Maintainers Moving in April
 

Feeling winded in March and showered with sweat in April brings forth ... flowers? Healthy, fit bodies?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lk1Qwqs1to...ningInRain.jpg

We're tracking our movement during the month of April in this thread. Everybody work it!

As for me:

Sunday, April Fool's Day:

15 minutes Life Fitness elliptical, backward
60 minutes weights, only 10 pounds
45 minutes back on the elliptical

This was in the fitness room at the Hyatt, which felt luxe, and had great, new cardio machines ... but it was overheated, and there was only one set of 10-lb dumbbells, and I can't do enough reps with the 15-lb dumbbells. Still, this is one of the nicest hotel gyms I've worked out in, outside of the big Las Vegas casino hotels.

Thanks again for starting the thread.
I didn't get as many days in March as I like (only 24), and April looks like it will be tricky. I will be traveling to see dd on Wednesday after work and returning Saturday night. I don't know that I'll get ANY true exercise in, but I'll bring my workout clothes and hope. We'll be doing a lot of driving so those days (2 of the days), I'll be very sedentary. I'll have to work hard on my food choices.....

April 1: 90 minutes Bikram Yoga

Totals:
1 day
90 minutes

Monday, April 2:

90 minute endurance spin class, mostly long, steady state cardio, though with various intervals thrown in. This is a great class. It's at the very edge of what I can do. It's worth getting up at 3:30 AM to make it. And the further April drama of wrenching open my frozen car door, scraping the windows while running defrost on high and driving behind a truck spewing salt over the ice-slicked roads.

April 2: 35 minutes Body Pump class
35 minutes Core/Strength training class

Totals:
2 days
160 minutes

Tuesday, April 3:

15 minutes Stairmaster stepper, resistance at eight, aerobic intervals
60 minutes back, shoulders and triceps
45 minutes recumbent bike, resistance at eight, with 30 minutes of this done as intervals of one-minute sprints alternating with steady peddling. This is partly to make the recumbent bike more interesting.

More windshield scraping and defrosting the back window of the car at 5:30 AM before heading to the gym. But once I got there, and got on the cardio machine, I realized that I felt weirdly good. Like something overcast in me had cleared up. I don't know what that was about. I am still anxious about so many things, and as usual, fretting. But it was a momentary feeling of clarity and also, for a change, of competency. Cardio can do that for me, occasionally.

Let's see if I can keep up with this thread too this month.

April 1: long dog walk
April 2: 24 min run, just over 2 miles, plus 5 min warmup 5 min cooldown and stretching
April 3: 30 mins yoga this morning, hopefully bike ride this afternoon

April 1: zilch
April 2: 40 minute jog on bike path, 3 1/2 miles or so
April 3: hopefully some walking during lunch and after work

Wednesday, April 4:

45 minute spin class, a good class, with me trying Pilates moves afterwards. I need to write out an actual routine. I can't believe I've forgotten it already.

And then there was the amusing sight of me running around the Citgo station afterward in bike shorts (yes, the tight black ones with the padded seat) filling up the gas tank of my mother's car, which lit up & started pinging that it was almost empty when I left the parking lot at the gym. My car won't start and needs a new alternator, so I had to borrow hers.

Thursday, April 5:

15 minutes warmup, Stairmaster stepper, aerobic intervals, resistance at eight.
60 minutes back & biceps routine, using 15-lb pound weights on several of the moves. (I do high reps, like at least 12 and generally 16 to 17 each, so my weights are not as heavy as many here.) Next time, I'll try 75 lbs on the lat pull-downs.
45 minutes Precor elliptical, intervals at nine and five, entirely done backward. I'm trying to counter my usual peddling movement in spin class.

Then rushing home to shower & change and do hair & makeup before taking my very tired mother to church for Maundy Thursday.

April 3: Didn't end up doing squat diddly...

April 4: 2 sets x12 at 15 lbs dumbbell rows, 2 x 12 at 10 lbs bicep curls, 2 10 each at bodyweight split squats, 90 seconds planks, 15 min running at 6.5 mph, 15 min resistance intervals elliptical.

Bike ride didn't materialize.

April 4: 2 mile run, just under 24 mins, plus warmup/cooldown

Friday, April 6:

45 minute spin class, not as hard as usual. I arrived late, after class had already started -- because of always trying to do one more thing before heading out the door -- and that seemed to disorient me for the entire class. Such guilt. But I am the kind of person who won't watch a TV show or movie if she misses the first 10 minutes. I have to be there for the very beginning. Anyway, recognizing my insanity, I stayed on the bike peddling afterward to make up. Then, afterward, a series of Pilates moves, trying not to think of how easy they once were. I could really feel most of them in my abs.

Saturday, April 7:

60 minutes on Stairmaster, aerobic intervals, resistance at eight. This was tough. Sweat just poured off me. But I was determined because I did just 45 minutes last Saturday and thought I could do a little better.
15 minutes Pilates routine. My abs have not turned into jelly, as I feared, though I'm not as good as I was at the end of last summer. I believe strength training has somehow helped with this, even though I've focused on my chest, back and arms.

April 3: traveled to see dd. No exercise.

April 4: 30 minutes elliptical on dd's evil elliptical before driving to Seattle.

April 5: none

April 6: 30 more minutes on the evil elliptical before flying back home.

Totals:

4 days
220 minutes