The Evil Stair Climbing Machine . . .
Have you ever been on one of those stair climbers that is like a big rotating stair case? I friggin hate that thing. But I know it's a necessary evil if I ever have any hope of climbing Mount Rainier again! Today I increased my cardio workout to 35 minutes instead of the 30 minutes I had been doing. I also skipped my crunches. I'll do them again during Friday's workout. I just didn't have it in me to do them today. I almost didn't even go to the gym. I was contemplating it, but finally decided that I needed to go. Mostly I didn't want to go because of the aforementioned evil stair climbing machine. It really kicked my butt last time . . . this time I did a little better, I was able to go 35 minutes, 99 floors, 2.06 miles on Level 4 for most of the time. Compare that with last time, 30 minutes, 1.51 miles, 74 floors on Level 3, I think it was a success. The details of the full workout are in my Exercise log. I'm starting to get a bit concerned about my workouts. The Men's Health personal trainer that I subscribe to is increasing my weights every week for nearly every exercise. Which I guess as long as I can still do the weight will continue. I was being pretty conservative at the beginning starting my bench press with only 115 pounds, 3 sets of 8. Well Friday I think the weight will be up to 135 pounds, 3 sets of 8. The 130 3X8 last week got a little tough at the end. So we'll see how Friday goes. I e-mailed Men's Health to ask if that was normal and their response was "As long as you continue to complete the exercises, the weight will increase". I guess they're trying to establish some baseline of physical fitness. Plus it DOES challenge me every week, which is always a good thing. And I guess every 6 - 8 weeks the workout routines change too, so I won't be doing the same old exercises forever which will be good.I am feeling a lot better about my workouts. I seem to have more energy during the day, more stamina in my workouts and just overall feeling better about myself. I still have a long ways to go, but this is good progress. I've been in the gym 10 times in the last 30 days which has got to be SOME kind of record for me. I've learned that I don't have to be there at 6AM like I had originally planned on. I can still get up at 7, get to the gym and still be in the office by 9 - 9:30. Yeah, I'd like to be there by 8 or 8:30, but I think I'm more apt to work out on this schedule. One of the benefits of being self employed I guess. :-)
Have a good day everyone!