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What Was Your Work Out Today?
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Out of the rowing machine, elliptical, stairmachine and stationary bike, which do you think is the best for burning the calories, based on say 75% effort? Thanks
I'm going to throw a curve ball here. I'd never tell someone to pick an exercise based on its calorie burn. I think what we want is the exercise we personally enjoy the most, or at least tolerate doing the best and find practical to do. (For some people, that calculation will include whether they can do the activity while combining it with something distracting like watching TV/videos, listening to podcasts, reading books, or whatever.)
I think what we're really trying to achieve is lifelong fitness, including healthy weight. In that context, exercise we'll actually do because we enjoy it is 100% more beneficial than a theoretically perfect exercise that feels miserable when we do it, so we procrastinate, skip it, or drop it entirely at the slightest excuse. Weight loss isn't a project with an end date, after which we "go back to normal". It's an experimental process looking for a "new normal" set of healthier habits we can live with long term, in my opinion, habits that can continue almost on autopilot when other parts of life get challenging.
Therefore, I'd strongly encourage you to try different exercises, and do ones that you enjoy more, and want to get better at. I love rowing so much I'd do it even if it weren't good for me, but it is. That's been a great thing, for me. (Truth in advertising: I love rowing the shells on water in season; I do the rowing machine in Winter less enthusiastically but do it anyway to stay in shape so I'll be ready to row boats come Spring.
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I'd strongly agree with this. If (say) the stair machine burns 50 calories more than the elliptical, it is kind of irrelevant if you hate it. You want something you'll still do in 1, 5 or 10 years' time. Also, if one believes Ponzer's model of constrained calories, (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4803033/) those 50 extra calories have minimal impact on weight loss. (I'm not sure I fully subscribe to Ponzer's ideas.)
Anyway, yesterday was a rest day, so I walked 6 miles, swam a kilometre and had a long sauna.
@drmwc, I feel like Ponzer's model (and other research with similar conclusions) have quite a lot of power at the population generalities level, so may be useful for that reason for people driving policy . . . but aren't quite as obviously accurate/useful at the individual n=1 level. The magnitude of variability within the population (standard deviation and more complex measures of that variability) matter more when considering individuals.
I'd bet you in particular have quite high calorie needs, given things like your "rest day" of walking 6 miles and swimming a kilometre, and the above-average high activity on your active days. Elite endurance athletes have remarkably high calorie needs, too, because of their training schedules. Not everyone wants to or can structure their days in those ways, of course, so folks like that are likely outliers in the population data that supports models like Ponzer's.
It's up to us as individuals to determine whether we're in the mainstream stats about constrained energy, or an outlier in that sense, perhaps. 😉2 -
I've been off lifting for ages due to medical issues but I was able to start again this week! I'm on an upper/lower split. Today I did deadlifts, zercher squats, 16" step ups, side squats, and calf raises.2
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@nossmf
Thank you for this perspective. It totally makes sense. It might be counter to some reasons to do things differently, but the idea of injury prevention really should be high on the list. If you're hurt, you can't lift nor run. Stay healthy and do both.
I plan to keep doing both!1 -
@AnnPT77 I tend to eat around 2,400 calories a day, so not ridiculous amounts. Online calculators tell me this is in the range on "extremely active" for my stats (53 year old, 5 foot 9, 140 pound male). I tend not to worry about it too much these days; as long as my weight in the range I've deemed acceptable (140-147 pounds), my logging is pretty inaccurate. If I go above the range, I start to log a lot more accurately. One entertaining thing I've noticed is that after exceedingly active days (e.g. yesterday with a 26 mile walk), I tend to weigh slightly more the next day. My hypothesis is that the activity encouraged water retention.
My mild objection to Ponzer is that he had disparate data (extremely active, pretty lean Hadzas folk; and sedentary, overweight Westerners). He fitted a model to this, and concluded that activity above a certain level doesn't contribute to calories out. It seems to me that this conclusion is very conditional on the model: I think he fitted a linear model. So I'd argue that amore suitable conclusion is that calories out and activity is non-linear. There may well be decreasing benefits as activity increases; although these benefits are not captured by linearity. I read his book, which didn't go into details about the model. I've not read the paper in detail, which presumably would flesh it out.
As you say, everyone should find something that works for them3 -
BB Day
Bench Press 5x10
BB Row 4x10
Incline Bench Press 3x10
Pullups 30 total reps
BB Shrugs 3x10
Standing BB OHP 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x10
Cable Pushdown 3x10
Cable Woodchoppers 2x10 <<alternating>> Cable Palloff Press 2x10 sec
Love the late winter/early spring weather...Friday I was bundled up and shoveling several inches of snow from my driveway...Sunday I was outside in short sleeves doing a deep clean of my grill to get ready for the upcoming grilling season.3 -
Climbing, 3 hours. Cracking session again; I've got way better at v4s recently.
