Talk about your exercise experience today

[nycfem]

It's interesting. I find that more men use the gym floor to chat; whereas, women do their chatting in the locker room.

Originally Posted by Greyson

...There are a couple of women but they seem to be focused on their own work out and not competing. ...

Most of the guys talk with one another, ...

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by nycfem

It's interesting. I find that more men use the gym floor to chat; whereas, women do their chatting in the locker room.

Maybe that is how it works. I change and use the restroom in my office before I go over. The one time I had to go in there to pee I had a problem (not anything dramatic or new, just mentioning g)

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Oh, I don't put any effort into it, as I said before the place is pretty empty. You know, people also won't give me eye contact there. Like when you are passing by them and you smile they either avoid contact or don't smile/look through you. Is this normal? Perhaps they are "in their own heads" I think I need to go with TF to Planet Fitness to assess this I called my place a ghetto gym due to the small number of machines. It actually was probably a poor choice of words to begin with. Sorry

It is an employee gym. I work at a hospital/outpatient medical offices. Hospital nurses do tend to be grumpy people. Perhaps it is carry over from their work day?

Maybe. PF is non-judgy and I've never had a problem at any of the locations I've visited.

Perhaps. I know I like seeing new faces once I'm off of work.

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Ok, so my gym is "normal" Thanks.

Maybe so.

You're not normal, btw.

Normal is overrated.

I've decided I'm going to start making up stories about the people at other people's gyms. Like Jennifer's Jill. I bet she is a recovering addict with the complementary addictive personality and she's drug herself up by her bootstraps and is now devoting every possible moment to making her body stronger and healthier. From one extreme to the other, she gives it her all.

No gym for me today. I worked late and by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was eat and relax. Alex said the magic word.........and plans were changed. I still made a valiant effort to eat healthy especially since I didn't have an extra caloric buffer tonight.

[Hollylane]

There was not any organized exercise for me today, but I did a lot of walking downtown with my co-workers today (including several steep flights of stairs), and I drove the same route that we had walked on my way out of the downtown area, and was able to determine that we walked about 3 miles today.

[Chancie]

I'm at the Y, waiting for Zumba to start.

The teacher in the current class is singing along to Chicago.

"Baby, you're the meaning in my life."

This teacher leads Group Power during the week, and she's very chatty.

I like her, and I find her constant narration both entertaining and irritating.

I took the day off yesterday because my body has been tired and sore.

I'm sort of curious whether I will have more energy this morning.

[alexri]

Twelve fluffy bunny miles today.

Now it's nap time.

[Gráinne]

I went to 10 Fitness today, and one of the staff recognized me and encouraged me to work hard . I like the positive atmosphere and the lack of focus on being a "hard-body". And I did work out-I walked for a mile, 25 minutes, but hey, I can whittle that number down. Then my workout (which I can print out every time I go) was legs; lots of squats and extensions. That helps my knee.

I noticed that the workout program "counts" the times you've gone; since I signed up last November, I've gone a grand total of 11 times . I set a goal of reaching 30 workouts (at least) by Reunion. Here I go!

[nycfem]

Did 30 minutes of sprints on the gym stairs while lifting weights, and then 30 minutes on the elliptical, level 5, interval program.

Then I kept my heart rate up by going to see the horror movie, The Conjuring

[Gemme]

Good workout today!

Cardio for 65 minutes with walking and running intervals and then about an hour of circuit training for arms, abs and back.

I pushed myself hard...maybe too hard....Alex said it was too much but then, he gave himself heat exhaustion today, so what does he know?

[DapperButch]

Two eggs, two pieces of toast, two large pancakes, and one very large bowl of grits. In one sitting. I was sweating by the end. That may have been the hot coffee, though.

[Hollylane]

Horseback riding for an hour Hiking up and down various hills and stairs at Ski Bowl (Mt Hood)...2nd best day of exercise leading to exhaustion ever!

[Chancie]

Originally Posted by Chancie

I'm at the Y, waiting for Zumba to start.

<snip>

I'm sort of curious whether I will have more energy this morning.

I had tons of energy. It was good for me to take off a day. Five days a week of stretch, weightlifting and Zumba might be enough.

[Chancie]

Originally Posted by Chancie

I had tons of energy. It was good for me to take off a day. Five days a week of stretch, weightlifting and Zumba might be enough.

After class, a young woman said, I wish my mother would try this class. I knew exactly where this was going!

Nice Old Chancie: Do you think she would enjoy it?

Nice Young Women: I think she'd have to have knee surgery first, but, you did great!

Nice Old Chancie: Aw, thanks. I might need new sneakers, but these are good for Group Power, and I hate to think I need two pairs of sneakers.

This conversation continued with more chit chat about buying sneakers.

I am as old as someone's mother! My presence in Zumba inspired a young woman to consider inviting her mother to Zumba. I am flattered and flabbergasted.

[Gemme]

Great workout today and I owe it to a conversation Alex and I had on the way to the gym. I asked him whether he thought it was better to do cardio first or the weight training first on the days that I do both and he said that studies have shown that if you start with a cardio warm up of 15-20 minutes and then you move on to weight training and then go back to a form of cardio to finish up, that it elevates the caloric burn of the second cardio session due to the weight training. But we surmised that outside of extra caloric burn, it's really up to the person and their body. So I gave it a shot and it seemed to work out pretty well.

First cardio: 15 min + 3 min cooldown. 108 cal, 1.05 mi. Treadmill.
Weight training for roughly an hour including lower body, back and abs.
Second cardio: 45 min + 5 min cooldown. 355 cal, 3.33 mi. Treadmill.

