Last night at the gym I thought I would shake up my routine a bit. I started with my abs (which isn't actually shaking things up - but I was really wanting to work my core muscles). After that I decided to use the bike instead of the treadmill. NEVER AGAIN. I did 20 minutes (mostly because I wasn't sure how much I would like it). I did the Alpine Pass setting on that too - since I like it on the treadmill - after 20 minutes of biking up and down hills (I covered 6.75 miles) I had burned 71 calories. 71!! That is crazy! After 20 minutes on the treadmill I usually have burned TWICE that and covered 1/6th of the distance. Furthermore, my foot fell asleep - and my lower back cramped. I also don't feel like I got my heartrate anywhere near as high. I am sure it was because I didn't have my level set high enough (I did it on 4) but since I don't know the bikes as well I didn't know what a reasonable level is for me. But - I don't know if I would want to do it at a higher level, because it was also not feeling good on my knee - and I can't imagine it would increase the calories burned that much. After the 20 minutes I switched to the treadmill to do another 25 minutes. I was with Gloria and after 10 minutes of the treadmill she decided she was done. I stopped then too - mostly because it was 9:30 and I hadn't had dinner yet... Anyway - in the 10 minutes on the treadmill I burned 83 calories - and I was doing it at a much slower pace than I normally do (3.5 miles instead of my normal 4) although I had it on a slightly higher incline (6 as opppsed to 5). I may check out the eliptical tonight to see how that compares to the bike and the treadmill. I would think that is probably the best of the three.
I ate pretty well yesterday - and stayed within the allowed calories again. My weight this morning was STILL 229. However, I will keep plugging away at this. You know, it used to be that the hard part was getting myself TO the gym, now I can get there with no problem, but I get so bored working out. Tonight, I think I may only do 10-15 minutes of aerobic and do weights instead. I haven't done any resistance in a while.
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Good for you for GETTING to the gym -- and I agree with you completely about the boredom factor. I don't really care for that kind of exercise but I recognize that for me it has to be done -- my biggest jump in weight over the past two years was during the four months when I didn't have a gym. The longer I was away from it the less I was motivated to do any other kind of exercise, either. I'm almost finished with "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" -- which is how I get through my boring workouts. I'll be in real trouble when that runs out!
About the bikes -- one of our bikes requires me to set it at 6, and another identical bike requires a 7, for me to burn 300 to 350 calories in 40 minutes. The other bikes take a level 10 (different brand). On an elliptical for the same amount of time I burned around 500 today. The bike actually makes my knees feel good when they're otherwise being difficult, and the bike is something Daniel and I can agree on when we work out together. It *can* do a lot of good -- that's how I lost nearly all my weight the first time -- but it's definitely not the most demanding exercise, so I try to shake things up once in a while with other equipment these days.
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