What do you do to workout?

As many of you know, I became a certified personal trainer at the end of May after working with a trainer on strength training for almost a year. I have clients who are at a variety of fitness levels from very unfit to a new client who is training for her HS lacrosse season.

For my own workouts, I do 2 days a week in the gym with my trainer lifting heavy with a variety of machines, dumbbells and barbells. I also try to run 1-2 times a week (good cardiovascular training & I love it!), do some intense walking and then a mixture of swimming and elliptical. I'd like to do a third day of lifting but can't currently afford another session with my trainer for spotting and coaching. I also want to be sure that I do at least 3 sessions of vigorous cardio on top of the lifting because I really need to maintain my heart and lung fitness.

My current workout goals are:

• to progressively increase my muscle mass and strength
• to maintain my heart & lung fitness with cardio
• to maintain my weight and body fat %

Just curious about what you do for exercise and what your current goals are.

Have a great and healthy day!

When I'm at the gym, I don't care about the number on the scale, I'm focused on improving my cardio/endurance and strength. I'm a professional data nerd, so it's all about improving my numbers.

I hate running, so my cardio is swimming. I have a smar****ch that tracks my laps, and I keep a spreadsheet that tracks distance, time, and time per lap. My goal is to do more laps without stopping for more than ~3 seconds between, and to do longer stretches without a 30+ second break for air. I could care less about speed in the water, honestly.

This transfers over to my main sport, roller derby. One of the big things that's used as a skills test is the number of laps you can skate in 5 minutes; you need to have both strength (to push yourself faster) and endurance (so you can keep going). To qualify for a top-level team, you need to be able to skate 27 laps in five minutes, and so far my personal best is 22 because I get so worn out by the end. I think swimming has been really great to help that, especially since I can use a kickboard and just work my legs, and my cardio has improved a lot.

I'm intimidated by the free weights, so I use the weight machines at the gym. I have an app that I use to track weight and reps, and every time I go, I try to do either more weight or more reps. After playing roller derby for a year and a half, plus I do a lot of cycling, so my legs are SUPER strong, but I hardly ever work my arms, so I'm doing super light amounts of weight there!

Thanks for responding. I too love to swim and pre-WLS and for the first 2 years I did alot of laps, deep water aerobics & aqua zumba. It was really relaxing, fun and easy on my joints. The problem is that my DEXAs show that my BMD is going down progressively and after my hysterectomy a year and a half ago, my gyno insisted that I do more weight bearing cardio and weight training rather than swimming 5-7 days a week. I added back in more fast walking and I try to run (using HITT intervals) about 2 days a week. My hips, knees, shins, etc. give me problems if I do more than that so I try to balance things out.

Thanks again!

I do 3 days of weight training/conditioning and 3 days of cardio.

I meet once a week with my trainer and she writes down what I'm supposed to do the other two days. She varies the weights and the workout every week. My little blue book, in which she has written for the last 1.5 years, is worth its weight in gold.

For my cardio I do either a wog in the woods (5 miles), or the hills near my home (4 miles loop), or 60 mins elliptical. During nice weather I prefer the outside wogs, during winter I do more elliptical. I also throw in a couple of Zumba classes depending on my schedule but those are purely fun classes and I don't consider them true cardio.

I swim 1 mile every other day, without fail. All but 4 laps (warm up and cool down) are freestyle and a mile is 66 laps. It is a lot, but I feel it all over my body. I use swim gloves to increase the resistance on my arms and the cardio is beyond belief. On days I do not swim, I will mow the law on go shopping to get some walking in. I live in a hot area and I can't do the heat for long, but the pool is great. We need to keep moving to drop the weight and get healthy. I just celebrated this month my 1 year anniversary since joining the club where I swim. I feel really good at the accomplishment. I am 30 lbs from doctor table weight for my height.

Excellent!

Are you adding the 66 and the 4?

Our gym has an Olympic size pool and it takes 35 laps (70 if you count up one and down two) to reach a mile

Internet says 66 laps in a 25m pool is a mile. That's what I do. The 4 laps are included in the 66 total. When I do the hard math it actually is just under 65. Regardless, it is what I do and I find I really cannot do more as I am really tired when done. I do not stop during the workout except to defog my goggles. Otherwise it is a continuous workout. I won't do less because it has been may goal and I am sticking to it. Cardiologist is extremely pleased.....obviously.

hmmmm, maybe our isnt the full 25 meters..idk..

I do 70 laps every Tues and Thurs...you should post on the Exercise and Fitness page..we stay pretty accountable over there.

So, as far as your goggles...if your gym uses the foamy hand soap, before you get in, put some foam soap in your goggles for a minute or two..wont fog up..

So this makes it clear as mud..I do the 1760 yards..only because that's what our gym has always had on the board as to what equals a mile..now I am confused..which one ACTUALLY should we be using..ughh

https://www.swimoutlet.com/guides/how-many-swimming-laps-are -in-one-mile

Thanks for responding Sheila! I really love aqua zumba but feel super uncoordinated so hiding under water a bit is easier for me...LOL!

For the elliptical, I get really bored and have to really force myself to do more than 30-40 minutes. How do you keep up the pace for 60 minutes?

Also curious about what you do in your weight/conditioning sessions. Do you focus on endurance (reps) or weight? Do you do supersets mixing weights with cardio or just different exercises with weights?