I've always been a guy that has, for the most part, shunned "that fancy equipment" in the local health clubs and focused on, pretty much, free weights for strength, and running for cardio fitness. Both things I can do on my own time, in (or around) my own home.
Enter 2007: Strapped with two kids that demand all of me at home, I have neither the time nor the energy to workout in the evenings. Mornings? I'm up late trying to get some time to myself, so forget about it. Plus, I'm fairly recently out of an appointment with an orthopedic specialist (should have blogged about it but didn't, for whatever reason), where some of my worst fears were confirmed about the current and potential future condition of my knees. Gone may be the super-intense, all-running-based training sessions and the pounding that puts on my knees. The recommendation? Cross-training; especially the low-impact kind, such as you can get from elliptical trainers, excercise bikes, and stair steppers (all of which I remember mocking heartily in my head as I strode between rows of them on my way to the running track at Bally's in the early 90s).
My workplace has an incredible fitness center that is available to me for $20 a month. I feel compelled to mention that nothing is a pittance these days, but this price is certainly a good one, compared to what I'd be paying at any of a number of health clubs in the Twin Ctiies. This morning I headed in for an initial fitness assessment (not good, not good, as a result of much theatre & parenting, and not many cardio workouts in the past seven months - but nothing too surprising). I went in with the idea that I would try to hit that club a couple of times a week and make it out to Hyland Park for a trail run once a week (all during business hours, mind you). After my first workout, I'm pretty excited about the amount of stuff they have in there, and the potential to mix it up a bit. I may try to step up the frequency from that initial goal, even. We'll see.
In any event, I had - in my first time on an elliptical machine - a grudging sort of awe at the ability to track my heart rate (trying not to let myself fury my way out of the "cardio zone") while working my way through a program that is specifically designed to work different muscle groups in your legs at different points during the workout. Wow.
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15 comments:
Simply another example of the once sometimes narrow mind of Dan opening onto a much larger world. A kind of cultural-elitification, though truly you would have been free-lifting logs and boulders rather that highly engineered metal plates to get the best effect of the analogy.
Good luck.
I'm turning from Rocky Balboa into Ivan Drago.
Not exactly - despite it all he was a one trick pony.
I've got an elliptical trainner and a recumbent bike at home, both of which I was able to get covered with a health spending account at work, after I hit 230 pounds. I've combined the use of the home equipment with a gym membership, where I'm able to use various free and machine weights (the laughably testosterone-branded "Hammer Strength" machines). I took of 40 pounds and somewhere around 15 percent of fat. I was also able to get a Polar heart-monitoring wrist watch. After accepting that I'd need to wear a strap around my chest, I found being able to monitor my heart rate during exercise to be a nice plus.
Generally, I like using the equipment. The home equipment is great, but the gym is less distracting.
Those are some incredible achievements, Stephen, on the weight loss and the body fat decrease. Great work.
Coming from a slightly different place, I'm a guy that was sort of "classically fit" through my youth & young adulthood, regularly running "competitively," and naturally having a total body fat index that may have been below the 15 percent you lost.
My knees (my surgically-repaired right knee, in particular) are now paying the price for my years of heedless pounding, though; and the obligations of parenthood have made fitness a luxury item in the accounting of my time. At my initial assessment, I weighed in at 182 pounds (as opposed to the 145-150 pounds I was when I ran the Twin Cities Marathon in 1996), and my belly - there's no way to get around it: it jiggles.
I am HARDLY alone in that trait for men my age, but as it's the first time I've dealt with it in my personal history, it's become quite a powerful motivational factor.
After just taking a large poo I weighed myself for the first time in years. 187. And I too have a belly that jiggles.
I've never had to work too hard to keep my weight in line - I generally am involved in some sort of regular exercise but not too regular and mostly maintain weight by not eating. Many is the night when I don't eat dinner and just have some sort of small snack.
Nice job Stephen - based on the photos I've seen you're as thin or thinner than any memories I have.
Good luck Dan. You've always like 'working out' so I suspect fitting it into your corporate day will make it much easier than trying to do it during family hours.
196 before the poo.
Possibly, though realistically more like 189.
Thanks for the comments, guys. Next to you guys, I remember feeling like I really was Booger's doppleganger in the 1980s.
In high school, I had a vague notion of what fitness was. I was just never an athletic guy. Couple that with bad eyes (retro factoid: I was born wtih cataracts, and surgery during my infancy rendered the left eye all but unusable except for allowing light in), and you had someone who'd rather thumb through Rolling Stone than go out during gym class.
Cut to July, 1994, just out of grad school: 6'1" , 240 pounds. BMI: 31.7. As I'm sure I've mentioned elsewhere, living in Japan was a reboot of sorts, as the re-shuffling of culture and surroundings made it possible for me to dodge bad habits for a few months. That move took away the ability to call up pizzas, run off to Arby's, or grab junk during grocery shopping. Minus a car, I took to going to the gym and eating better. I was 185 there, at my healthiest. Coming back to the States, the old habits crept back.
Dan, I wasn't aware of the knee surgery, and I hope the different mthods of exercise will provide decent rehab.
And bowel movements? Good when losing that last bit of bloat in the morning.
The knee surgery actually occurred before I knew any of you bitches, or at least any of you well (sophomore & junior year of high school). But that missing cartilege (sp?) is coming back to haunt me.
Stephen - you got down to 185? If you want me to hold out and eat like crap for another month, we could pass each other going opposite directions? Just an idea.
I applaud the efforts of all who strive to take care of their bodies. As discussed before, I also encourage new programs - constantly - never feel shame for an idea that goes away - better to always be starting something new, than to let it go completely. The folks who resign themselves due to a situation, an age, or time are the ones I truly am concerned for.
As for me - I've been running since April on a fairly regular basis, but as we are getting more into summer I am hoping to mix in swimming once a week, a bike ride once a week, basketball once a week, and one run a week - maybe two - just to try it.
As far as b-ball - I'm back to playing ball, but this time it is with the more running-oriented college crowd.
That can only help. For my part, I always dreaded when a crowd of guys would get together to play basketball and decide only to go half-court.
For what it's worth, I knew the knee surgery afflicted Dan, although it was part of the era when I 'hated him'. Possibly another psychotherapy post is required on that one.
As to exercise, I do relatively little in any organized sense. I play basketball once a week from October to the end of May, and after that it's a crap shoot. I run occasionally, I swim occasionally, and I walk some every day. None of it is hitting a target heart rate or anything any reasonable person would call exercise.
I really hate lifting weights, especially by myself, and possibly because I've rarely gotten past the point of being fairly pathetic.
Eating less crap would do everyone some good. It's tasty though, so sometimes we must indulge.
Dan: 185, for me at least, is kind of low, in my opinion. Fish, rice and tea will do that to me. In all honesty I've stalled out at 190, after hitting 188 a couple of weeks ago.
since I have no athletic ability, lifting weights is actually fun for me. It requires no skill other than to pick heavy things up. And I can listen to the ipod.
Great job Steve! I am surprised that no one dropped my name on the fat ass list. Donut trainning has done amazing things for me.
On a serious note, I might be to the point where I try to work on the extra butter I am hauling around. Hate exercising alone. I hope to get to it and to stay with it. Like I said before, I need help and to be held accountable for my statements.
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