The absolute best way to make 10 minutes seem like an eternity is to hop on a stairclimber and bump the level up to 7 and go as hard and fast as you can. I thought I was gonna fall off the thing.
I had a realization tonight. I’m kinda at a standstill with the weight this week. I haven’t lost anything so far. I don’t feel like I’m doing much either. So, I was sitting there thinking today…. I just don’t understand why I’m not getting the same results. I’m doing the same thing….
Then it hit me…. I’m doing the same thing! The reason I had such good results in the beginning was that I was out of my comfort zone. I was working harder than I have ever worked before. I’ve started getting comfortable at the gym, not pushing myself as hard, even though I’m doing more now than I was when I first started. But I don’t leave feeling nauseated. I don’t get to the point in my workouts where my feet go numb and I can’t breathe and my chest hurts. So I’m thinking that I need to bump up the intensity a little bit. Hence my all out rage on the stair climber.
I started with 30 minutes on the elliptical. I stayed steady at a moderate intensity for the first 15 minutes, then did HIIT for 10 and cooled for 5. It was pretty tough. My legs were all rubbery and I was tired, but I didn’t have that feeling like I had pushed myself to the limit. So I went to the stairclimber. I hopped on it and promptly bumped the level up to a 7. I have always done it on a 1 in the past, up to 3 on a couple of occasions.
About 2 minutes into it, my heart rate was 167. My legs fatigued and my chest started hurting. Then the nausea came. So I pushed a little harder. Heart rate 173. Managed to keep it like this for another 7 minutes, then slowed down a bit and had a 5 minute cool down. It was, I swear, the longest 10 minutes of my life.
So, I feel better. I feel like I accomplished something tonight. I’ve read about how bodybuilders have the progressive overload. I’m doing this somewhat by increasing my weights and/or reps in each strength training session. So I thought that I should apply it to cardio.
If you do something for a while, your body gets used to it. Losing weight is forcing your body to do something that it’s not built to do. In order to do it successfully, you have to push yourself to the limit every single time you work out. Energy conversion is a powerful thing. To force your body to dip into its fat stores and burn it for energy, you have to supply a greater amount of energy. By progression, hopefully I’ll be able to see the same results. If a few weeks go by and still nothing is happening, I’ll re-work the plan.
Another problem is that I’ve dropped back down on my calories. It’s so hard to eat that much in a single day! Well, it’s hard to eat that much when I’m eating the right kinds of foods. It was easy when I ate a bunch of junk and fast food all day. I really have to work on the nutrition part of it a little more. I’m still getting way too much fat in daily. I do ok most days, but if I ever have almonds or something for a snack, it’s over. The plan now is to find some more meals/snacks that have a lower fat content.
…. and back to the drawing board I go.
No comments:
Post a Comment