Thursday, August 16, 2007

Gym Day

227.4

RHR = 40

I haven't blogged about my gym days but I quite like the workouts and feel that they help to keep my healthy and happy (I'm happiest when I work out every day but I break down if I run every day).

My current pattern is 3 days per week of gym workouts, 4 days per week of running. My gym workouts focus on (after a thorough rowing machine warm-up) core strength and stretching and alternately (1 day per week) back, chest, and shoulder strengthening. So a lot of crunches and planks and back extensions and hip something somethings (I use a big inflated ball and roll it around) followed by push-ups or pull-ups or shoulder presses. All interspersed with stretching. The whole thing takes about 45 minutes. My back pain is gone (knock on wood) and I feel the workout somewhat mitigates the muscle atrophy that comes with aging.

Anyway, after wrestling with the what do I do in the winter question, my current thinking is that I can keep doing what I'm doing--switch my midweek runs to the treadmill and run both days on the weekend, after the sun is up.

2 comments:

Stephen Lacey said...

So these gym workouts probably explain why your weight has crept back up...you are probably slimmer but packing more muscle.

Pete said...

That would be good but I think it might be the beer. I'm in "summer rules" mode which means I've abandonned my "no alcohol between 4:00 PM Sunday and 4:00 PM Friday" rule.

have you lost weight as a result of your recent teetotaling?