Exercise thread

[bee]

For Ali, Ronni, Michael, and whoever else was in chat... Here's the effort to motivate sraffie exercise!!

Just did my first day on the treadmill. Watched the first episode of Buffy (43 minutes), and did 2.2 miles. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I started slow and when I'd get "comfortable" at a particular pace, I'd increase it. Never got to jogging, but I walked fast!

(I've also looked it up and there's a gym close to my house in Pittsburgh, so hopefully this won't just be a summer thing.)

[nanaki]

I was struggling to get to 1 mile ;_;
but nonetheless intend on keeping it up, day by day increasing

[Darragh]

I walk home from work on the weekdays which can range from 4.2 miles to over 5 miles depending on my route. In the evenings after my dinner I try to go for a similar lenght cycle. Sometimes I'm a bit too tited to do this but I'll play Wii Sports or do some sit ups to make up for it. At the weekends I try to do a combined distance of at least 12 miles between walking and cycling. Sometimes drinking with friends or having to go to hospital has interferred with this. It's been going pretty well though overall, just kinda hit a weight loss wall. So im guessing progress will be slower now. I lost 2 Stone (which is 25 Pounds or something?) in 3 months. I think that's ok but I know I didn't give nearly 100% to it.

[Aletheia Dolorosa]

I went for my first run in a week today. Oddly enough, it didn't cause my legs or ankles to hurt, but instead caused my ribs to ache and my stomach to cramp. I'm taking this as a positive thing...

It sounds obvious, but I would encourage those of you planning to run to either run with music or do as Bee is doing and watch TV/movies. Running/treadmilling gets very monotonous, and having music not only provides a good beat to run/walk to, but also keeps you from getting bored.

[jessia]

my pattern's been messed up now that school is over, but i found that exploring alternate routes was also a great way to keep the distance interesting.

[Darragh]

I listen to Audiobooks. It's cool because I can listen to books on my always planned to read a some point list.

[Aletheia Dolorosa]

Ugh, sorry to spam the thread, I don't know how I managed to post the same thing twice, and now I can't figure out how to delete it. I'm sure I'm just being idiotic.

Just to keep this vaguely on-topic, I play really over-the-top dance music while running, and imagine being chased through cyberpunk nightclubs by movie villains, because I'm crazy like that...

Edit: I've figured out how to delete it, don't mind me.

Edit edit: No I haven't, the normal option to 'delete post' isn't appearing. I have no idea what's wrong. Aargh! I should go back to writing my journal article, shouldn't I?

[Darragh]

I think once a reply has been made after a post you need a mod to delete it?

[Alexandra]

Just to keep this vaguely on-topic, I play really over-the-top dance music while running, and imagine being chased through cyberpunk nightclubs by movie villains, because I'm crazy like that...

I definitely do this too. Every time I listen to Right Here, Right Now, I imagine being chased by a rapist in a university dorm. Thanks, Veronica Mars. (Though it's good fun and it keeps your pace up.)

I've been biking a lot since I finally got my own bike. I bike to work in the mornings, which is a really small distance (1.6 km according to Google, so 3.2 both ways), but it's better than nothing! I've also been going down the canal for bike rides pretty often, all the way down to Dow's lake which is about 7.6 km one way. I've got Thursday and Friday off this week, I think I might wake up early and go for a really long bike ride on both days.

[Mockingbird]

Ooh, ooh, sraffie exercise. I'm a workout whore and it feels great.

I do HIIT on the treadmill 2-3 days a week, blaring "Glee" covers of terrible pop songs. When I can't go to the gym, I use the elliptical in my house, usually watching some trashy show like "True Blood". I can't have quality when I'm doing high intensity interval training. 2-4 times a week, I also do strength training routines with weights.

The days I don't do that, I take conditioning classes (2-3 times a week) at my gym and it is awesome because the classes are populated by all these hilarious middle-aged ladies. I usually take 2 classes back to back so that's about 90 mins.

Overall, I try to work out 5-6 days a week but I'm not always so successful as I often become derailed by the weekend debauchery-recovery cycle.

I also do yoga maybe twice a week, and throw in a Bikram class when I can.

(Btw, if treadmills bore you, vary it with some HIIT. It's a more interesting and efficient workout.)

[nanaki]

Missed out on today, really felt like crap, but tomorrow I'll bring it to half an hour, even if I've to break it up

[bethanwy]

True Blood ftw.

I believe I'm going for a long walk with my mother tomorrow. She now weighs more than when she was pregnant with me and is horrified with herself.

[nanaki]

It'd be alot more interesting to walk say into town and back, but I'd be walking on the hard shoulder =S

[bee]

About to go out to the treadmill again... I've actually been doing it twice a day--one Buffy episode's worth in the morning before it gets hot, one at night after it cools down. I did the first morning and it just felt so good to work out, I wanted more. I don't really know why I ever stopped. (Well, actually, I do, but it was because I was at my studio 22-24 hours a week and I got burnt out so I went from that to nothing.)

I have a goal of starting to do jogging spurts in a week (can't jog the whole time, but I figure I can start with short spurts) and maybe doing longer jogging (maybe the whole time) in a month. That seems reasonable, I think?

I also set a rule that I only get to watch Buffy while I'm on the treadmill. (If I can lay on the couch and watch it, it takes away a little of the motivation to work out while watching it.)

I think I'm going to start keeping track of what I do each day, so I can see how I progress.

[Aletheia Dolorosa]

All that sounds like a very good idea, Bee. I think the most important thing is to maintain motivation, and it seems like the Buffy-watching thing works really well for you. I wish I could do something like that, but I get bored unless I'm running outside.

On that note, I'm about to go and do so.

[Alexandra]

I think I'm going to start keeping track of what I do each day, so I can see how I progress.

Ms Spreadsheet, I'm shocked you haven't done this already! I did this for the two years I was at res, but I tracked crunches and push-ups (the latter had a pitiful trend). It was pretty cool to see the numbers rise. It motivates you, too, because you see a change faster than you would without it.

[nanaki]

Honestly, I had forgotten the advantage to doing something.

Grabbed my psp and played a tower defence game till the battery died, got a good 15 minutes on the treadmill, without it feeling long, and I feel better for it

[bee]

It's been a full week of exercising for me now and I've been managing to keep up with it pretty well. I took Saturday off (partly because it was a grad party and partly because the party made a good excuse to have one day off), but I resumed my two-a-day regime on Sunday. I actually only did one session today though because my mum made me take Ron's crepes to my brother at work. It was terribly sad.

As of yesterday, I added crunches after my nighttime treadmill session... but I can only do like 25. (I'm not sure if this is actually a lot, but I feel like we used to do 64 on a light day in dance and around 100 on harder days.)

I've pretty much been beating my average time every session on the treadmill. The first few days went up and down speed-wise, but now it's a steady upward trend (at first I thought this was due to some scarier episodes of Buffy while alone in the dark garage, but it seems to actually be due to my efforts). More importantly, I can go for much longer times at my top speed without getting exhausted or totally out of breath (and today I increased my top speed, but only for a few minutes at a time). That was my main goal of exercising in general, and it's pretty satisfying to feel like I've improved in just the span of a week.

[AlexSP]

stupid thread. now i feel like a lazy fatass. my idea of exercising is going all the way to the fridge to get moar snacks.

[Mockingbird]

stupid thread. now i feel like a lazy fatass. my idea of exercising is going all the way to the fridge to get moar snacks.

You could start yourself a "Sloth & Gluttony" thread. I could easily participate in that one too.