Anyone have a good gym workout routine (cardio)

Personally my goals are: 1. maximize fitness, 2. burn lots of calories, 3. don't waste time accomplishing 1 and 2 (be efficient).

The rowing machine (ergometer) uses almost every major muscle group in your body. It is an intense, demanding, total body workout. If I row, I don't have to worry about targeting this muscle group or doing a different exercise to target a different muscle group... it's a full body effort. This allows me to accomplish goals 1/2/3 with ease.

Thing thing is, you HAVE GOT TO know how to use the machine. Go on Youtube, watch some rowing tutorials, and don't hurt yourself. People love to hate rowing - it's too hard, they say. Well, you're not racing right? You're not competing. Go at your own pace, learn it properly, and if you can't keep up, slow down - you're not there to prove anything, you're there for you, right? If you want to do a 5k row and you can only manage a split time of 5 minutes (very very slow), who cares, as long as you keep working at it and improving. Anyone can row, don't let the critics turn you off; it's really rewarding and efficient and great for you.

I may be alone here, or I may be missing something, but I'm always quite baffled by paying for a gym membership for cardio.

I always see it as people driving 10km to the gym to run in place for 10km on a treadmill and paying for the privilege .

I can understand if you're using the strength machines, lifting or even using some specialised cardio equipment like a rowing machine but for the price of a gym membership to ride a spin bike you could probably buy yourself a entry level road bicycle to enjoy riding outside and have enough left over to buy an indoor trainer for cold/wet/busy days.

To each their own I guess...

If you like the treadmill, try couch to 5k. It's always good.

If you're not sure about the weight machines, you can always ask a trainer about specific ones, or you could book a single PT session just to run through them all at one, if you'd rather do it that way.

Zedeff wrote: »

Personally my goals are: 1. maximize fitness, 2. burn lots of calories, 3. don't waste time accomplishing 1 and 2 (be efficient).

The rowing machine (ergometer) uses almost every major muscle group in your body. It is an intense, demanding, total body workout. If I row, I don't have to worry about targeting this muscle group or doing a different exercise to target a different muscle group... it's a full body effort. This allows me to accomplish goals 1/2/3 with ease.

Thing thing is, you HAVE GOT TO know how to use the machine. Go on Youtube, watch some rowing tutorials, and don't hurt yourself. People love to hate rowing - it's too hard, they say. Well, you're not racing right? You're not competing. Go at your own pace, learn it properly, and if you can't keep up, slow down - you're not there to prove anything, you're there for you, right? If you want to do a 5k row and you can only manage a split time of 5 minutes (very very slow), who cares, as long as you keep working at it and improving. Anyone can row, don't let the critics turn you off; it's really rewarding and efficient and great for you.

I tried to let it lay; I can't.

Rowing is great. On water is more fun than machines, but it's all good exercise.

Smart rowers balance the rowing "total body workout" with something(s) that compensates for the fact that rowing is all lower body push and upper body pull. Doing lots of rowing without attention to the opposing muscle groups is risking long-term imbalances that can cause musculoskeletal problems.

The Gym can be a tough place. When I first started I was intimidated by the machines and the people so I didn't spend much time there. I just hopped on the treadmill and maybe go for a lap or two in the pool and leave. Since then, I've gotten much better. I've really gotten into group fitness and doing boot camp style workouts but I still enjoy the gym.

Now on to your question, it really depends on what your goal is. If you're looking to burn fat find your max heart rate (220-(Your Age)). Then 60 to 70% of that is your target heart rate, this is where you burn fat. You can do interval running (AKA: run/walk). If you're wondering what that looks like it's when you can still talk but really don't want to. Set the treadmill to around 3 this will be your walking pace and taking it up to 4 or 5 during the run phase. If you're not in great shape run 30 seconds then walk for 1 minute keeping your heart rate at the lower end of your fat burning range then do it again. Keep that pace up for 30 min. You can adjust the intervals as you see fit. There are a few apps that can help you with intervals my favorite is C TO 5K by zen labs. Even if you're not training for a 5K it helps you build endurance.

