Getting into shape

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Tomorrow a new gym. I'm going to miss my current place, it's not as nice but I've been going there for so long that I know almost all of the staff and alot of the clients. I moved recently and am now 30 minutes from there, and as much as I hate to break ties I'm going to do it. I had two choices in my new town - A) the equivalent of this gym (it's a park district ran place with good rates and a solid but not spectacular assortment of features) and B) the Cadillac. B) has everything - including tennis courts (those are xtra), a pool, and all classes are paid for. The showers have all the extras - shaving cream and cologne and all of that. Steam room, sauna, whirlpool. You name it, they have it. Rather than be depressed by going to A) and missing my old place which was a little better (and much cheaper), I decided to go to B). In order to justify the cost, I'm going to start taking advantage of the class offerings as well as trying to do some swimming for conditioning. For now I'm going to try to do a couple of spin classes (6am - that's going to be tough for me) and maybe a yoga class. Gotta' keep mixing it up, and I really need to stop running so much. Went last night after work and again this morning and I about fell down the stairs this morning after sitting for a while. My ankle feels like it's going to snap in two, so maybe swap out 1-2 runs per week for a swim.

Man. I'm jealous. When I first moved to little rock, I was looking around at gyms. There was a suprisingly wide variety. There was one that was awesome! It had a tennis club with indoor courts and lit outdoor courts. A full gym with every cario piece you could ever want and every weightlifting item imaginable, everything from dumbells, barbells, cable machines, hammer strength, open rooms with weights for cross training, pull ups, etc...with plenty of equipment to handle the peaks. Basketball courts. They had a good sized pool that was outside and during the winter they put a bubble over it, heated the bubble (that connected to the inside) and heated not only the bubble but the pool as well. The locker rooms were awesome. Whirlpools, sauana, steam bath, people to massage you (fee associated), showers, lockers, etc. Then they had a restaurant/cafe/bar with TVs and all that overlooking the indoor tennis courts. The only two problems were that they didn't have racquetball (they had a sister gym a couple miles away that did....and an olympic sized swimming pool to boot) and it was a $300 joining fee and $100/month.

There was a gym in a strip mall that was only $10/month plus a yearly $45 fee or something. It had all the necessary equipment but was undersized (not constant waiting, but you were gonna have to wait if you wanted a bench at 6 pm). So....I went back and forth on what to do. Go cheap and deal with the inconvenience or spend $100/month but have the mack daddy gym.

I rationalized that $100/month wasn't horrible, I'd meet people to play basketball and tennis with, and it would be better socially for me than just going to a gym where I was constantly annoyed and waiting in line to get on a bench or something. And racquetball. I love racquetball. So, I went in and tried to negotiate that I'd have access to both gyms (would even be willing to pay an extra $20/month for access to the sister gym if push came to shove) and they'd have to cut the joining fee.

Basically that conversation went like this. I walked into the recruiter persons office. Told them I'd like to join, but that I'd need access to the sister gym as well to play racquetball. She was this hot young 30 something year old in yoga pants with her [expletive] hanging out. She said that would be an extra $100/month. Essentially, no deal at all. I'd have to pay full price for two memberships! Bull [expletive]. So I said that's not even a deal to which she responded yeah, we don't negotiate. I asked about the joining fee. Yeah, that's $300 and also non-negotiable. I said I didn't want to pay that much. She said I couldn't join....and that was too bad because she really thought I'd fit in so well. Then she stuck her [expletive] out and looked at me. I just left and said no thanks and went to the $10 gym. But, after getting a free pass to the other place for a week and seeing how awesome it was, I've always wanted to go back.

[jim]

Wow I always assumed these signup fees were just automatically discounted to make you feel better. He said I had to act before the end of the year which I didn't believe, maybe it's true. Honestly though that place you describe sounds like the Mercedes (no restaurant/cafe, no outdoor tennis or pool at my place), so maybe they can get away with it. Honestly if our park district place in this new town were priced better I probably would have gone with them. But their in town rates were actually higher than the out of town rates of my old place (it was a park district place as well), which was kind of depressing. The park district place in my old down was an absolute steal, it was brand new and small but very nice with a few amenities. The problem there especially recently was crowds - I was getting pissed off 1x per week at least because you would be doing sets and get up to go grab a weight or whatever and some vulture took the bench or machine. I actually exchanged words one time because the guy just took the dumbells from me - I had 3 different weights and was cycling through 3 different exercises. When I put the 25# down he picked them up and walked away, and I asked what he was doing. He then told me it wasn't right to have all of the dumbells with me, one set per person per time was the rule he said.

[Freed Roger]

First timer with a garmin watch here. I didn't think I'd like it, which is why I didn't have one. But turns out I do. Used it twice and happy with the data upload. Kind of a map junkie, so I like that best. The novelty of it should help me get off my arse in the short term. Add a bit of interest to an admittedly boring activity.

