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  #1   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 04:09
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default Wow, quiet board... Maybe I'll be posting alone

Got my shiny new gym membership at the end of January.

Met their trainer... he's a tool. Won't be going for him to so much as ask if it's raining -- he's to stupid to know, if he's standing in it.

So I ignored him, and started going an average of 3x/week (on varying days).

10 min on recumbent bike, heart rate pushed to "max". (Usually takes me a few minutes to get to that level, so it's not at it for the whole ride.) Cool down a little, stretch out, do some abs (hanging leg lifts, a few other things), then start on weights. The heaviest I can manage and keep form.

So I'm definitely still in the "beginner" stage, but also definitely in the "high intensity" category. In the past, I've gotten "addicted to the burn" and overtrained. (Circa 1997... the results were pretty devastating). Right now, I've got my workouts broken down into 3 "days". Legs, torso/chest/shoulders, and shoulder/arms. Still using machines, not freeweights. Going down my row of machines, not using the same one without a 2-day gap for recovery.

At some point, I know I need to kick it up and move to the freeweights section of the gym, but I want to spend a good month with the machines, first, while I get used to moving again.
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  #2   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 04:51
FREE2BEME's Avatar
FREE2BEME FREE2BEME is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,861
 
Plan: Atkins & IF
Stats: 260/213/145 Female 65 inches
BF:
Progress: 41%
Location: Japan
Default

That’s great! I’m making the change from cardio to weight training. I started last week. Previously, I’d been slaving over the elliptical and then doing a few floor exercises. I noticed I felt healthier overall, but wasn’t seeing much improvement in my composition. Also, pushing myself harder and harder on the elliptical has made my bad knee flare up pretty badly. So, I downloaded the Strong App and I’m loving it!! I want to start using the weights too, but I’m just doing machines and floor exercises at the moment. I’m really interested in this right now, so I was super excited about your post. 😆
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  #3   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 07:30
bluesinger's Avatar
bluesinger bluesinger is offline
Doing My Best
Posts: 4,924
 
Plan: LC/CancerRecovery
Stats: 170/135/130 Female 62 inches
BF:24%
Progress: 88%
Location: Nevada Desert, USA
Default

Yes, the forum is quiet. Sometimes it's like that, first of the new year's "blush" sliding off the rose. Maybe that's a bit too poetic. Let's just say: People start with Jan 1 and by this time have already stopped.

Good for you that you're sticking with it. I know how hard that is. I tried all my long life to make myself exercise at the gym, and it never worked. For me, the secret to consistent exercise was my first little Fitbit 5 years ago. Don't know why it clicked for me. Maybe being able to add up my miles. It worked, and I've measured my 1 hour morning walks ever since, averaging 700+ miles per year just in that hour.

Last Fall I added 2x a week Yoga classes. We go for 1.5 hours each class.

Still don't go to the gym. Different strokes, right?

Keep up the good work.
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  #4   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 08:25
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

I've got some specific needs, and it would cost me too much to buy the equipment necessary to meet those needs.

So gym it is. I'm lucky -- turns out there was a Planet Fitness 1.3 miles from my house... right in the same parking lot as the nearest grocery store. (It is seriously tucked off in a corner, where I never really saw it.)

We moved cross-country in 2012. Until then I'd been going regularly. I was lucky -- my physical therapist for his knee had his office INSIDE my gym, so -- since I was a gym member, and at my request -- we could go out on the floor (or to the pool) and he could drill me on what I needed to do.

And I never make New Year's resolutions. Those are just asking for failure.

It's funny... trainers in the gym hear I have a bad knee, and want me on the elliptical. My physical therapist (when I had one)? "I hate those things -- they destroy your knees. Stay off them." (I hadn't needed him to tell me that. Those things hurt!)

If you have bad knees, recumbent bike is your best friend. (I used to do rowing-machine, too, but bike is safer.)

I hate cardio. I used to do cross-country running in high school, and I'm here to tell you I hate cardio.

Weights, on the other hand, make me feel good, and directly affect my every-day life.

