I’ve been doing lots of yoga online–the studio that I frequent has been great in providing online classes. There are 3-4 virtual classes to choose from each day; plus, each week there are 30 minutes pre-recorded classes. I’ve been trying to do a virtual class in the morning (usually flow) and then a yoga stretch class in the evening. I signed up for a flow class at noon today.
For the last two days the weather has been great in my part of MA, and H and I have been working in the garden for 2-3 hours. I was surprised to see on my Apple watch that I got my exercise rings closed and ended up burning way more calories than I expected. We were hauling lots of bags of leaves (some were pretty wet) to a mulch pile.
I’m trying to make myself not run, so went down to the treadmill for 2 miles of walking. With an incline, I can get my heart rate up much higher- even into running range. I don’t like it, but I want to make sure the stress fracture isn’t acting up again. I’ll get outside for more walking a little later. It’s sunny and warming up!
Happy to report I did about an hour on the converted “indoor” (and fairly noisy) bike. I could multi-task, and catch up on some magazines. I usually only read the magazines while doing cardio at the gym, so they’ve been piling up.
My husband said I had to stop riding so he could do his part of the on-line meeting, but I may try again later, or head out during the warmer part of the day. 60 is my normal cutoff for outdoor riding. Maybe I’ll take a walk and do more biking later today.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Go for it, @Ranipetgirl. We go for at least a 3 mile walk every evening. I find it very nerve-calming. We are lucky that there is a multi-use public trail running through our town. If you can safely walk through your neighborhood, just do it.
There was a picture online of what the parks look like here, so I am continuing to stay riding indoors on the trainer. The MUT cuts through the parks and it is just not worth the people. https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/11/33/76/19251088/3/gallery_xlarge.jpg
the trails cut under a lot of freeway and there are too many choke points at road crossings.
If you are doing heart rate training, your metrics will only be as good as the protocols you use. 220-age is about the worst method of calculating your max hr. A straight percentage of your calculated max does not correlate well at all with % VO2 max (hr is a surrogate for that) until you hit about 90%! There are other formulas out there on the internet that are much better than 220-age. Find one that used a cohort in its development that seems to match you. For those 40 and up who are in decent cardio shape, I have found 210- 1/2 age to come remarkably close to actual measured max hr. And for calculating your zones, use heart rate reserve formula of (max hr - resting hr) x % + resting hr. That formula comes extremely close to a linear correlation with % VO2 max. Try it. Either you will love it because your cardio workouts feel much more effective or you will curse me because your cardio workout feel much more effective.
There are quite a few LTHR type guided tests out there , but that takes work. Really for most people, it is about working long enough and high enough. But http://www.briancalkins.com/HeartRate.htm is probably good enough for most. I suspect that if it hurts and you want to stop you are doing it right
I have a dog, and that motivates me to take a walk every day. I also play Pokemon Go, and there are incentives in the game to get out walking.
Sometimes I will listen to a podcast or audiobook or music (I plug in one ear only).
If you live in an area where you can comfortably walk, I highly recommend it. It will take your mind off your troubles if you are able to concentrate on other things – even as simple as noticing things in the environment. Good mental health.
Despite days in the 40s, spring is upon us here in Chicagoland. Flowers! Birds!
I did a max HR test when I was about 30 and, interestingly, based on 5K heart rates, my max hasn’t changed all that much over the years. It might have gone down a couple of beats. It is also important to emphasize that MAX HR is NOT a sign of your fitness- i.e. you aren’t “better” if yours is higher. It’s an individual thing of how your heart pumps. RESTING HR is the sign of fitness. I have really fit friends with Max HR anywhere from the 160s to 220 or so. Mine happens to be 185.
Day 15 – C-gym. I messed up the WFH count yesterday, so I’m going to stop. Too hard keeping track of both. In lieu of a run, I did a ~5 mile powerwalk through a hilly neighborhood this morning to lessen the pounding on my body. It felt good and the first hour was 2-3 minutes faster than last week’s walk. Granted, today I was just normal tired and sore. Video of the day was Phase 3, Week 2 Total Body Core. The program is 3 phases, 4 weeks in each phase. Week 1, you do 15 reps of all exercises in a row, and then repeat. Today was 3 rounds of 10 reps, so one can up their weights. And so I did for many of them. It felt good. Week 3, you do 3x10 again, but the exercises are grouped in 3 or 4 exercises before moving to the next grouping. And week 4 you are back to 2x15 but in the smaller groups.
Work has been a bit hectic today. In the background is my web conference that I thought was geared more toward GIS, but instead is more for 9-1-1 response people. I just listened to a recording of a dispatcher who had to stay on the phone with a man who’s trailer was being torn/washed away by a hurricane as he was on the line with nowhere to go and nobody able to reach him. Sometimes, we forget what those folks have to endure.
I agree on the walking. I love walking. My powerwalk was nice, but I also enjoy strolling. It helps clear my head.
And I have a hummingbird heart. I used to keep it ~200 during fast hour long TM runs. My mom and sister are similar.
Because of all the vagaries of using hr to set target intervals -from determining max hr, figuring out target zones, external influences on hr response, and others - for those interested in fitness as opposed to competitive performance, it’s really much easier and just as effective to use a talk test. If you can easily talk, then you aren’t working very hard. If you are starting to gasp a bit for breath, then you are doing a nice higher intensity interval. Mix them up a bit. Use a 2:1 or 1:1 ratio. You’ll be fine and get good results. For me, I use wattage training for my cardio. It’s kinda the platinum standard, particularly for cyclists, but it’s a bit hard core and requires an investment of $ for the right equipment and a commitment to do very structured training sessions. It’s not for everyone nor always enjoyable.
