What Was Your Work Out Today?

I did another group fitness class at the local Y yesterday morning. I arrived too late to use the track for a warm up and the class registered easier than usual on my Apple watch but included lots of stretching and coordination exercises.

No class today so I went swimming, 1700 scm. I used flippers for a couple laps and alternated some other laps of front crawl with and without hand paddles. That was to work on the catch and pull, trying to regain some "feel for the water". Including 15 minutes on the elliptical machine early this morning, the watch says I'm over 1000 active calories already today. Active calories subtract what they estimate would have been burned without any extra movement.

Today was a rest day. Maybe 20 minutes of a walk.

Yesterday in the gym I spent 17 minutes on the rowing machine, 10 minutes of planks and stretches, 5 minutes cool down walk, 1 min on the Helix.

Tuesday: 25 min lap swimming and also a 30 minute walk out of doors.

Today - about 21 minutes walking video; 18 minutes stretching.

Back to stationary bike, but at least it went better than Wednesday's ride. Still keeping pace easy for the same 60'+3'CD, but averaged 87W this time without it feeling struggle-y, pace generally steady to rising slightly through the duration, more like normal. Only 24% Z3, 70% Z2, remainder below.

Also just barely finished The Stretch in the Concept 2 January Revolutions Challenge, the very easy end of the Challenges: Minimum 20 days of rowing or riding at least 500m. (In my own defense, I don't like restructuring my workout schedule, and none of the harder January challenges fit. In total it was 112 miles cycling per Garmin, 45.6 km rowing according to C2 . . . still not huge, but more than the 10 km that would be 500m times 20 days. )

I avoided the gym for most of January because I was concerned about crowds. I go at a non-busy time, and some friends told me it was barely noticeable. I was pleased that it really wasn't crowded on the weight floor, and it was a little ironic that I had to wait for three different machines while other folks finished up their sets. No problem. One is an old friend; one was a couple kids, and one was another older regular.

I dialed things back since I'd been away. The guy at the front desk still remembered me, although he did forget my last name. That tells me they don't actually have a camera with face ID and that he really does recognize me. Also ran into an old friend who I went on a dive trip with and who's picture I saw recently on a raft trip years ago to a place I'm going this year.

The pool was full with people waiting, so I skipped the swim. I think the pool will continue to be more crowded than normal for a few months because the municipal pool is closed for repairs. Apparently there's some significant structural disintegration, and the building has been unsafe since the summer.

Leg Day

Squats 4x10
BB Step Ups 3x10
BB Hip Thrust 4x10
Seated Leg Curl 4x10
Seated Calf Extend 4x10
Cable Crunch 4x10, 15, 20, 25

Did get in a machine row yesterday, just didn't post until now. Planned rest day today, but happy to have been at 6 row/bike workouts this past week without fatiguing out of doing any, though I admit the mid-week ones were sub-ideal intensity even though normal length.

Once again, I accidentally deleted the workout from my Garmin 🙄 but I think my fault not the device's. Same 3 x (2k on, 2' off), slightly faster than last time (2:33.9 per 500m pace instead of 2:42.6) but close spm, so all I lost was HR response data.

Not so much about my workout, but about an experience at the gym.

Just a short workout. Pool was full, so no swim. Decided to hop in the steam. It was lovely for about nine minutes, then something shut down. I reported it to staff, walked back into the locker room, and continued my hot soak in the sauna.

As I entered, there were a few other folks in there. Two of them were young men who obviously were friends and working out together. They were in the middle of a dialogue. One asked, "What is polyamory?" The other guy said, "That's the kind of love you have for your mother or sister." Um... no. Never mind that the word is a misfit because the first part (poly) comes from Greek and the second part (amor) is from Latin. The rest of us just sat there.

One of them had a phone with them, and it started buzzing. I'm not a fan of folks bringing devices into the sauna, but whatever. Then one started talking about how he was a feminist. He spoke unintelligently about suffrage. Clearly he wasn't aware of what suffrage meant; he likened it to being spanked and mentioned he was writing a book about it.

They got up and left. The three of us left in the sauna kind of gave each other an understanding head shake.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to swim. I hope they fix the steam. It really is a luxury.

Oh the things I get to observe from time to time.

mtaratoot wrote: »

Clearly he wasn't aware of what suffrage meant; he likened it to being spanked and mentioned he was writing a book about it.

Similar to a couple years back, when a WR in the NFL, earning millions of dollars to play a game, complained to the media about how strict his coach was during practice and compared it to "modern day slavery." Really, dude?

mtaratoot wrote: »

nossmf wrote: »

mtaratoot wrote: »

Clearly he wasn't aware of what suffrage meant; he likened it to being spanked and mentioned he was writing a book about it.