Weight bearing exercises are really great for burning fat and most gym's offer a free personal training session to new members this can really help with getting to know your machines and how to use them properly. People tend not to take advantage of this because they're afraid that they'll be obligated to continue one the session is over. Signing up for training could be a win/win for both you and the trainer but honestly, the gym would prefer you learn how to use the equipment properly rather than risk you getting injured so they hire trainers to help you learn what to do. Once you're done with the trainer, pick up "Women's Health Big Book of Exercises". It has illustrations on how to use the machines and pre-written workouts to help you achieve your goals.

Good Luck;

Terri
Type 2 and Fit!

TLBentley1 wrote: »

The Gym can be a tough place. When I first started I was intimidated by the machines and the people so I didn't spend much time there. I just hopped on the treadmill and maybe go for a lap or two in the pool and leave. Since then, I've gotten much better. I've really gotten into group fitness and doing boot camp style workouts but I still enjoy the gym.

Now on to your question, it really depends on what your goal is. If you're looking to burn fat find your max heart rate (220-(Your Age)). Then 60 to 70% of that is your target heart rate, this is where you burn fat. You can do interval running (AKA: run/walk). If you're wondering what that looks like it's when you can still talk but really don't want to. Set the treadmill to around 3 this will be your walking pace and taking it up to 4 or 5 during the run phase. If you're not in great shape run 30 seconds then walk for 1 minute keeping your heart rate at the lower end of your fat burning range then do it again. Keep that pace up for 30 min. You can adjust the intervals as you see fit. There are a few apps that can help you with intervals my favorite is C TO 5K by zen labs. Even if you're not training for a 5K it helps you build endurance.

Weight bearing exercises are really great for burning fat and most gym's offer a free personal training session to new members this can really help with getting to know your machines and how to use them properly. People tend not to take advantage of this because they're afraid that they'll be obligated to continue one the session is over. Signing up for training could be a win/win for both you and the trainer but honestly, the gym would prefer you learn how to use the equipment properly rather than risk you getting injured so they hire trainers to help you learn what to do. Once you're done with the trainer, pick up "Women's Health Big Book of Exercises". It has illustrations on how to use the machines and pre-written workouts to help you achieve your goals.

Good Luck;

Terri
Type 2 and Fit!

220-age is inaccurate for a large number of people. RPE (rate of perceived exertion) is a reasonable alternative if one cannot do some type of max test. (If I worked at 60-70% of 220-age, I'd never get any sensible training effect: That is well below my actual UT2/recovery zone.)

Perhaps confoundingly, "fat burning zone" is pretty irrelevant to weight loss. Anyone who is in a calorie deficit will make up that deficit primarily from stored body fat. It may happen during the exercise, it may happen hours later, it may happen while we're asleep, but the deficit will be made up, and it mostly comes from stored body fat.

Working out at a heart rate above the "fat burning zone" burns more calories per time interval, but a smaller percentage of that larger number comes from fat; assuming we're talking material differences in working heart rate, working out at the higher heart rate will burn a higher total number of calories from fat than working out at the lower heart rate. The trouble is that working at a higher rate is more tiring, and - especially in beginners - can sap energy from daily life activities via fatigue, and reduce TDEE so reduce weight loss rate (not to mention helping to convince the beginner that exercise really is miserable and exhausting).

"Fat burning zone" is relevant to endurance athletes for fueling and training purposes. No matter how many fitness blogs say otherwise, "fat burning zone" is not relevant for weight loss. Exercise calories contribute to a calorie deficit. The more calories burned, either (1) the faster one loses weight (not always a good plan), or (2) the more one can eat and still lose weight at any given rate. For weight loss, calories matter, "fat burning zone" doesn't.

The sweet spot for maximum calorie burn for weight loss is figuring out how much time one can happily devote to exercise without messing up one's overall life balance. Then one splits that time into a short warm-up, a cardio workout, and a short cool-down. The workout should be at whatever maximum steady state intensity one can sustain for that time period, while still being energized (not fatigued/exhausted) for the rest of one's day. As one gets fitter, one will be able to gradually increase intensity for that time period, and burn more calories (though that's offset partially by reduced body weight, if losing weight at the same time).

In actual practice, all steady-state cardio is not the workout I'd recommend to someone losing weight, because the best practice would be to devote some time to strength training, in order to preserve existing muscle and help the highest possible fraction of weight loss to come from fat rather than lean tissue. Weight training burns relatively few calories compared to cardio, however.

All of the above assumes one's goal is primarily weight loss, not primarily athletic training, general fitness, enjoyment, or what-have-you.