Goals at the gym???

mammakisses

When doing cardio at the gym do you give yourself goals like amount of calories burned or minutes?

I like to exceed 400 cals burned and then if I still have time I try to reach 600 or more. Yesterday I did 680 cals burned. Off to the gym to kick some butts. Please share your goals.

insights2

I aim for 400 calories too, but if I don't have a lot of time, I do at least 30 minutes of something.

jtmh2012

When doing cardio at the gym do you give yourself goals like amount of calories burned or minutes?

I like to exceed 400 cals burned and then if I still have time I try to reach 600 or more. Yesterday I did 680 cals burned. Off to the gym to kick some butts. Please share your goals.

My goal is to just try to beat the calories that the MFP app says I should have for the cardio exercises I'm doing.

MaximalLife

I go for neither.
Distance is my indicator.
And I time it just to set pace and judge intensity.

As for calories burned, I don't trust what those machines say.

Harleydiva68

I do my workout at home. When I am on the treadmill, I like to burn at least 350 calories. But I also do some things on the Wii as well. And I also use free wieghts to work out as well. My husband and I have work out together, so that makes it even better. He is my coach and has been a big help to me.

Alicja_W

i aim for 400-600 kcl, when i do over that i feel really weak the next few hours even when i eat something

KimmieBrie

It's usually time for me - probably because I have time constraints. If I got on lunch at work I try to get in at least 30 mins cardio.

If I go after I try to do minimum 45 mins cardio, preferably 60. If I am outside running it's more a distance goal of non stop running.

I don't log strength training calories really but I will aim to do certain exercises each visit.

olee67

I try and shoot for about 30-40 minutes and try to stay in a target heart rate zone.

For me, I'm looking to stay between 120-160. I'm a decently active person and a former athlete, so, I aim a little higher on my THR zone. I won't do anything on a bike or run intesity wise that I can't do for at least a minute. If you go too hard, you risk burning muscle. There's a term for that, but, I can't remember it.

You might look crazy, but, there is a way to determine if you have exeeded your maximum work effort. While you are working at an intese rate, recite your full address: 123 my street, my city, my state. If at any point you have to break your address to take a breath, you're beyond your THR. If you are beyond your THR, I suggest reducing your intesity by half to catch your breath.

And take notes. I do interval training and right now my goal is to reduce my walking time down to 1:00 minute. Right now my runs look like this:

2:00 walk (brisk pace HR around 100-120)
2:00 jog (HR around 140)
1:00 sprint (HR around 150-160)

Eventually I'll cut out the intervals and just go for a medium intesity jog and start focusing on my time per mile.

mammakisses

I know the workout machines calorie counters aren't perfectly accurate but that's what motivates me the most. I just love to watch the number go up.

hirensthenameliftinsthegame

no goals in terms of calories for me, i set my goal in terms of weights lifted, sets and reps, thats the judge of muscle retention and/or gains. i believe thats the most important factor in a diet

Elzecat

I don't worry about calories burned, I use an estimate unless I am wearing my heart rate monitor. I am training for a half marathon and run 2 days a week outside and 2 days inside--the days I run inside on the treadmill I am aiming for a particular time/mileage according to my training plan, so that's what I follow.

Debbe2

With cardio I generally use a specific amount of time and work till I'm done.

Lorleee

Yes, I aim for 400 calories as a rule. Since I've discovered the elliptical, though, I've upped it to 500 or 600. Such an efficient piece of equipment, that elliptical!

daphnemoon

I know the workout machines calorie counters aren't perfectly accurate but that's what motivates me the most. I just love to watch the number go up.

Some of them are really massively generous - I regularly use the cardiowave, and used to think that it was burning 500 cals per 30 mins (yeah, as if, right?) Eventually I realised that it was telling porkies and last week used my HRM at the same time, I was horrified to find out that the machine was telling me I had burned SEVEN TIMES more calories than my HRM.

Yet the treadmill is pretty accurate by comparison. Weird.

maryjay51

im always motivating myself to obtain a goal on the cardios. im running in the shamrock run in march so im aiming to beat my goal of last year running in a 8k in 67 minutes. it was my first attempt ever at something like that ..this year i aim to do it in 50 minutes. dont know how close to that i will get but when im on them cardio machines i try to do as many miles in ten minutes or less as i can