I NEED weights, because I have a bad knee. (A big part of my PT for my knee involved increasing the strength of the muscles around the knee, especially abductor/adductor.) Plus, increasing my muscle-mass will decrease my ratio of fat-to-lean, and so decrease my cardiac risk. All good things.

Cardio? Cardio just makes me feel drained.
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  #5   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 10:16
jessdamess's Avatar
jessdamess jessdamess is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,904
 
Plan: Keto
Stats: 252/172/165 Female 69.25 inches
BF:
Progress: 92%
Location: Northeast TN
Default

I belong in this section but I rarely have time to post in my own journal after reading up on my friends. I have an gym log, but I don't go to the gym and don't use the journal as I can't even manage to update my reg one and I feel nobody really gives a fig. I have dumbbells and kettlebells and do videos at home. HASfit, Bodyfit by Amy. Occasionally FitnessBlender but I tend not to use them since they have no music on their videos. I do strength training 3x/week (bodyweight or weights,) and cardio 2 days (either an interval workout or lazy tabata or an hour stomp in my hilly yard), but sometimes the strength is like cardio too since I rarely take more than 10-15 sec for breaks between exercises. Heartrate is up a lot at any rate.
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  #6   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 11:14
bluesinger's Avatar
bluesinger bluesinger is offline
Doing My Best
Posts: 4,924
 
Plan: LC/CancerRecovery
Stats: 170/135/130 Female 62 inches
BF:24%
Progress: 88%
Location: Nevada Desert, USA
Default

Jess, I've watched things change here, too. I continue to post in my J because I have a bad memory. Also, I live in hope that one of my experiments could make somebody's journey easier.

We just keep on.
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  #7   ^
Old Fri, Feb-15-19, 18:02
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

My "journal" is log on my phone, so I know what weight/reps/sets to do on each thing. (Or at least what I did last time -- today might be different.)
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  #8   ^
Old Sat, Feb-16-19, 00:58
nawchem's Avatar
nawchem nawchem is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 8,701
 
Plan: No gluten, CAD
Stats: 196.0/158.5/149.0 Female 62
BF:36/29.0/27.3
Progress: 80%
Default

LiterateGr is it okay to do leg press and ham curl with bad knee? Do you need to keep the wts light? My knee doesn't usually hurt, except for a sore spot to the touch. I had an MRI showed degeneration on the inner side, but they said the outer side has symptoms of torn cartilage but didn't show anything on the MRI. They recommended exploratory surgery but I figure with few symptoms why bother?
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  #9   ^
Old Sat, Feb-16-19, 07:54
LiterateGr's Avatar
LiterateGr LiterateGr is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 163
 
Plan: Atkins/General LC
Stats: 240.0/167.2/155 Female 5 '9"
BF:36/29.5/25
Progress: 86%
Default

I would say ask your doc (or physical therapist) about your specific knee issues.

For me, and my specific knee issues? Yes. I weigh over 200 lbs. Carrying that weight is super-stressful to my knee. But the leg-press and ham-curl machines? Their weight settings start at something like 45 lbs. That's a lot less than my body-weight.

The moment you have knee pain with any exercise you're doing STOP. Don't do that any more today, discuss it with someone who knows your body well (Doc, physical therapist, ec), and if you go back to it later, do it with lower weights.

That's one of the beauties of the gym machines: you can use low weights to build up strength without adding stress.

Seriously, though -- what's wrong with your knee is not going to be what's wrong with mine. (At one point I had two bad knees, and they weren't even the same as each other!) I know that my physical therapist (after proving to me that I lacked strength there) told me that 100% of his knee-pain patients had low abductor/adductor strength, and so this was one of the most important muscle groups to work. He also had me on most of the other leg machines, but always starting with very low weights. (Back then, I went to the gym regularly, and was able to increase my weights quite a bit over time.)
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  #10   ^
Old Sat, Feb-16-19, 13:07
nawchem's Avatar
nawchem nawchem is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 8,701
 
Plan: No gluten, CAD
Stats: 196.0/158.5/149.0 Female 62
BF:36/29.0/27.3
Progress: 80%
Default

Thanks, ab/aductor will be my first machine.
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