Exercising

Posted on August 19, 2008

I think I’m slowly getting the hang of this exercising thing :-)

Two weeks ago, I just stuck to the treadmill and exercise bikes, but only exercised two days. Last week, I did the treadmill, but added weights, ending up with shin splints and very sore arms for the effort. Again, I only exercised two days. Yesterday, I did the treadmill and some weights, but concentrated on my chest and shoulders, ending up with no shin splints, but slightly tight shoulder and chest muscles.

Running on the treadmill is good exercise, but it’s hard to slow down and speed up quickly. You have to press buttons to do either, and if you want to drop three miles per hour, you have to press a button 30 times. Also, it’s hard to gauge relative speed. While the readout might read the actual speed, you don’t know how fast you’re really going because you are still in one spot. They do have a 200 M indoor track, I might try. However, on the treadmill, I try to concentrate on the time I spend running, not the distance. If I do the track, I will likely end up concentrating on laps, which might not be a bad thing. I was normally jogging at ~ 6 mph on the treadmill, but yesterday I brought it up to ~ 7 mph. This forced me to kick up my legs more and I think it helped alleviate the shin splints. If I do the treadmill, I will do that again, but if I do the track, I will go at whatever rhythm seems appropriate.

I think the key to the weight machines is to exercise different muscle groups on different days. Since working on the chest and shoulders yesterday, I’ll work on something else today, giving the chest and shoulders a chance to recuperate.

I’ve more or less given up on the computerized exercise bikes they have. I ride a bike to NIFS, and the computerized bikes seem to suck in comparison. However, they do have a bunch of non-computerized exercise bikes for “spinning” classes. Those bikes are made by Schwinn and are more adjustable for a suitable riding position. Their pedals will even work with SPD and Look style cleats. The downside is that if I wore the cleated shoes out to the floor, I wouldn’t be able to do any running – not comfortably, at least. I’ll have to keep it in mind though.

Related posts:

1. Working out
2. Review Haiku – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
3. Review Haiku – Silent Running
4. The heat is on
5. First Night

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