I made progress on my major v5 project. The first move is a twisty jump with zero points of contact until you connect with two handholds. Then you swing around a bit to get a foot hold and bump the right hand. Unfortunately, I always fall off at this point or soon after another right hand bump
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I got out of bed and took a shower.. Heart rate 150bmp.. so went back to bed 🤷🏻♀️3
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Back to the bike, the usual 60' + 3' CD, 102W average, little over 25k/16 miles at 15.5mph, 54' Z3, 2:40 Z4 when I pushed it at the end to see if I could get HR above 220-age again (yes), remainder of the time Z2 and below.3
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Think im going to work Shoulders and abs this morning.3
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Treadmill - 1 hr, 3.0 mph, 12% incline2
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22 minutes of a (33:41 minutes) Leslie Sansone Walk at Home video; 20 minutes stretching.
Still wishing I could do more, but I'm trying.5 -
Spinster321 wrote: »22 minutes of a (33:41 minutes) Leslie Sansone Walk at Home video; 20 minutes stretching.
Still wishing I could do more, but I'm trying.
You're doing more than trying; you're challenging yourself. Slow progress is still progress. A little more each week even if it's just a minute or two is more than last time. Keep sticking to it. Give yourself credit for your success!3 -
I am making a liar of myself.
I went to the gym today. There were two lanes open in the pool. I went upstairs. It was a good day. Finished almost all reps of all sets and even added in a few extra reps on some before adding some weight for the other sets. I only failed to complete reps on third set of fly; it's one of my weak areas.
I Increased weight or reps on several movements; that's a success even though I'm still very far from what I would call "strong." Pool was full with people waiting when I got done. That's OK. I might go back tomorrow and swim.
I had an extended rest somewhere in the middle chatting with a friend who was the person who organized the wilderness first aid training we just completed. We had a debrief and talked about what went well and what didn't. He wants to hold some practice sessions for the folks who have never taken the class before. One day of hands-on after eight or ten hours of online learning really doesn't make it automatic. It needs to be automatic. I am thinking about doing the next higher level of training soon. Funny - it's a big expense and a big investment of time (80 hours and close to a thousand dollars), and I am not even doing it for myself; it's for my teammates when we're out there.4 -
Gorgeous weather! I skipped the gym and ran a mile (5.2 mph pace), then walked 25 minutes around the perimeter of campus.2
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Tuesday, so breast cancer survivor rowing team practice, last practice for a couple of weeks as the university team that sponsors us will be training in Florida over their Spring break. They're pushing us pretty hard intensity-wise in practice so far, which is great . . . but a little fatiguing, even though the rowing pieces are still fairly short. I'm not complaining; some intensity in the mix is good for a body.
Usual pattern tonight, warm up, some dynamic stretching, a rowing machine session of stroke progression and pause drills, then a choice of two rowing machine workouts. It was four repeats in either case. One option was 8' rowing alternating 20 and 22spm every 2 minutes. then 3' off. The other was 1500m broken down as continuous sub-pieces of 750m, 500m and 250, at different spm in each sub-piece. The first and third of those were 22, 24, 26spm, and the second and fourth were 26, 24, and 22spm. That one also had 3' off between pieces. I picked that latter one. As usual, I rowed at easy pace for most of the "off" bits. We finished up with static stretching, also as usual.
From the first rowing machine strokes to the last - which Garmin says was a bit over 1000 strokes total - was 59 minutes. Zone 4 was about 24' of that for me, and there were even 30" of zone 5. HR peaked at just over 90% HRmax, or 85% HRreserve. Twelve minutes or so was HR above 220 minus age. Yeah, a little tiring. Estimated distance was 9177m, average pace (a.k.a. split) on the 1500m repeats was 2:25.4 per 500m. 2 -
Today's workout is a 3 mile run and 20 mins on stationary bike. Foam rolling and stretching.2
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Treadmill - 1 hr, 3.0 mph, 6% incline
Forgot to plug my phone in last night, it was only at 15% charge when I got up this morning, not enough to play movies for an hour, probably not enough to play music either. On a whim I grabbed the book I've been reading, which helped pass the time quite well but refused to lay flat and required me to hold it to keep the pages from drifting around in random air currents in the gym. (I don't own an e-reader, don't want an e-reader, I prefer to look, feel, smell of actual books.) Without being able to swing my arms naturally I had to drop the intensity of the walk, choosing to lower the incline but keep the speed the same. Resulted in just over half the normal calories burned, but that's still far better than skipping the workout entirely.
