I’m still surprised by the interest people have in my workouts. So, below the fold I am going to go into details for those who are interested, and the rest of you can skip it if you like. I have run into my personal trainer, and I hope to be working out with him again in a month or so at least one day a week. Before I can do that, however, I need to build back my base.
Your base is your base level of muscular and cardiac conditioning. Of the two, the cardiac is the most important, IMO, as it controls what you get out of the workouts, and how soon you get it. Simply put, the first few weeks of working out really amounts to getting your heart in shape to do more. The heart is a muscle, and it responds to exercise. The better shape it is in not only means good cardiac shape, but also sets the stage for serious fat burning. At risk of gross oversimplification, you have two cardiac workout zones. The low end tends to burn fat more than anything else, while the high end makes your heart stronger. A stronger heart most often (but not always) equals lower pulse rate, more efficient operation, and lower blood pressure. It also means your pulse doesn’t shoot up into the higher zone as quickly. Think of it as the heart looking after itself first, and then looking out after others/other things.
Right now, I am re-building my base and have just completed my second full week of same. I am looking to get my heart rate back to where it was when I went to Iraq the first time, so that I can then work on serious fat burning and strength building. As a side issue, I am working to get my basic muscle groups close to the same level I had before the first embed. Doing that means a routine of:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: Stretch and limber. Leg lifts. 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer on a cross-country program, max “height” at the max elevation of the machine, the lows at the lowest the program will allow, and a moderate level of resistance. Machine leg press, machine back extension, machine crunch forward and to each side.
Thursday, Friday: Stretch and limber. Crunches. Upper body workout consisting of Free Motion machine Row (overhand, underhand, cross body, alternating), Free Motion lat pull downs, Free Motion pec fly, Free Motion up and down axe chops, barbell work, incline lifts, bench press, misc. physical therapy work.
The Free Motion are a brand of machine, and I rate them highly, in the same way I rate Precor brand ellipticals and treadmills as about the best out there. The FM machines don’t have all the guides and limits (hence, free motion) so you do need to be trained in how to do the exercise as well as how to use the machine.
Since I am trying to keep to exactly one hour, I may have to start breaking up the upper body work, but that is okay (though I admit I don’t like it). The goal is not massive strength training, but more toning and getting the body back to the point where it can get the most out of real strength training.
The good news is that the cardiac portion is coming along well. I am showing a drop in peak pulse rate and a very good improvement in recovery rate. Yes, I am tending to use the upper training zone and not the “normal” training zone most charts show. The advantage of using a personal trainer who does the necessary tests is that you can get customized normal and upper training zones worked out for you.
To see where I am, I use a heart measurement system from Polar. This way, I can monitor things and tune my workout so that I am using pulse rates to determine when I do rather than just time between sets. I’ve just done the yearly battery change as I had starting getting erroneous readings of zero pulse (I’m not dead yet!) and up around 220 beats per minute—it was only off by about 100 beats per minute. Having learned my lesson several years ago, I do periodically run manual checks of the pulse rate to verify the accuracy of my readings.
On the elliptical trainer, I am trying to maintain at least 140 strides per minute no matter the elevation without breaking my upper limit. Not quite there yet, but getting there: at which point I will try for 150 strides per minute. Doing it this way not only helps the cardiac, but also my overall endurance. When I get where I can do the 140-150 comfortably, I will probably up the resistance a bit and am also checking to see if I can move into using a weighted pack and then move into full kit. That’s still a few months away, not to mention getting permission to violate the dress code and such…
Once the base is back, I will probably switch the endurance portion to two days a week, strength training to two days a week, and make the odd day the one with the personal trainer.
LW
