Oh, so that's a real work out

Since starting this journey I can honestly say that I have exercised fairly regularly. I have probably even used the term "worked out" on a fairly regular basis. There have been times after a particularly difficult work out class or video that I have felt sweaty and sore, but lets be honest, lately my exercise has been more about the quantity than the quality.

I have been happy to ride the exercise bike at home for an hour and pat myself on the back. What I have not done is paid close attention to the tension on the bike, my heart rate or whether or not this exercise had made me sweat.

Now moving is definitely better than not moving and my bike riding efforts are definitely an improvement from sitting on the couch, but I also knew that this level of activity was unlikely to have an impact on the definition of my body or my weight loss.

I wrote last week about my decision to give myself over to the mercy of my sister and let her develop a work out plan for me. We met for the first time on Saturday to develop an upper body routine. An hour and a half later I was feeling pretty good, I could still walk move my arms and I had been able to do all the exercises that she gave me.

The plan: meet again later in the week to develop a lower body routine. Once that was complete I was to do each routine twice a week with an hour cardio on the fifth day.

All seemed good, until I woke up this morning. I'm not sure what the word is to describe how I felt because I don't think sore would do my muscles justice. Even my shoulders, which I had been told we were not working out, were screaming at me.

I had originally planned to go do an hour of cardio early in the day, but I felt sore so it was easy to justify not going. After lunch out, I realized that I really needed to go put in a good effort.

So at 3:30pm off to the gym I went.

I started on the treadmill walking at a decent 3.0, I'm not sure what came over me, but I decided to try jogging at a 4.0. I did this 4 times for 30 second increments. I was successful in getting my heart rate up 20 beats during these intervals. After 20 minutes on the treadmill I started to feel my foot bothering me so I switched it over to my abs routine. As I was working out on the mat I saw the stairmaster looming at me. I'm not sure if you are familiar with this machine, it is not the little one with the two little platforms that move up and down, but the actual one that looks like an escalator. If you don't know what I'm talking about I have included a photo.

I hate this machine. Mostly because after about 3 minutes I am ready to fall off. Today, however I felt brave so off I went to conquer my fears. I only lasted 5 minutes, but I climbed 7 flights of stairs and I will do it again. 

The end of my work out was 25 minutes of bike riding. Now this time I paid attention to both my heart rate and the tension on the bike which obviously worked because I was sweating in no time.

I did not quite meet my goal of 60 minutes of cardio, but I did get in 50 minutes plus my abs and since tomorrow is another spin class experience that is going to have to be good enough for the day.