicked ass on cardio for an hour.

Last night I did too much of this. :beerfunnel:

So today exercise consisted of walking the dog for 15 minutes. :blush:

Lately I have been dealing with a cold plus my arthritis had been giveing me fits.After several days of takeing it easy I tryed to go out and play with my fur kids,but my energy is low so I only lasted about ten minits till I had to quit.Hopefuly tomorrow will be better,what set my arthritis off on a bender I have no idea as it is nearly every joint I have,either swelling or burning stiff joints.Every sence I got back from Vegas I have had onething or another happen health wise,enough already.

First Day Out..
 

I got behind for a couple of weeks. Partnership of weird schedules driving my kid to camp and back every day for two weeks, which messed up the morning routine, and work picking up- keeping my days busier than usual (but that's a good thing). Got back on the rowing machine tonight and had a good work out. Plan is for every day this week, and henceforth!

hello everybody. I've been slacking the last two days so I'm back today. I'm actually training for a specific fitness test I may be doing soon so it's push ups, sit ups and steps for me for awhile till I reach my goal on the count and time. Good day!

Catching up on my own and other people's exercise :)

Since last post:

8/31 The Beast 90, weights and stretching 30
9/1 Beastie 75, yoga 45
9/2 Elliptical 1 hr, weights and stretching 30
9/3 (Same as the day before)

Then today I did two hours on the Beast (aka the Arc Trainer). I did kind of a sampler with 30 minutes each for 4 programs, level 10: Strength, Cardio, Interval, and Hill Interval. I like strength the best. For strength I have it at the highest level but am not finding it challenging enough. For those of you familiar with the Cybex arc trainer, how can I amp things up? Since it's a program, besides the level, I am not sure whether I should be messing with settings (such as incline and intensity, since the program has its own way of shifting them around at intervals). I find myself more bored if I am not truly sweating. I could just go back to manual because then I could definitely get an intense work-out, but the programs are fun in how one doesn't have to think as they vary themselves. Oh, well, anyone who knows this machine and has an idea, please let me know. I'm pretty sure I'm missing something.

I'm back working at school so that is making working out, of course, harder to fit into the day. What a difference not working makes, and not commuting an hour each way, and having enough sleep time. It's hard going back to school, even though I love my job. One mistake I made is to work late when I didn't have to. I forgot that then getting a long work-out in plus making dinner plus getting to bed at a decent hour is not really possible. I'm going to try as much as I can to leave on time from work so that things don't feel this stressful to fit everything in.

Hey everybody, I'm back!

So, all of this arc trainer talk, plus my recent forays back into my gym have raised a lot of questions in my mind. The last time I belonged to a gym before just recently, was three years ago. The place I go to is a branch of 24 hour fitness which means it has about an acre of cardio machines. Joking of course, but actually there are 90 of them. Things of changed a little since the last time I was there but it's pretty close to what I remembered. There's a row of various and sundry recumbent and upright bikes, two long rows of treadmills, and the rest is split up into five rows of varying styles and vintages of ellipticals. One row of the ellipticals is all new to me. There are about 15 of something I'm not even sure I can describe, I will have to get back to you on what they even are. They are made by Cybex and are some kind of a cross between an elliptical and a stairmaster, making the person using it look like a very small human trapped in a large cyborg device.

Then there are six of what I have now identified to be one of these mythical ARC trainers. Since I wasn't quite sure what everybody was talking about with these, and I have now used one of them a few times, I thought I would put in a video by Cybex explaining the difference between an elliptical and an ARC in case there's somebody else here who, like me, didn't really understand what was going on.



The one demonstrated in the video is the same as the one that I use at my gym from the waist down. From the waist up mine has short throw moving arms also. I just tried to put a picture of it here, but I cannot link to the URL because of the length. You get the idea.

So a couple of things that I have noticed about the famous arc trainer. In the video above when they show the comparison to the elliptical they show the elliptical user flexing and lifting the back of their foot while using it. When I was introduced to them and using it three years ago I had seriously damage in both feet. The elliptical is one of the very few things in the gym that I could use because I just kept my feet flat on the platforms and was able to use it that way without flexing my feet. This is the reason I thought the arc trainer looked like a good idea to try also, I no longer have problems with my feet, but it looked familiar and relatively safe.