Similar to a couple years back, when a WR in the NFL, earning millions of dollars to play a game, complained to the media about how strict his coach was during practice and compared it to "modern day slavery." Really, dude?

Uh... Wow.

I suppose if the WR had no other marketable skills, then they may have felt forced to continue their career. I think many of us feel boxed in by career at some point. I'm glad I graduated from that and can now just pick up part time work that I enjoy - or not pick it up.

I refrained from writing what they actually said about spanking. I don't think it would be appropriate for this forum.

I have to say, I know I'm missing context because you're being discreet, but analogizing suffrage to spanking kind of gave off incel vibes, despite that weird feminism claim in there. No matter whether that's the case or not, that incident sounds truly surreal.

Walked the dog early (11 min); in the afternoon walked across campus to the gym and back (16 min); at the gym, spent 21 min. on the elliptical trying to get my heart rate up to aerobic activity (did not work, even on the 6 setting --usually I go with 3). May have to push harder next time. Then free weights and mat exercises (candlesticks, hip thrusts, planks, stretches) for 20 min.

I went up from 10 to 15# weights for bicep curls. Someone promise me I won't get bulky from doing this! I was going to go from a 15 to 20# dumb bell for standing skull crushers but the biggest guy in the gym took the 20 lb weights before I could get to them. What would he need with those? And no, I didn't look over to find out--too many loud grunting noises from that side of the gym.

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

Walked the dog early (11 min); in the afternoon walked across campus to the gym and back (16 min); at the gym, spent 21 min. on the elliptical trying to get my heart rate up to aerobic activity (did not work, even on the 6 setting --usually I go with 3). May have to push harder next time. Then free weights and mat exercises (candlesticks, hip thrusts, planks, stretches) for 20 min.

I went up from 10 to 15# weights for bicep curls. Someone promise me I won't get bulky from doing this! I was going to go from a 15 to 20# dumb bell for standing skull crushers but the biggest guy in the gym took the 20 lb weights before I could get to them. What would he need with those? And no, I didn't look over to find out--too many loud grunting noises from that side of the gym.

@DiscusTank5, I can honestly promise that it won't happen so very fast that you can't stop in time to prevent it, and switch to a maintenance routine.

If you keep going progressively indefinitely, working hard at it and consistently, plus get plenty of protein and other good nutrition . . . you'll end up wherever your genetics can take you. That's probably not "bulky", but (1) everyone seems to define "bulky" differently, and (2) I know zero about your genetics.

My friend J. has been lifting consistently and pretty hard for around 40+ years; I've known her for about 20 of them. (She's now 78, and still lifting.) She's not remotely bulky, but she does look more like she's in her 50s, and keeps up at the rowing club with pretty-fit people in their 30s. I think that's a more probable outcome than "bulky".

Keep going, it's a good plan.

DiscusTank5 wrote: »

Someone promise me I won't get bulky from doing this!

I can promise you that you will NOT get bulky from doing this. As a woman, you have to put for a lot of effort and intention to become bulky; you lack the necessary body chemistry to flop accidentally into large muscles. STRONGER muscles are in your future, absolutely; BIGGER, BULKY muscles require an entirely different level of effort.

I was going to go from a 15 to 20# dumb bell for standing skull crushers but the biggest guy in the gym took the 20 lb weights before I could get to them. What would he need with those?

Some possible ideas come to mind:

• The guy is working out with somebody else who needs the smaller DBs and offered to grab them
• The guy is performing lateral raises, an exercise which even big, strong lifters often find challenging and thus use small(er) weights
• The guy is warming up using light weights to get the blood flowing before moving on to heavier weights
• Lifters often cycle periods of heavy weights with a week of light weights, allowing the muscles to go through the motions while recovering and healing
• The guy is recovering from an injury and needs the "light" weight for rehab exercises
• The guy is performing an exercise technique called a "drop set" where he performs an exercise with one weight, then picks up a smaller weight to immediately do the same exercise with fatigued muscles and keep pushing them to even further exhaustion

...and many more. I know you did not mean to come across as judgmental of big, strong lifters, so I will not take offense. (I don't consider myself a "big, strong" lifter compared to some, but do acknowledge I may appear so to others.) But the truth is we never know a lifter's intentions just by looking at them, they may have a perfectly valid reason to select the weights they are using. Hopefully that reason is not "let me risk injury in order to impress the pretty lady" but that's a different discussion.

I got on the treadmill for 35 minutes. I’m trying to be more consistent with working out everyday. That way if something happenes and I miss a day it’s ok. I also do weights around d 3 days a week.