Getting into shape

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Going to a new gym is always a trip....

On the one hand, it's awesome. New eye candy. You never know what you're going to see. And, if its a better gym than your last one, then yeah, it's always nice getting to use nice amenities.

On the other hand, well, it's horrible. If you're like me, you have a routine. Depending on what day it is, you have a list of lifts to choose from for each muscle group. The list grows the more time you spend at a gym because you see other people doing stuff, talk to people and kind of learn what they're doing. These lifts are usually pretty good and definitely not your basic lifts. Which lifts you do depends largely on avoiding what you did last time and what is available this time. The list of lifts will inevitably be changed when your gym changes as the equipment is different. So...when you go to a new gym, you either have to stick with basics or fumble your way around until you find exactly what you want which is going to be just a little different than what your'e used to. I hate that phase. Especially with my shoulder being jacked up, I'm kind of limited on a lot of the lifts, so I look like an idiot trying to do a lift that everybody in the gym, including the ladies, could do but grimmacing in pain and having to abort mid set. Further, it always has that awkward first date feel. Like, everyone is checking you out or something. Weird. Plus, yeah, like you said, it's just annoying trying to find stuff.

[Freed Roger]

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.

. 10 minutes of slapping on the free aftershave etc. That sounds like an epic gorgefest on the comps

[jim]

You are on the money AW ... right now I'm trying to do the work I did in the other gym, and just finding what I need is difficult. For example I always do this ab drill where I take a 25# weight and sit with my legs off the ground and go back and forth with the weight to each side. You know the drill. Well, this place the weights that you could use for that were nowhere to be found. They had these medicine balls with handles (new to me), they weights with handles on them that people were picking up and almost throwing them above their head (I would have been killed instantly if one guy let go of that) ... all sorts of things that I had no idea what they were. I spent several minutes just trying to find what I needed. All the time I'm looking I'm near the women on all fours who is arching her back and throwing her head back and rocking back and forth and then pushing her rear up as high as it could go while placing her head down flat on the mat and oh my goodness gracious the stretches the other one was doing with the knees locked and feet spread wide .... I could have used her as a table to set my free coffee on. I'm just all discombobulated right now.

[Richie Allen]

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.

It's not the race-walking with the rotating hips and the ridiculously exaggerated arm pumping but, yeah, you gotta move the arms a bit for it to work.

[jim]

I did my first class today - a 55' spin class. I was going to do some other class that sounded good until I got there and saw it was all women - and not women I really wanted to be in the same room with exercising to be honest. The spin class was a good workout, I could have done without the instructors cheerleading. I hate cheerleading, always have. "You all can do it, I believe in you!". [expletive] you [expletive]. Cut the Stuart Smalley routine. I;m sitting in an air conditioned room for 55' pedaling a bike, of course I can do it. Does that really inspire people? Then she said at the start "Don't feel guilty about being here, take this time for yourself." What are you talking about [expletive]? If I took the time for myself I'd be at home sleeping, or eating bacon and eggs. Why would I feel guilty about sitting on a bike in a dark room listening you to and your "positive energy".

Anyway it was good despite some annoying stuff from the instructor, I thought it was a good workout and plan to do these 2x per week.

[IMADreamer]

This is a stupid question I know but what is a spin class? I just picture people holding there arms out wide and turning circles.

[jim]

It's interval training to music on a bicycle. The bike is different than other indoor bikes, the pedals don't stop when you stop pedaling . About threw me off the bike the first time I tried to stop pedaling. There are also periods where you are out of the saddle, and standing up the first few times was not smooth. THe bikes do feel more like a real bike than the ones with the computers to adjust the resistance.

edit ... here you go:

http://bicycling.about.com/od/traininga ... inning.htm

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Thanks for opening my eyes to the LSD training, fellas.

Tried it out today. Couple things went wrong, but overall was pretty good. Couple things that went wrong were pretty comical...

I left my gym shoes out in the back of the truck last night becuase, well, they're old and they stink. So, they get rained on. Oh well, I'll go get another pair at the store then go to the gym. I did that, but not after [expletive] to the fiance about me being a dumbass. Thought nothing of it, but she ended up getting me a pair of gym shoes for Christmas (I guess because my 3 year old ones stunk so bad). Anyway, long story short, I had new shoes on.

The plan was to do 3 hours of stairs/stairmaster/bike. Okay, so get on this stairmaster thing and boom within 10 minutes the shoe starts causing my left food to cramp....like its too tight. I take it off and its better, but the lady next to me kind of gave me a weird look. If I was on there for only 30 minutes, I could have dealt with it...but [expletive] me, an hour or more with that cramp...no way. So, I move to a bike. First workout in a 3 hour session lasted all of....13 minutes....sweet.

