Floydy, yay! I bonus session. Those are always the best - a little silent victory over the lazy part of the brain. Good for you on hitting the legs. I am actually planning my own session in the form of riding the stationary bike in front of a good movie later (if I can find one :-p).
Tachyon, most wise of you to ask. I think 90% of the people in the gym learn from watching and asking others over trainers. Nice work.
It’s still Africa hot here :-(. I tried to surf a little but there just wasn’t enough push in the waves to get any momentum. C’est la vie. A bad day swimming around in the gulf is better than a good day doing most anything. Once the sun starts to skim the horizon, I am off with the deer who hug the tree line at twilight when the winds are calm. No records likely today, but I will be in good company.
Speaking of swimming? Where’s the swimming report, y’all?
Yay, the new gym equipment has arrived and the staff were getting shown how to use it today. It mainly comprises of two large multigyms which are hexagonal in shape and about 15 feet in diameter. Each “wall” of the hexagon is made up of black and silver steel piping and each one is festooned with cables, pulleys, attachment points and a lot of straps, clips and bits of rope for attaching various weights to.
Two other machines seem to be for squats and shoulder presses, and the bars you attach the weights to are in a sort of track which means you can’t drop the weights and hurt yourself, and you can do them on your own without needing a buddy to help. No idea if I’ll use those as yet.
Nobody went on any of the new stuff, since the staff are still being instructed on their use, but everyone was eyeing the machines warily, lol. I was hoping for machines for triceps and biceps, to replace the ones they took away, but I’m told these new machines have these facilities… somewhere! I’m looking forward to Thursday’s session.
Tachyon, the whole setup sounds promising as it might prevent traffic jams of everyone waiting to use some of the same equipment. You already have a great attitude when it comes to something new, so you might find that you have much of it for yourself in the beginning. Go for it and ask - as many times as necessary - on proper form and use. It sounds fun! I just hope that it is athlete centered and not about the looks of the thing. Time will tell!
The surf is up tomorrow, so today I decided to run like I stole something today, thinking that I might just take a recovery day from running tomorrow.
A murder of crows met me at the trailhead like a scene out of The Birds. Carrying on while perched in the trees on other side of the trail, they fell silent and left in a fluttering unit on down the trail. Strangely enough, they settled directly in front of me three different times instead of disappearing into the forest. Were they trying to tell me something? Was it an omen? No, it was probably just the fact that there were mowers along the trail edge upturning nice crunchy insects for the taking.
Five miles, looking frightful enough to scare off crows by the end.
Tachyon, you sound like you’ve won a Golden Ticket for Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. You’re like a big kid in a new toy shop! I must admit it is exciting when new apparatus arrives.
I’m looking forward to finding out how you manouvre yourself around the new equipment and how it all ties in with your training programme.
Any chance of an image or photo of this kit because I’m trying to picture what it all looks like and how it works?
Suzie - Well done on your near-sprint today. Those crows do sound rather ominous but I wouldn’t read too much into it. It’s only superstition
Later I’ll be doing part one of my new very high rep routine. Should be “fun”. Back soon
To the first of my two high rep sessions this week, and it wasn’t as well-planned as it should have been. It’s fine going very light but because I’m not used to lifting these kind of small weights straight off, normally I’m building my way up from something more ‘moderate’, the stack of weights on these machines and were flying up without effort as if they weighed nothing, taking me all my coordination to keep them steady. With this in mind I had to lessen the amount of reps then pause for a full 10 seconds holding the weight in place to enable my muscles to feel the tension and then do a few more reps to feel any benefit.
So it’s trial and error with stuff like this. What I should have done was do three sets instead, but I don’t have the time mid-week (the grandkids are coming soon for their dance class). In the event though, at least it burnt some calories if nothing else and that concludes my upper body training until I return from holiday after next week. Tomorrow with the legs variation of these high reps I’ll have more time and do two sets at the light weight followed by a slightly heavier set which should be much more sensible.
Wednesday 5 June 2019: Upper body (high reps). 45 mins.
Swimfeeders, I have orthotics too, and though they caused me a blister here and their when I started running in them, they completely cured me of a bout of plantars fascitis. Once that was resolved, I found that like you mentioned that they caused me to use my muscles differently and they help me stand up straight, so I continue to use them all the time. As you said, anything that helps you attain the fitness you are striving for is worth it.
Tachyon, I am looking forward to seeing your new setup! Let us know how it goes with the training sessions.
Floydy, you mentioned something very important about doing high reps with light weights, and that is controlling muscles is more important than just flying through the reps and slinging weights around. Since most of us are choosing reps over heavy weights, form is something that probably should be discussed more.
The surf is coming up in an hour…so you know what that means :-D.
Very good point about using the correct weight for your strength and capabilities, Suzie. It does need to be tried and tested, then fine tuned before any serious exercise should be done using this procedure. The weights today were far too light for me and this very mediocre session was a bit of a waste of time to be honest. Some middle ground would have been more suitable and will be revised for a future event
Have a good afternoon on the surf. let us know how you get on
I tried some new features on the big multigym, which seems to be a modular design made by Origin. I’ve been trying to find a pic of it, but it seems to be made up of 4 vertical modules set up as an octagon, with 4 spaces between each module. I’ll try to get a pic of it on Saturday as it was too busy to take a pic in there today.
I’m pleased to say I made an appearance on three leader-boards this month. I was in top place for weight lifted in May with a total of 442,522.5kg, 12th place for Moves (which is a sort of Intensity of workout thing) and 14th place for calories burnt with a total of 7,665 calories.