The other reason that I chose it was because of some of you will recall, a while back I was having a bit of trouble with the tendons in one of my ankles. I found that on the arc trainer not only does it keep your feet flat on platforms which might help people with arch problems, but it also keeps ankles in a relatively static position and fixed angle. It provided me a way to get in my cardio without putting undue pressure or stress on my ankle, and it helped me a lot. I think these arc trainers could be a good alternative for folks if they have not tried it yet if they're experiencing problems with arch, ankle, or knee problems. Obviously under the advice of your PT if you're working with someone.

One last thing to note; as someone who is used to walking long distances in semisoft sand with poles, it KICKED MY ASS!!

:cheesy:

Thanks for posting the video, Kelt. That's definitely been my experience. The arc trainer feels so much better on my feet and knees than the elliptical. I also do the arc trainer that has the arms on it (so that it appears like an elliptical but isn't). My feet always stay flat on the arc trainer, and unless I am doing a manual program where I add too much resistance, my knees do fine too.

It's true that there are a surreal number of different pieces of cardio equipment these days. Since I'm relatively short (5'4"), I think some sort of fit me, and others don't. Right now it's really only the Arc Trainer that I am finding does not cause me knee twinges or back pain in doing lengthy sessions. I also find that I must do a minimum of 30 minutes of yoga and stretching after a long use of a cardio machine in order to get the repetitive motions of the cardio machine out of my body. If I don't then that night I get the stiffness from the session still stuck in my body. It's been a lot of trial and error over the years. So much of exercise is finding what doesn't cause injury or discomfort.

I did an hour on the arc trainer today, manual program, resistance 75. A guy was getting off my favorite machine when I arrived. It's my favorite because it's the only one that isn't in need of repair :|. However, I used a different machine because his clean-up procedure was going to take a while. I think he has that condition where one sweats profusely, to the point of it being a real problem. He was wearing layers, which at first I thought seemed like it would make things worse, but then I realized the layers are to absorb the sweat. He had at least six towels laid out on the machine in different places. That must be a really hard condition to deal with at the gym. He looks super fit so it seems not to be stopping him from being active.

I went for a bike rode the last three nights after work. Tonight I'm just hanging out at home.

I was going around the 3-mile loop at Prospect Park, and noticed a guy ahead of me with a prosthetic leg and long dreds. His T-shirt said, "Work less."

I saw three people (yes, three!), riding with no hands, so they could text.

That last quarter mile or so of the loop is a slow incline that will really kick your ass, but it's gotten so much easier now that I realize, I've been waiting for the hard part to hit, and then suddenly I'm at the end of the loop.

I also like that straight path that goes about 20 blocks down the west side of the park. Coming back, I got off and started going up and down the side streets. I would coast down one block, then stand on the pedals and use what feels like my whole body, up the next street.

It's light enough to ride till about 7:20. Today I ordered a $7 reflecting vest on Amazon. I should also get lights. I'm thinking, if I get the right gloves and jacket and so on, I can ride till there's ice on the ground.

Today was a good day

It was a beautiful warm late-summer day, and just perfect for swimming. I did a good hard hour of laps with all of my assorted and sundry headgear and then at the end I just floated for about 10 minutes and enjoyed laying in the sun. I never thought I would say that, I never knew I could float.

:cheesy:

I find that I am already altering my plans a bit. I've been finding that trying to keep up with two workouts per day every day is frankly a bit much. I think that if I stick with a good solid hour of whole body exercise per day with the option of adding more a couple of times a week will be smarter for me. It's hard for me to take a pass on the beach now and then, but my overarching goal was to add variety and balance things out better.

I saw an article earlier today that actually kind of fit in with that so I thought I would share it here, How to overcome a workout rut.. It is pitched towards weight loss but it is really about the bigger picture.

Beach update: when I was out on my walk yesterday morning I got to survey how the sand project is going. They're setting up special equipment and fuel depots at intervals in preparation. According to schedule in about the next week or two they should be setting up and completing the pipelines, buoys and everything for the barge. So naturally we had an oil spill in the bay couple of days ago. Damage is still being assessed, but it doesn't look good. Most of it is north of me but the Coast Guard was out in full force laying out oil spill boom lines. This area has a lot of land designated as bird sanctuaries on the coastal migration path. Right now is when the bird populations are at their lowest, which is why the work was scheduled for now. We're approaching fall so I hope the cleanup is quick. :(

That's all for now, everybody keep up the good work.