Gym is Open (Tuesday 4/15)

It's Tax Day, hope everyone who has to file is all done with that nonsense for now. The gym is open.  I have been lax about my formal exercise (gym), opting instead to walk.  For me, walking is a good adjunct to formal exercise, but I guess I need more.  I read a book that stated you should alternate cardio with strength training and not do cardio every day.  Well, I found out if I don't do cardio every day, I don't burn anything even if I walk a lot.  Sigh. So, back to the gym for me, every day.  I need to do cardio and strength training.  We also have aquacise tonight, but it's not really vigorous, so I don't count it as exercise, mostly just moving the old body. What will you do to move your body today? Kix

I'll do a 10-15 min cardio warm-up and then full-body strength training.  I'll probably finish with another 10-15 min cardio.  My back is a little sore either from all that treadmill last night or from sitting weird when I was done (so i wasn't on my tailbone).  I think its the second reason.  It feels better than it did, I was bent over trying to get to bed last night.  I hope that moving around will loosen it up not make it worse.

Today was cardio.  Did 35 minutes on random hill program on elliptical at level 5.  Lacklustre workout though.  I don't know what's wrong with me this week.  Hmm at least I'm going though!

I felt that way last week, even though I tried to exercise, my mind wasn't into it and thus I didn't get the full benefit from it.  At least you are going, I didn't, so kudos! Kix

Tax Day = ugh.  Make that expensive ugh... Before surgery, walking was great exercise for me.  Now it's just something I do because I enjoy it; as our fitness levels improve, walking does not get our heart rate into our target zones.  As you say, it's a good adjunct to formal exercise, but it can't replace it.   I think the idea about alternating days of strength training and cardio is a bunch of bollux.  I think what's more important is doing a combination of strength training and cardio each week.  If it works better for you to do strength training and cardio in one day, then do that.  Your body may not operate at it's "maximum efficiency" when you do both things in one day, but at the level most of us exercise, that shouldn't make a big difference.  As you know from my posts, I do strength training and cardio on the same day, usually 3-4 times each week.  I'm lucky that I can break that up into two sessions, with 4-5 hours between sessions, so I have time to eat some carbs and replenish my glycogen stores so I have energy for the second exercise session.   If you want to do strength training and cardio in a single session, that can be a little trickier.  I've heard differing opinions about what to do first when you're doing a combination session.  Here's a link to an article at about.com re: exercise order -> http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/training/a/ExerciseOrder. htm And as far as not doing cardio every day, again I say bollux.  Almost everything I've read suggests doing cardio 5-6x/week for at least 30 minutes to maintain good cardiovascular healthy.  Can you overdo cardio?  Absolutely.  But I don't think that doing 60 minutes of cardio 4-6x/week is overdoing it.  Starting worrying about me when I'm doing 120 minutes of cardio 5-6x/week!!!   I'm like you in that if I don't exercise every day, I do not lose weight any more.  I think it's because my daily calorie intake is pretty close to my daily calorie needs.  So unless I'm burning off energy through exercise, I don't really have much of a calorie deficit.  No calorie deficit = no weight loss.  Sigh.  But that's the way it seems to be working for me these days.... Okay, enough rambling from me for now.  As far as my exercise, I did yoga at lunch, and will do 60 minutes of cardio after work.  What fun -  Kellie

That's an interesting article.  My personal take is that I alternate days on strength training so I don't heavily use the same muscle groups 2 days in a row (except for abs which I usually do every time I go to the gym).  I do believe your muscles need rest after intense strength training or intense cardio.  Cardio, any time all the time is good, but if you are doing something high endurance one day for either a long period of time or with high intensity, go a little easier the next day.  This seems to be working for me, I am only very mildly sore some days, and haven't had muscle cramps in my legs or arms with this plan so far.  So I've been alternating days on strength training - I do full body circuits every other workout.  I work abs every time.  I do cardio every time, but I double the intensity and increase the duration of cardio on the days that I am not doing strength training.  Does this sound reasonable to you?  There's no way ever in my life that I will go to the gym twice in a day :P I sure am enjoying it sooo much now though, its crazy.  This is so not me!

