Working out

I joined a gym this week, and met with a trainer yesterday. This gentleman has been a personal trainer for over 20 years, specializes in "total body change," and is the personal trainer for one of the Survivor competitors. I believe he knows what he's doing. He set me up with a workout on the various machines (chest, back, arms, legs, obliques), and we talked about cardio. After going through everything with Adam once, I went back and did the entire circuit again alone, then did 15 minutes on the treadmill - and felt surprisingly fine afterwards. I'm going to go again this afternoon after hospital rounds,and do the entire 2 rep circuit, again followed by 15 minutes on the treadmill - he wants me to get up to 30 on the treadmill on the days I do my circuit, but that seems a bit much to me for the first week! I'm to do the circuit 3 times a week, followed by 30 minutes of treadmill, and 2 days in between, treadmill only for 60 minutes.

You can work up to 30 minutes in about a week or two (2 weeks if you haven't been working out). I'm up to 30-45 minutes on the stationary bike at least 3-4 times a week. I'm working up to the elipitcal trainer -- now that is the machine that will work every muscle you have and then some. Even then when you work up to 30-45 on the treadmill or bike -- 30 minutes on the elipitcal is hard work. Congrats on joining the gym -- stick to it and you will love the results.

I haven't done any serious exercise in YEARS. I started the post-circuit cardio at 15 minutes, and the in between days at 30. I've been adding one minute each time I do the post-circuit, and 2 minutes each of the other days, so today I did 17 minutes on the treadmill, and tomorrow I will do 32 minutes. Last week, before I met with Adam, I did 10 minutes on the bike, and 5 minutes on the elliptical - and I was fighting to get to 5 minutes! I'm looking forward to using that machine more as I build up my stamina and strength (and I lose more weight).