I got in tons of interval runs @ 6.0 mph. Some 1 min, some 2.5 min, most 2 min bursts. No 3 or 3+ min runs today though. Those are much harder to come by. Those last 30-60 seconds are tough sometimes.

I've found that if I've got the right music playing, my required recovery time is shorter. I knew a good jam can keep me running longer during the intervals but this is really good news too. A couple of my recovery breaks were as short as a minute to a minute and a half and that's excellent for me.

Alex and I talked about me going to his sports massage therapist for my legs. He looked at them and said it's obvious that my calves are hard as rocks and it's true. Even if I stretch right before bed, wear the compression sleeves and hand massage my legs, I wake up with really tight calves and that doesn't feel good. So, that's an option I'm going to look into because it's not fun cutting back because of the fear of injury or doing permanent damage.

It also affects my running since I change my gait depending on how my legs feel. Sometimes longer strides feel better and sometimes I need to take much shorter strides to avoid discomfort.

During the actual act of running, they don't hurt though. Before and after are a completely different story.

I know; I have a weird body.

Tomorrow is going to be an around the world cardio session. I'm going to start on my trusted steed, the treadmill, and move (at regular intervals) to every single piece of cardio equipment they have and finish back on the treadmill. No weights at all because I'm still sore from yesterday's arms and I can't do back to back leg days. It's going to be fun.

It's a state holiday here tomorrow so I'm not sure if the gym is going to be nearly empty like it was today or slam packed. We'll try to get there relatively early and see what happens.

[Cin]

I live on the 9th floor and I always try to walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator when I’m not carrying too much stuff but I figured out today what a dynamite workout I can get without ever leaving my building.

Counting the 2 garages and the roof we have 12 flights of stairs and 4 separate staircases. 7 laps around each floor is a mile. If you run up 3 flights then do 7 laps by the time you reach the 9th floor you’ve got 3 miles under your belt then if you walk down and do 3 ½ laps on each floor taking a different staircase each time you will have another 5 miles to add to the first 3 by the time you reach the bottom. The variations are almost endless. I could do all stairs with intervals of walking around the building to cool down. Or a mix of stairs, floors, and different staircases. Then I can grab my suit and jump in the pool. We do have a gym in the building but it’s small and you spend more time waiting than anything, but this stairs thing seems like a ton of fun. At least for now until I get sick of it.

And I tend to get sick of stuff quickly nowadays since I can only do cardio stuff and lower body workouts. I used to love to lift weights but a work shoulder injury took that off the table.

[Mopsie]

Originally Posted by Miss Tick

I live on the 9th floor and I always try to walk up the stairs instead of taking the elevator when I’m not carrying too much stuff but I figured out today what a dynamite workout I can get without ever leaving my building.

Counting the 2 garages and the roof we have 12 flights of stairs and 4 separate staircases. 7 laps around each floor is a mile. If you run up 3 flights then do 7 laps by the time you reach the 9th floor you’ve got 3 miles under your belt then if you walk down and do 3 ½ laps on each floor taking a different staircase each time you will have another 5 miles to add to the first 3 by the time you reach the bottom. The variations are almost endless. I could do all stairs with intervals of walking around the building to cool down. Or a mix of stairs, floors, and different staircases. Then I can grab my suit and jump in the pool. We do have a gym in the building but it’s small and you spend more time waiting than anything, but this stairs thing seems like a ton of fun. At least for now until I get sick of it.

And I tend to get sick of stuff quickly nowadays since I can only do cardio stuff and lower body workouts. I used to love to lift weights but a work shoulder injury took that off the table.

First let me say that I think it's awesome that you are taking advantage of your surroundings to work out.

But when I was reading this I started having math class word problem flashbacks.

[Kätzchen]

For the past four weeks, since it's been rather warm lately (except for the past few days), I've increased my water intake and on one day of the week, I take a break from food, exercise and doing anything arduous and rest with the intent of getting more sleep (my one day fast).

I find myself tinkering with the way I exercise and with my food and water intake/consumption. And it has helped me somewhat because when I visited friends I used to work with last year, they noticed that I looked different (like I've lost some wieght and appear healthier, somehow).


What I am going to do over the course of this week, since it's a vacation week for me, is to ramp up my exercise time and incorporate stair climbing: there are several places in the metro area with extended sets of stairs in beautiful, sanctuary-like, gardens.

[DapperButch]

Hey, Gemme, just wanted to say that I am impressed as to how quickly you jumped in and really starting ramping up the workouts to where you are now really kicking ass. Go you!

[Gemme]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Hey, Gemme, just wanted to say that I am impressed as to how quickly you jumped in and really starting ramping up the workouts to where you are now really kicking ass. Go you!

I appreciate this! I love celebrating everyone's progress too.

I'm a balls to the wall/all or nothing kind of person for this kind of stuff. I'm not going to do something until I'm 100% ready and it was finally my turn to be ready.

[Rockinonahigh]

For the last fue days I have been playing near non stop pool,but I have also made time for a good workout two or three times a day about a half hour at the time.They are very intense workouts with no more than 2 minits to catch my breath while i'm either siting down or walking.It is very hot hear so I have to becarefull of getting to hot,it dosent get any where cool enough o wo except up to 10 a.m. then after 6:30 p.m. I just make a good judgement call about when to w.o..I am down to 250,I know it's still a lot but the most I ever weighed was 330lbs when I started this program.Before I was working like a dog to lose the weight but not much happend till a coule of months ago when finaly after many months of thyroid pills and hormones cause my new doc found out they were way off and had been for years,so glad it is now where it should be.I urge anyone to have the doc check this out cause if the thyroid and hormoned are off it's hard to lose anything or much any way.Glad to see many posting about how it is going..keep it up and carry on.