And, I dont' know what the [expletive] was going on with the bike, but, I couldn't get my heart rate up to 120 without peddaling my ass off on a high resistance. So, I do that....for about oh 10 minutes before my legs really start burning. WTF. I'm supposed to be doing this [expletive] for 3 hours, not 30 minutes into it and my legs are on fire, I've had a cramp and I've been through two machines. After 15 minutes on the bike, I can't take it anymore. Part of the leg burning I would guess has a lot to do with lifting legs on Thursday night and still being sore from it....but whatever. Not too promising. Time to try the stairs.

So, luckily this worked. It didn't take much effort to get the heart rate up to 120-130. For about 20 mintes did that. Then, all of a sudden I had to piss. So...get off and piss and come back and do the stairs for another 30 minutes or so. Then, my blood sugar started dropping, and I had drank all the gatorade I had on me. So, get off and go get more gatorade and decided to head back to the original stairmaster machine I originally cramped on. Figured I'd attempt to do that for an hour putting me at almost 2.5 hours.

That was actually going pretty well, for about 20 minutes. Then, all of a sudden my heart starts [expletive] pounding and I was sweating before but now I'm really sweating. And I was getting confused. So, check my blood sugar, and sure enough it's dropped despite drinking all the gatorade I had brought (64 oz). It was super low. Luckily I had brought a bottle of orange juice in case I needed more sugar. So...drink that. And, while I'm doing that, sure as [expletive], my phone notifies me it's down below 15% batter life. That went super fast. It was 100% just 1h45m ago. Oh well, I decide to call it a day at the gym and get home since I'm out of the life blood I know as sugar.

Get home, and take the dogs for a mile walk or so. Get them back. And, I was going to go for a 3-4 mile light/slow/whatever jog....whatever to keep the heart rate at 120-130. Wrong. I made some chocolate breakfast drink before going to make sure the blood sugar was good. Then got some gatorade to carry with me. The first portion of the run is about 0.3 miles uphill. It's horrible, but whatever. I have never tried to lightly jog before either. Let me tell you. That [expletive] blows when you're going up a hill. It's like running in place, only it hurts. So, by the time I get to the top of the hill, my calves are on fire and my left foot is cramping again. And, I think my heart rate is way too fast. Couldn't be sure because the phone was left at home to charge as it was going to die so couldn't time the rate, but I'm sure it was above 140. [expletive]. So, tried to do a super slow jog/walk.....well [expletive] that. If I walked my heart rate was too slow and if I jogged, it was too high. There was no happy medium. I just said [expletive] it and came home after 30 minutes.

So....all in all, it wasn't bad. Got about 2.5hours in, counting walking the dogs and the last run...despite those two probably not having the correct heart rate. Oh well. Good day. Next time I won't have new shoes and will have more sugar. Oh yeah, probably didn't help that we went out and I had probably a few too many beers last night!

Anyway, thanks for the tip. Was a good day.

[Richie Allen]

WTF, AWvsCBsteeeerike3? What made you think you had to do 3 hours worth? That's great, if you can do it and have time for it, but an hour should be fine. I shoot for a minimum of 26 minutes, the time it takes me to walk 2 miles, and prefer to go somewhere between 40-60 minutes but I've never even considered doing 3 hour's worth.

Riding a regular stationary bike is probably pretty tough for someone in decent shape to keep up the heart rate without peddling like crazy or with a lot of resistance. You could get that rate up by pumping your arms (I'm telling you guys, I read a book about 20 years ago that said if you're walking without pumping your arms, you're pretty much wasting your time if you're trying to strengthen your heart and/or lose weight) which is what I do if my legs are getting worn out but my heart rate is only around 100-110.

[jim]

I just read that in disbelief. 3 hours is probably pushing it for the first time. The idea of LSD training is to get you into burning fat, but what happens is at first is your body goes through the sugar and then .... bonk. It's actually called bonking, or that's what we used to call it long ago. You finish burning the sugars and your body is like now what? You need to train the body to start using the fat store, the problem is your body has never had to do that so you exert yourself, you have some sugar available, problem solved. Until you run out.

You shouldn't have any problem getting your heart rate to 120 on a stationary bike.

But you went at it way too hard for that length of time. I would shoot for 90 minutes in the winter, but build up to it. I did 2 hours today, the last hour was on the bike in the spin class (but that wasn't LSD, that was some pretty tough interval work). But the hour before i kind of just did this and that - jumped a little rope, did some abs etc... Active but never let myself get to where I was huffing and puffing.