A New Gymnasium

This morning Drew and I headed to a new gymnasium. We belong to New York Sports Club and have the membership where we can go to all of their facilities. Our normal gym doesn't open until 8 on Saturdays, which is usually okay, but today Drew had work, so we went to the 24-hour gym near our apartment. He had been there once before, but it was my first time. I knew that it was smaller than our usual gym, but I actually really liked it. I'm guessing that it was a lot easier to like it because there weren't a lot of people there early on a Saturday morning.

I am starting Week 6 of my weight lifting book. This week is Super Sets that are focused on certain areas of the body, rather than a total body workout like before. This week I'm also supposed to do two workouts on consecutive days and the third on a non-consecutive day. Starting today makes it easy to get two workouts in today and tomorrow and then one more in the week is more than manageable.

Drew did the weight lifting with me, which we haven't done in a while. Today's focus was Legs and Abs. I don't think either of us were excited by that prospect, but it was what it was. Here is my workout:

A) Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 15 reps @ 65 lbs
B) Leg Press: 1 set of 15 reps @ 115 lbs / 2 sets of 12 reps @ 115 lbs
*****
A) Deadlifts: 3 sets of 15 reps @ 45 lbs
B) Leg Curls: 1 set of 15 reps @ 60 lbs / 1 set of 8 reps @ 65 lbs / 1 set of 20 reps @ 65 lbs
*****
A) Reverse Crunches: 1 set of 15 reps / 1 set of 12 reps / 1 set of 10 reps
B) Ab Bench Crunches: 3 sets of 15 reps

The leg extensions and leg presses weren't 100% Super Sets because Drew was taking a little too long with his exercises so when we went to switch, I had to wait for him to finish up and take the weight off the leg press machine. The leg curls need some serious explaining. For Super Sets, I really think that you should use the double leg machine, otherwise it sort-of defeats the purpose if you do single legs. At our regular gym, I normally use the prone leg curl machine (the one where you're lying on your stomach and your rear end is up in the air). Drew isn't a huge fan of that machine (nor am I) so today we tried out the seated double leg curl machine. Um, yeah, that machine is really easy. That's why my first and third sets were so many more reps than the second set. I used the easy machine for those. For the second set, someone was on the easy machine, so I had to run over to use the prone leg curl machine instead. I think the difference between 8 reps and 20 reps at the same weight is pretty remarkable.

Today was my first time actually doing reverse crunches. Turns out that I haven't missed doing them at all. They're really hard. Harder than the other kinds of crunches. I am glad that I got a chance to do them and try them out. I'm sure that it was good for me. The book mentions that holding onto the bench is the hardest part for a lot of people. I'm going to go ahead and say that talking myself into lifting my legs 10 to 15 times was the hardest part, but it was made harder by the fact that I was holding myself up with my arms.

After the weight lifting, we headed off to do cardio. Drew really loves the Arc Trainer, and I've only done it once for about 5 minutes before deciding that I didn't love it, so I thought I should give it another shot. Turns out I still don't love it. I did the Pike's Peak program and thought it was just okay. After 30 minutes, I really felt like I hadn't had much of a workout. I think it would be a good thing to do on days where I'm tired and not in the mood for a harder workout, but I don't think I'll seek it out like he does. I just don't see the appeal. But to each his own.

After our 30 minutes of cardio, I thought he would want to leave in order to get ready for work, but after a few minutes of stretching, he said that he was going to do some more. I figured that since I didn't think I had the best workout so far, I'd go ahead and do some more cardio too. He went back to the Arc Trainer and I figured I should try the treadmill again. I've been boycotting recently after hating the treadmill for the last few times that I'd used it.

Today was fine. I don't think I'll ever love the treadmill. I'm always going to prefer running outside. But it was a lot better than it had been previously where I wanted to kill someone while I was running. My times aren't so great below because I did a few minutes walking as a warm-up and a 5 minute walking warm-down. Also, in the middle, in order to keep the boredom at bay, I switched it up and did a few minutes walking at 8.0 incline at speed 4.0 (a 15-minute mile pace). So, once you factor all the walking in, I actually think I was running at a regular pace while I was actually running.

Part of my problem while I was on the treadmill was that I was starving. I had half of a Clif bar before leaving the house and I had some water with me. It wasn't enough for all the working out I did today. I kept thinking about having some yummy Muscle Milk when I got home from the gym and when I finally did get home, I was shocked to discover that Drew had the last of it today while at the gym! I had a 90-calorie Quaker granola bar instead. It wasn't even close to the same thing. We did buy more Muscle Milk, but it's sitting in Drew's office. I'm hoping that he remembers to bring it home from work today!

Weight Lifting
Time: 39:50
Calories: 292
Maximum HR: 152
Average HR: 126

Arc Trainer
Time: 30:00
Distance: 1.26 miles
Pace: 23:48/mile
Calories: 302
Maximum HR: 172
Average HR: 155

Treadmill
Time: 30:22
Distance: 2.65 miles
Pace: 11:27/mile
Calories: 391
Maximum HR: 188
Average HR: 171