Day 2 of rain this week. Thrilling. Is anyone else ready to escape to Mexico for a little bit? Let's get a group together and make it happen. Bikinis, sun, pina coladas....paradise. Unfortunately my reality is 10 hours in the office looking out onto rainy downtown Boston. Oh well! Must find joy from other aspects of life outside of weather.
Daily workout anecdote: this morning was spin class with Derek. In general his classes are awesome but his music is never loud enough. If I can hear the man next to me clearing his throat every 15 seconds [um GROSS] then turn up the dang music. Anyway he loves to do tempo rides, so basically long bouts of high cadence at moderately heavy resistance. SWEATYYY. This morning I looked in my drawer and realized I had no spandex capris/pants left, which is what I generally wear to spin. I can't wear running shorts on a spinning bike, and I don't pull out the booty spandex very often post-graduation [acceptable on the track...debatable in a normal gym with people unaccustomed to track booty in tiny shorts]. Soooo I end up putting on a pair of orange booty spandex. It really was my best option. It was all fun and games until I started spinning and realized that booty shorts quickly become underwear on a spinner. I couldn't win this battle, I had to accept that I was going to be spinning in spandex underwear for 45 minutes and that the inside of my legs were going to chafe. Badly. It was not enjoyable in the slightest but Derek taught a kick-ass class and I will make myself do laundry tonight.
I have been having multiple discussions with friends and family about the cardio/lifting balance of workout routines so I thought I would discuss a bit here as well. In general, men tend to do mostly lifting while women tend to do mostly cardio. In my opinion men have it a bit more right, the happy medium is 4 days of lifting and 3 days of cardio each week. I think lifting should dominate your workout routine as lifting increases muscle mass, which in turn increases your metabolism on a sustainable basis. The more muscle fibers you have, the harder your body works and the more calories and fat you burn minute to minute. Cardio is great for getting your heart-rate up temporarily, but lifting has an exponentially more significant long-term calorie burning effect. Lifting also offers quite a bit more variety to your workout compared to the 3 or 4 machines that are available [and worth your time] at the gym. Of course when summer comes around, I am much more cardio driven in my free time as there are endless cardio opportunities when it is nice enough to be outside. However, when it comes to the gym, you are better off focusing >50% of your time on the weights!
For weight maintenance, I suggest 4 days lifting and 3 days of cardio [>30 mins] a week in any combination. If you are trying to lose a couple, increasing cardio to 5 days a week should do the trick, but don't skimp on the weight workouts. Right now I am pushing for beach body 2011, so I am getting in 4 to 5 days of cardio by doing spin class Tuesday, Thursday, and coupling 2 or 3 weight workouts a week with cardio as a second workout for the day. For example, yesterday I focused on biceps/triceps for 60 minutes in the morning, and was back at the gym right after work for a 30 minute aerobic stairmaster workout. A lot of people don't like the 2-a-day lifestyle, so you can obviously fit in both cardio and weights during the same workout. I think there are HUGE benefits to 2-a-days because they spike your metabolism twice in 24 hours, which keeps your calorie burning as high as possible over the course of the day. Give it a shot, you might like it more than expected! Plus it makes you feel sort of intense...
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