[gretel]

Hello everyone!

Last month, I finished stage 3 of NROL4W. On June 6th, I'm riding 30 miles for the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure. The month of May is National Bike-to-work month and I'm actively trying to ride my bicycle every day I am able. My commute is 4 miles each way. However, if I ride and lift the same day, I cannot do anything the following day. So until June, riding is taking precedence.

Has anyone else taken a long time off between stages for "cardio" workouts? How hard was it to get back into it? I'm not so worried about the leg exercises, as I can tell my legs are still getting worked to exhaustion. But I feel that I could be working my upper body more. My arms are quite sore from a heavy day of yard work on Saturday. (If I hadn't been doing deadlifts, I wouldn't have been able to move the firewood around!) Are there any arm/back exercises I should keep doing in the mean time? I could probably handle a half hour of upper body exercises at home any given day. I only have dumbbells at home though.

I'd love to hear any advice you have to offer!

[Ilene]

However, if I ride and lift the same day, I cannot do anything the following day.

Is there any reason for this ? Too tired ? If you are tired, definitely take a break...

I ride/run and weight train on one day and get right back into the ride/running the next day... I won't train the same body part 2 days in a row but I certainly do cardio 2 days in a row, or more, without any ill effects... I am 53 and have done this for years ...

Has anyone else taken a long time off between stages for "cardio" workouts?

Yes I have, and it didn't take me long to get back into weight training after the hiatus. But what I did notice is that my upper body sure got flabby fast, I lost a lot of definition in my shoulders, arms, abs...

Are there any arm/back exercises I should keep doing in the mean time?

I love push ups, I do 15 and working my way up, every morning, I can definitely see a different definition in my UB... This is along with the rest of my weight training.

I think you should do a leg workout once/week on a day where it's rainy or when you aren't biking, it will definitely help with strengtening your legs for biking...

Hope this helps ...

[gretel]

Ilene - thanks for the insight. I definitely am too tired the following day when I ride to work, and lift with an interval run after lifting (Stage 3, workout B). But, I also know I won't get as much out of NROL4W without the interval training, so I'm opting not to do any more of those workouts for the time being. Would you recommend anything else besides push-ups that I could do at home?

As for rainy days - I'm still planning on riding to work unless there are severe downpours or lightning. Which may happen tomorrow, so we'll see!

[Ilene]

Hi gretel, there are many workouts you can do at home... Here is a great article 10 Incredible At-Home Weight-Loss Exercises the pull up is the only one that needs equipment... If you Google at home exercises you get a lots of examples of workouts.

[gretel]

Ilene - again thanks! I had already decided that I need to do push ups and should do planks, reverse crunchs, andprone cobras, but this should help me out with what more I can do.