Today’s workout was 45,415kg and 859 calories, but some work was done on the new machines which aren’t part of the data recording setup. As I mentioned in a previous post, the weight lifted figure sounds more impressive than it is, because when I chest press 50kg I do it in sets of 20, which adds up to 1,000kg, and I do that at least 4 or 5 times. That’s just one machine and it all adds up fast. I did another 5k on the exercise bike, which was easier this time, so I’ll put the difficulty up a wee bit next time. I also walked 6k in the course of my travels to and fro today, so I’ll be ready for a hot bath and an early night tonight!
Oh, the gym is doing several days next week where they will instruct us in a group on how to use the new stuff, so I’m looking forward to that. There are three barbell racks, I noticed, with the bars you lift with in tracks, to prevent accidents. One of the regulars was telling me it’s not foolproof though, and one member thought he had locked the barbell in place after finishing a set, but he missed one side. That side slid down and caught his chest a bit but he was OK. I think I’ll be giving those a miss!
Tachyon, you’re flying now. Top scorer in the gym, you are like a man possessed - is there no end to your stamina. Great work bud Make sure you tackle the new equipment properly though because technique is a major part of weight training, i.e. done correctly it will reduce the injury factor
I didn’t get to do my final legs session before my holiday yesterday as there were things to do. New shirt etc. But no matter, I’m in decent nick for the vacation and looking all set for finally finishing work in less than two hours (as I write) WooHoo!!
Take care in here everone, I’ll catch up when I get back.
Looking forward to the photos and how the training goes on the multi gym, Tachyon. Anything new is good for the body, and you will probably find yourself a little sore when you start employing the new machines.
Floydy, you and your muscles deserve a break, and I hope you and your family have a wonderful time. No doubt you will be doing some adventuresome things that we look forward to reading. Enjoy every minute!:-D:038:
This is domestic bureaucracy day, and though it is likely to rain later with unstable air, temps are soaring. I am sure you all know the little trick that 82°F = 28°C, which most people consider warm when spending time outdoors in the sun. Right now it’s consistently above 30°C with 85% humidity. That means that regardless of whether or not it rains, I am soaked by the end of it.
I do so envy you your runs, Surfermom, not to mention the surfing itself. I’d love to do both myself!
I’ve booked myself onto a 30 minute induction course on the new machinery at noon this Wednesday coming. There’s room for 8 people on it and purely by coincidence a woman I am friends with is going to the same one, and so far it’s just her and I attending. She told me prior to me making the booking that she’s not wearing gym gear so that whoever is giving the course won’t ask her to be the guinea pig. Well, I hope someone more nimble than me is going to attend!
Some of the staff I saw getting trained were on their hands and knees or on their sides on the floor, with one ankle in a pulley strap doing all kinds of (for me) impossible manoeuvres and stretches. It would take two staff just to get me off the floor again, never mind doing the actual exercise!
Hahaha, Tachyon, that description of the staff on their hands and knees would have run me off. I expect that they are taking the machinery to the extremes, and that the kinds of activities you will be doing will be more traditional - at least I hope so!
It also tickled me how your friend is planning on being strategic in not wanting to be a guinea pig http://www.sherv.net/cm/emoticons/gym/weight-machine-smiley-emoticon.gif. It sounds great, but I imagine there will be plenty of questions when you start using the machines independently, and I wouldn’t hesitate to ask, especially if you aren’t working muscle groups to your satisfaction.
It is hot as Africa here and scheduling only afforded me a 5K run today. I was able to run a quick pace though, and it’s a known fact that the best way to run better at longer distances is to throw some speed training into the mix. It sure felt like speed training, anyway!
Tomorrow brings an eleven hour drive behind the wheel to North Carolina. This will be one of the few times of the year that I actually hit the gym, and I’m really looking forward to it, and I can talk shop with you gym aficionados! http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/funny/1/weight-lifting-emoticon.gif
Wow! It’s just taken me an hour just to catch up with this thread…:shock:
Swimmy breaking pieces of wood and walking down the yard with his new orthotics (Great work Swim, you’re such a fighter and an example to us all) Tachyon getting involved with some new technology and making his presence felt in the heavy weight competition (Brilliant work on your rise above the rest Tachyon…
Floydy winding down for his forthcoming holiday, If you can call his punishing workouts ‘winding down’ …:shock:…It would be ‘Winding Up’ for me… Enjoy your break Floydy…
And last but not least……Surfermom, turning out in some truly fearsome weather and having to steal stuff in an attempt to better her training…(Well done on your seasons best Surfermom…) Breaking records is always an event to celebrate… Not sure about setting fire to your hair though…
I managed to last until Thursday before feeling really guilty about not running so after completing a couple of laps of the deck with Mrs Fox (only walking) I took myself off to the ships gym and ran three miles on the dreadmill! I was so surprised when I had to come off half way through for a drink and a sponge off…
I fared better on Friday after managing to run the whole three miles without stopping, but how hot was I…? Phew! Apart from the heat generated (It’s like running on a very hot day) I realised that you take more steps on a treadmill than you would while running outside, and with nothing to look at, just the empty ocean passing under the ship (the gym is at the front) and my reflection in the window in front, or you can study every passing tenth of a mile and each agonising calorie burned, I can’t say I would ever be hooked…
So it was a pleasure to get back to the gentle breeze and the sounds of squarking crows as I ran six miles past flowing fields of barley this morning…
PS:- Great descriptions of your runs Surfermom…
I must admit it is exciting when new apparatus arrives.
…Surfermom, turning out in some truly fearsome weather and having to steal stuff in an attempt to better her training…(Well done on your seasons best Surfermom…
) Breaking records is always an event to celebrate…