Tuesday, January 10, 2012

**Day 375**

This morning we hit the gym, again:

Regular Elliptical - 15 min.
Incline Elliptical - 20 min.
Treadmill - 15 min.

So, 50 minutes of cardio!  I was sweating my butt off when I done, and my legs are already sore!

Question:  Do you keep track of how many minutes you work out, or how many miles you do, or how many calories you burn, or all of the above?  When I go to the gym I only keep track of how long I work out because I usually do more than one machine, and I would never remember, exactly, how many miles I did, and how many calories I burned on each machine (my memory is crap!), BUT it's kind of bothering me that I don't know, exactly, what I've done.  I guess, I shouldn't worry about it.  I'm working out, and that's all that matters.

So, I've been noticing something at the gym - ALOT of people put their treadmill at a really, really high incline, hold on for dear life, and then walk at a medium pace - and they do this for the whole workout.  Is this the new thing?  Are they working on strength?  I've never seen this before, so I'm curious!

5 comments:

  1. I noticed this same treadmill phenomena! It's strange and not at all something I'd want to do. For instance, I did the elliptical for 4 miles for 1 hour and a guy on the treadmill in front of my elliptical was on a serious incline and only made it less than 2 miles. I think it would've been more productive if he had left it at a decent incline and gone faster, no?

    Anyways, I do track my time and miles on every machine I do. If you bring your phone, snap a photo of the display before you hop off the machine!

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  2. That's a good idea, Shannon. I usually leave my phone in a locker because I already have my ipod, headphones, my water, and a towel with me but, I guess, carrying one more thing around with me won't matter!:)

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  3. I normal count by minutes too but for running its all about the km/miles.

    Some websites will tell you how much on average you burn for your workout on each item. So you can actually say to yourself 10 mins on here means so many calories etc??

    But like you said it's about exercising :D

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  4. You can round to the nearest number if it help - at least it will give you a ballpark figure. Try taking a mental snapshot and say aloud (or whisper) "Elliptical 230." I'm a visual person that loves using "memory devices" so that used to work for me at the gym. As for the incline thing, the only thing I know that is when you walk on a treadmill (even more slowly than you would on a zero incline) your calorie burn is greatly increased.

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  5. I see that treadmill thing at my gym too. I'm assuming they think that it will help burn calories more due to the intensity of it? I've never done it before because I like to be more in control of what my body is doing and hanging on for dear life isn't something that appeals to me! LOL

    I read in a fitness magazine the other day that if you do something "extreme" like that for long periods of time then your body just learns to adapt and you don't actually get the maximum workout you think you're getting. The magazine recommended doing intervals of high intensity mixed with low and medium levels so when you change levels of intensity your body is always trying to adapt which helps burn calories (apparently!!!).

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