Discovered just how far my CV has improved as a result. This same speed/incline was a challenge for me when I began, involving plenty of huffing and puffing and not even lasting half as long. Today I never had to stop breathing through my nose, just kept a steady normal breathing pattern. Didn't check my pulse, but guessing from overall feeling that exertion was lower, my pulse was probably also commensurately lower as well.
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@nossmf
It's great that you got to have "a good read" on how far you've come.
I've thought about bringing a book when I do cardio. I don't want to sweat all over it though, and I'm not sure how well I could concentrate while trying to move my body at the same time. Maybe I should try it, but not when I'm on the ergometer!1 -
No longer a liar!!!!
My plan was to spend some quality time on the ergometer or elliptical. Maybe even the treadmill. I looked into the pool, and there was ONE lane open. It was next to my favorite lane. I decided to spend my hour in the pool. I got my jammers on and went out. The lane was still open. Not wanting to risk it getting occupied, I skipped the quick steam and just got in the water. About 17 minutes in, my favorite lane opened up, so I ducked under the lane marker and kept going. My device logged 2625 yards. I'm not actually that fast - I use Zoomers (swimming fins), and I had them on about 40 of the 60 minutes. I was about one minute per lap with them and about 80 seconds per lap without.
I left my book in my locker. I wasn't worried about sweating on it, but....2 -
60' stationary bike + 3' CD, a little slower than Monday at a very moderate 92W and 14.9 mph average, over 58 minutes Z2, just under 4 minutes in Z3.1
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Today is going to be a repeat of yesterday. 3 mile run and 20 mins on stationary bike. Foam rolling and stretching2
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Treadmill - 1 hr, 3.0 mph, 12% incline
Back to normal...I've thought about bringing a book when I do cardio. I don't want to sweat all over it though...
My hands also got sweaty, so I didn't hold the book the entire time. Instead I propped the book on the treadmill display and used the fingertips of one hand to keep the pages open where I needed, alternating hands periodically to both rest my shoulder muscles as well as wipe my hand against my shirt or towel.1 -
Rowing machine, keeping it pretty moderate, focusing on technical corrections from team practice. Total of 6801m, 3x2K as the main pieces, plus some row in/out and CD using the 2' between the 2Ks. 2:34.9 average split and 19spm average on the 2Ks, about 20% of the time low Z4, just under 60% Z3, remainder below. Took about 38' start to end of session.2
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-20 minutes of HIIT on FitXR
-20 minutes of shoulder work and stretch on XFit
- 20 minutes of beatsaber
I have primarily been using VR Fitness over this winter. It's cold, and I don't feel good about how I look so home workouts for now. It's been a long time since I worked out consistently, but over the last two months, I've been consistently working out and adding time to my workouts. Finally reached an hour, go me!3 -
Today is a chest and back day.
Cable fly
Incline dumbell bench
Decline dumbell bench
Flat dumbell bench
Lateral cable pull
Incline Cable lat pulls
Low row dumbell pulls
Lat pull downs
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Upper Body, DB Day
DB Bench Press <<superset>> 1A DB Row 5x5
Incline Cable Fly 3x10
1A Pulldown 3x10
DB Shrugs 3x10
DB Arnold Press 3x10
DB Hammer Curl <<superset>> Lying DB Extend 3x10
Cable Side Crunches 2x10 <<alternate>> Side Plank 2x30 sec1 -
Back to stationary bike. Pretty busy day, didn't get started until after 9PM, already pretty tired. The recent usual 60' ride + 3' cool down. Stuck with the usual moderate pace, this time averaging 93W or 15 simulated mph for 15.92 miles; a little over half Z3, remainder below. That puts me at 548 Garmin intensity minutes for the week.
Don't know whether I'll do a workout tomorrow or not. I'm going to volunteer at the rowing club's booth at a local event called Quiet Adventure Symposium, where there will be lots of canoe/kayak/bike and other outdoor organizations represented, both non-profit and commercial. There are lectures, demos, raffles, etc. Our club booth will have a couple of rowing machines as well as two single rowing shells, one recreational (about the width of a kayak, but longer than most of those) that belongs to the club, and one racing style, a beautiful wood one that one of the members owns, the usual maybe one foot wide at the waterline, about 26' long.
During the event, I usually I do some short rowing machine pieces, maybe 500m, when the booth is less busy . . . it passes the time, and it can help attract more passers-by. We'll give people an intro to rowing machine technique, or a technique tune-up, if they like.
The day is fun, but usually somewhat tiring, so I may not do any workout beyond that few thousand meters.2 -
This morning workout will be a 3 mile run before sunrise and 20 mins on the stationary bike. Foam rolling and stretching2
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Leg Day
Squats 5x10
Deadlifts 5x5
Seated Calf Extend 4x10
Core Triset: Cable Crunch 3x10, Machine Low Back Extend 3x10, Plank 3x90s1
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