Hi, Jen.  What you are doing sounds great.  You're right about not doing strength training for the same muscle group two days in a row; that gives your muscles time to heal and recover from your initial workout.  So you're spot on there.  And I've heard mixed things about doings abs every day - some day that's fine, other's say they need a break as well.  I often do ab work every day, but mix up what I'm doing.  If I've done ab/core work several days in a row, sometimes I'll skip it for a day or two, especially if I start to do something and my abs beg for mercy.  Always good to listen to any part of your body when it begs for mercy when it comes to working out; better safe than sorry...   I did full circuit strength training for about a year.  When I was doing that, I aimed for 3 strength training sessions per week, with at least a one day break between sessions.  At that time, I was going to the gym once a day, so my scheduled looked something like this: Monday:  full body strength training session Tuesday:  45-50 minutes of cardio Wednesday:  full body strength training session Thursday:  45-50 minutes of cardio Friday:  either full body strength training session or cardio Sometimes I would try to squeeze in additional cardio, but I was basically splitting my time between strength training and cardio.  After about a year of doing this type of program, I just wasn't seeing results any more.  My body had adjusted to this program and wasn't responding the same way.  That's when I consulted one of the exercise specialists at my gym and she helped me tweak my program.  I was willing and had time to hit the gym twice a day, so here's the program she suggested: Monday at lunch:  lower body strength training, core work Monday after work:  45-60 minutes of cardio Tuesday at lunch:  upper body strength training, core work Tuesday after work:  45-60 minutes of cardio Wednesday at lunch:  lower body strength training, core work Wednesday after work:  45-60 minutes of cardio Thursday at lunch:  upper body strength training, core work Thursday after work:  45-60 minutes of cardio Friday at lunch or after work:  45-60 minutes of cardio Saturday or Sunday:  can do full strength training routine (upper and lower body) if have time, energy and aren't too sore from regular weekly workouts This works for me because my gym is at my job, so I can do a mid-day workout at lunch.  If I couldn't do that, I'd still be doing my original routine in terms of days/timing.   One additional thing about strength training, then I'll climb down off my soap box.  Your body will become accustomed to your routine after 6-12 weeks, depending on your level of fitness.  Once you notice that things are starting to feel "easy" or you do not feel like you are continuing to see improvement, it's time to switch things up.  You may need to increase the amount of weight you are lifting, add reps/sets, or try some new ways of exercising the same muscles.  (For me, I've recently started using the free weights instead of just using the nautilus-type machines.)   By the way, I said I'd never be one of those crazy people that goes to the gym twice a day either.  Be careful what you say; you may have to eat those words in a year or so....   Lots of love and encouragement heading your way from Cleveland -  Kellie

Thanks for the article, Kellie, I'll take a look at it.  I read an article last night that suggested it was quicker to build muscle and burn fat if you do high reps at light weights rather than low reps at heavier weights.  I tried the light weight/high rep approach today and I must say my muscles felt like they had a workout (kind of like after doing aerobics).  Once I get back into my routine, it will be cardio each day, then alternating days with strength training (probably on the days I don't go to aquacise). Kix

How you strength train depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  Generally, people are trying to accomplish some combination of four things when they strength train: - strength (how much can the muscle lift) - endurance (how long can the muscle work) - hypertrophy (muscle size) - shape/tone (what shape is the muscle What you're looking to accomplish will determine how you lift.  The info at wikipedia does a pretty good job explaining this, if you have the time/inclination to read it all (it's pretty long).... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strength_training#Are_light.2C_ high-repetition_exercises_effective_for_.27toning.27_muscles .3F I will say that when I talked about doing more reps of lighter weights with my exercise specialist, she suggested that w/ that type of program, I'd probably want to do 2 or 3 sets of 15 reps, and I'd still want to feel muscle "fatigue" when I was at the end of the last set.  When I could do 3 sets of 15 reps and wasn't fatigued at the end, it was time to bump up the amount I was lifting by about 10%.   Good luck getting back in to your groove; it'll feel really good once you get back into that routine.   Kellie

Also what I was told, more reps at a lighter weight was probably where I wanted to be.  The first trainer suggested 2 sets of 30, the second trainer suggested 3 sets of 20.  I am not quite to that point, but I can usually do a set of 20 and a set of 10.  Some machines I can do all my reps, but some of them not a chance (yet).  I usually just do as many as I can and don't count very well