“Springtime in the Rockies” here… 69 degrees yesterday (took a nice a walk at lunch break, saw a good friend and chatted… from far away). Now it is 27 degrees and snowing hard - it will go down to 19 tonight. Happily forecasts are 42 tomorrow, 57 Sat, 69 Sun, 71 Mon.
I understand the issue of “not working very hard” because I sometimes used to see people at the gym who were slow pedaling on recumbent bikes while reading books or looking at their smart phones, and I wondered why they were there at all. (I figured they were using the “gym” as an excuse to take a break from their families and home life, because they certainly weren’t getting any exercise!)
But at the same time, we all have our own priorities. I know when I am panting & breathing hard, and I know when I am tiring myself out from exercise – and so basically I know my own goals. Since I had fallen into a routine with the rower at the gym that I wanted to replicate at home, I was basically interested in a way to replicate that. I actually found that when the resistance level was too low on the home rower, I was reaching my point of exhaustion too quickly – but turning the resistance up helped me pace myself so that I could sustain the rowing for the time frame I want. I honestly don’t know whether or not a sustained row at a steady rate for 10 or 20 minutes is any better or more effective than a short, fast, more exhausting row at a faster pace might be. Is it better to have my heart rate at maximum for 3 or 5 minutes? Or sustained activity falling well short of “maximum” for 20 or 30 minutes? I don’t know, I’m 66 years old and I just feel that it’s valuable to be moving when I can. I also do have a tendency toward light-headedness when I get overheated – and I can’t do anything if I am feeling dizzy – so whatever I do, I want to keep it at a level that doesn’t trigger those feelings. I have done yoga classes that are too intense or fast for me – and the result is simply that I have to sit out part of the class because I couldn’t keep up or started feeling faint — whereas I can complete and get full benefit of a class that is better matched to my level. I am experimenting now with home exercise videos and hoping I will find the right mix & some favorites on youtube. (I’m not there yet, but I haven’t done a whole lot yet either – I know that most of the stuff labeled for seniors is too easy/slow for me – they seem more geared to the 80+ group))
Michael can answer better, but I think it is good to mix it up. A sustained, steady aerobic effort is good for MOST days (the effort that you are working semi-hard but not dying) and maybe 1 day a week you do intervals where you go to being really out of breath and then back off. I don’ row, so I don’t exactly know, but sometimes it’s good to get your heart rate up sometimes. A runner friend of mine says “Run mostly easy, sometimes hard.”
" sometimes used to see people at the gym who were slow pedaling on recumbent bikes while reading books or looking at their smart phones, and I wondered why they were there at all. " - I’ve sometimes thought that about my walking, but then I realize, it’s better than hanging on the couch eating cheetos. And… when I do exercise (even moderately) it somehow encourages me to eat heathier, which is also a component of being fit.
@MomofWildChild , here’s my take on it. How you structure your cardio really depends on your goals and how you want or need to structure your overall program including the time you have available or want to commit. Someone who is looking for general fitness and health and enjoys other fitness activities in addition to cardio can or will structure their cardio differently than someone who, for example, identifies themself as an athlete in training. A concept of specificity of programming to achieve desired outcomes certainly comes into play. An overarching principle, regardless of where you fit on the exercise/training spectrum is that you must have adequate recovery time to maximize your progress and avoid injury or illness. What that will look like will vary based on the type of programming in which you are engaging.
So, for example, if your cardio is for fitness and you want to spend only an hour/day working out (including warm-up and cool down) and want to have other fitness activities (hopefully some resistance training), you may want to do cardio only 3 days per week. In that event, 2 of those days may be cardio sessions with several high intensity intervals interspersed with recovery intervals. The duration and ratios will vary based on your fitness levels. The 3rd day may be a more laid back session just to help you recover. If you are a fitness and health cardio person, you could also just do sessions of just moderate intensity but you better be prepared to commit to much longer sessions to achieve health and fitness results; mixing in high intensity intervals makes your programming much more efficient.
If you are training for a marathon, you may be running 6 days/week with 4 of them being LSD days (how’s that for a throwback) and 2 of them days with a lot of high intensity intervals to help you build speed. When my friend, who is a National Champion cyclist, is training for time trials, she will do 2 rides a week with increasing long race pace intervals, 1 day a week riding a similar duration but at a tempo pace and the 2 days on the weekend riding longer rides at a very relaxed pace.
So yeah, mixing it up is not only a good thing but is necessary to maximize results, avoid injury and avoid burn-out. What “mixing it up” will mean will be different based on your goals, lifestyle factors and type of programming that is appropriate for you.
For me, right now until October, my focus is preparing for my kettlebell cert. I am limiting my cycling training to 3 days/week. 2 of those days are structured wattage based sessions of no more than 45-60 minutes (usually 45 to prevent indoor cycling psychosis) with structured high intensity intervals and appropriate recovery intervals. 1 ride is a moderate indoor session of similar duration. When the weather finally turns, that third session will move outdoors but will never be more than 1 1/2 hours at a moderate pace. My kettlebell training is becoming increasingly metabolic as my technique improves and I’m getting short duration AT threshold work with many of the complexes. This is what my cardio looks like because my priority is the kettlebell training…
After warmup, I did a max 2-rep front squat and then barbell rows. The HIIT was three 5-min rounds of the air bike, toes to bar and front squats with 5 minutes of rest between rounds. And then a short neighborhood cool down run.
