Yesterday on my new highest peak, I got up to 191, then quickly recovered to 165, 145, 121 in the 3 minutes following. I thought 191 was crazy high until I read Shannon's!! And dh had been telling me, oh we're not supposed to go higher than the 80% mark that's listed on the treadmill! I said, nope, that's 'old school,' we're supposed to do HIIT now which is waaaay above working at 80%.

Fran - I'm glad to see your 191! My DH has been telling me the same thing. I stopped telling him where I was going with my heartrate, as it wasn't causing me any trouble, even! . I had to go for an ECG & a stress test in October because of a newly detected leaky heart valve causing a murmur, and the cardiologist told me I had great VO2 levels and that my resting and exercising heart rate were excellent for a woman my age , not to change a thing. (Man, I hated hearing that phrase 'woman your age' though... ) And, that was when I was regularly hitting in the 190s. Heart murmur is minor and doesn't impact it at all, either.

Well, not being a woman your age, Shannon, but one much older, I hit around 160 on some of my intervals. That's above what the 220 minus your age formula has for my 100% and my heart hasn't exploded yet. THere's a book called Ultimate Fitness: the quest for truth about exercise and health by Gina Kolata that - among other stuff - discusses the "accepted" formula for maximum heart rate. It's quite interesting. It's a 2003 book, so you can likely find it in in your libraryl

Thanks for all the HIIT answers! I think I need to wear my real HR monitor for the true answer. The treadmill takes quite a few seconds to "kick in" and I'm not sure if it's reliable. I also ignore the treadmill suggested HR's! I think, according to them I should max out at 140 or something silly like that!!

I know I could get my HR higher but I'm not sure I could sustain it for a full minute, which is what I'm trying to do right now. Something to strive for, that's for sure. Makes the treadmill a little more interesting anyway.

Elisa - I had to wear my HRM to get my heart rate during HIIT, the elliptical & treadmill couldn't keep up, and I didn't really trust either of their results.

Pat - Thanks for the book tip - I'm going to look for it. And, hand it to DH the next time he says 'your heart is going to explode if you keep at it like that!'. I thought it was funny that you used that same phrase!

I just worked out using some of the LB Swiss ball exercises from one of Lydia's posts in another thread and the Swiss ball hamstring curl just about killed me. It took me five tries to get the stupid ball to stay under my ankles and feet before I could even try the exercise, but wow could I feel it once I got started!

Ha, Shannon. Sounds like me with the ball jack knife exercise....

My elliptical tells me my heart rate is 95 when I'm about ready to keel over When I was doing spinning and wore a monitor, I would occasionally break 190 without exploding and I'm a LOT older. I think I need to buy a new monitor and see where I am now!

Mel

Pat: Thanks for the book tip. I will look for the book at my library too. I'm still trying to get my HR monitor to work correctly. Perhaps it needs a new battery. It has a difficult time keeping the reading. I have to hold the watch up onto the chest monitor to pick up the reading. I'll play with it a little more today.

Yesterday was my orientation to the Freemotion equipment. I have had access to and used the same equipment at my previous gym for four years. I even had an orientation to the equipment when I was a new member there too. But wow, the difference between the two are night and day.

The trainer made a point of describing that it was a two part movement in many of the upper body exercises. It is important to pinch the scapula together and down in the back in order to activate the rhomboids and lats. The is also important to have more of a curve in the lower back which pushes the chest much further out and wider than I'm accustomed to using. Then....then...you implement the movement such as the chest press or shoulder press etc. Trust me, it was a little more challenging than just moving the cables forward and back and up and down. It really causes you to put your mind into the muscle and then the movement. Overall a really good session.

This morning I'm taking the day off. No, I"m not sore from yesterday. I am experiencing some lower back pain. It's been troubling me a little since last spring and is somewhat becoming more progressive. It's better when I'm up and walking around for a few minutes but when I sit down and get back up again it's really stiff. I may just need to give it a few days of rest and see if it improves.

I have a session with my trainer again on monday. This should be interesting. I've been making great strides on my own and I almost hate to waste a workout with the trainer. He talks too much.

GAH - I used to think I wanted to be a trainer when the kids got older but I am definitely reconsidering. There is a woman in where I workout on Thursdays and she whines non-stop. Excuses for what she did or didnt do since she saw her trainer last and then complaints about how heavy the weights are, how much she hates this particular exercise its not fair, on and on. "well I couldnt workout because" "I had to eat the dessert because"

I would pull a Jillian on a client like that which would probably not go over well. How do you gals deal with a client like that.

I think being a trainer would be fun but I've accidentally killed too many friends. I'd take them to the gym with me, load them up with weights and then they'd complain they couldn't walk the next day "oops". Yeah excuses would be tough to deal with plus the hours. I thought I'd like to do real estate because I love well real estate but the hours majorly suck.

I'm listening to a webcast from Tom Venuto right now, pretty cool. He'll have the link up on his website tomorrow for the replay. I almost missed it bc I didn't see the original email earlier this week, but luckily they sent a reminder tonite.

Hey all, just checking in. Still staying OP with the workouts and eating. Having fun with the workouts. I'll second the vote for combining the BFL thread and this one, because I just end up repeating myself.

I'm still reading the new Tom Venuto book. It's much more geared to the "average" person rather than hard core gym rats. I'm not sure it would be my solution if I were starting out. He's preaching moderation, moderation, moderation. I KNOW that doesn't work for me. I haven't gotten to "the plan" yet, or the ending emotional eating yet. Maybe there will be some nuggets of help there.

Being a trainer is like any other "people" job- you have some great clients and some that you really don't look forward to working with. But their time and money is just as important to them, so you give them all that you can. In my experience, the whiners either cease to be whiners when they start seeing results and "get it", or they cease to be clients because they don't get it and therefore don't see results. You can lead a horse to water....

I managed a whole dy clean yesterday I'm astounded my clothes still fit.

Cardio done, balance and core at the gym today.

Lydia- I sometimes take a break from nothing but free weights and do the free motion machines. I do like them. Do you have the free motion functional trainer? Except for legs, I can do entire workouts on that. I love it.

have a good one,
Mel

I do have access to that too. That was my plan for today. Just to go over the equipment again using the reminders he gave me. I'm taking the deadlifts and backsquats out of my program until the stiffness from my back releases. I will also focus a little more on back and abdominal exercises. I've kind of let these slip in the last few months and only hitting them a couple of times a week. Obviously not enough.

I really think a little rest is what I need. It feels much better this morning after giving it a little attention yesterday. Just one of those "better listen to your body and not your ego" kind of things.

Have a great morning everyone!

Morning, ladies! I have no idea who Tom Venuto is. I'll have to look that up when I have some free time. Going dog scootering with some friends this morning, along the Carbon River. I'm low on good groceries at the house, so I'm leaving early to pick up a banana and some other kind of survival food, to get me through lunch time. Mushers are junk food junkies, so I need to have a packed lunch. They are likely to want to stop by McDs after the run for a chat. I'm not tempted by the sodium burgers, but need to pack some food, because I will be hungry after running dogs. Wish me luck!