In the long-term, who knows? I typically start out too fast,( even though I don't percieve it) and melt at the end, which is a proven entirely inefficient way to go about business. So hope this will help.

I tested it out on the airplane monday for a few minutes. (illegal?) - clocked about 590 mph, IIRC. That seems pretty accurate.

[IMADreamer]

So it's getting cold which I was worried would cut into my new found enjoyment of walking. So I picked up a Nordictrack treadmill off the local swap shop for 40 bucks. It's kind of bad ass, it has incline and speed setting, checks your pulse, had different programs, is for fat people, super quite, and has a wrack to put my kindle fire so I can watch netflix while walking on it.

So far so good, but I'm gonna try and still walk outside until the snow flies. So I might take a lap around the cemetery when I'm out there which I measured out to nearly a half mile, then hit the treadmill later in the day or maybe in the morning. Not sure yet.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Maybe it's just me, but I'd prefer staying outside unless it were really unsafe out, especially for something like walking. You can bundle up to make sure you're not miserable, and the scenery and fresh air really add to the incentive to exercise.

[Richie Allen]

I do a lot of running in place inside in the winter when it dips down below 25-30 and is windy. Gets your heart going and is pretty easy on your legs. Time flies in front of a good movie or TV show.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

What is this LSD you all speak of? What is your heart rate supposed to be during it? Is this like taking a 3 hour walk on the beach where youre heart rate won't get above 100? 3 hour walk, getting your heart rate up to 120ish or is it something different?

[Freed Roger]

What is this LSD you all speak of? What is your heart rate supposed to be during it? Is this like taking a 3 hour walk on the beach where youre heart rate won't get above 100? 3 hour walk, getting your heart rate up to 120ish or is it something different?

I'm attempting to learn it, and trying to make time for it.
Basically its 60 to 70% effort. You breath a bit harder than normal, but way below gasping for air. Typically start of slow, and then work up pace gradually, keeping concious of the breathing (some people prefer to use heart rate monitor). When you percieve too much effort, throttle it back. The aerobic is more efficient.


If you want to check it out, the google term to look for is lactate threshold.

One may think "I am not fat" so I don't need to do aerobic. Not true. Even elite endurance athletes with ridiculously low body fat have plenty to utilize as the preferable energy source for endurance. What they manage to do with all their mix of training (both fast and slow) is raise that threshold and effort at which they can stay in the aerobic zone. It's not all about losing weight.

Lactate- I always think of boobies, but its the point at which you start becoming anaerobic (glycogen/carb burning) instead of aerobic (fatburning). Lactic acid indicates onset of muscle fatigue which causes strong signals from brain telling your body to stop.

From performance standpoint, once your brain gets overwhelmed with these signals - you are toast - even though you physically might be fine. In some regards, by going slow, you are fooling your brain and its energy, metabolic allocation into allowing you to go on. It is telling that every current running WR from the 1500M to the marathon was run with negative splits (second half faster than first), meaning they deliberately held back up front for overall efficiency purposes.

Again, far from an expert here - I am doing much more of the anaerobic -which has great benefits mentally (training brain to learn how to cope with the pain signals) and physically.

[jim]

~120. Bicycling is perfect for this, a 3+ hour bike ride where you never really put the hammer down will do the trick.

I went to my new place last night and again this morning, it's mind boggling big. I was 10 minutes later into work than I planned because I'm just lost in there. I showered and shaved there, and just finding where the towels are and where to put them back etc.. Workout took longer because I spent time finding stuff. I'll get used to it but right now it drives me nuts. I did find out this morning this place has free coffee which is sweet. I'm going to bring a mug in and fill up - I'll break my $1 a day McDonalds coffee habit with that. Add the fact that I shower there every day which reduces laundry at home and I'm starting to justify the cost.

The place isn't as nice as the equivalent place in the other town though. Stuff-wise I give it a 10 - it has absolutely everything you could possibly want (including racquetball AW which is included in the price, but I don't play). The one place I was at 3 years ago was close to a 10 - and in fact in some ways it had more of some stuff. For example you could get your blood pressure checked any time - they were associated with the hospital next door. Anybody that was anybody that had had a bypass recently was at this club.

Aesthetically the new place is a 7, a little wear and tear in some areas. It's not bad, but the last two places I was at before this were both newer and a 9-10 on the aesthetic scale. In terms of good looking women this place is up there, I did some ab work on the mats next to two women who were doing that doggy style stretch your back exercise that I just LOVE.

BTW richie - my image is ruined if you are doing the speed walking. I pictured you as the Caddyshack hero - winning golf tournaments and banging the hot chick. And now you are walking and swinging your arms all crazy like that? C'mon, you are better than that.

[JackofDiamonds]

Get an erg, settle in for 10,000 meters.