indoor training

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 12:21 pm

Tom suggested that someone post an indoor training tips article. I'm not exactly sure that I can do that since I'm looking for advice myself but here is what I do.

I go to a local gym that has a nice array of machines and free weights. I will usually do 3 sets of about 10 reps each on maybe 4 or 5 machines or else a couple of free weight sets on weights where I don't need a spotter. These will include pull downs (about 70 pounds), shoulder presses, the thing where you pull the weights parallel across your front (the fly), and one where you push straight out (the chess press). For free weights I will do either benches or separate weights in each hand lying flat on the bench and pushing up. For benches I do about 10 pounds on each side plus the bar. I used to do more on a bench press machine where you can hook the handles into the machine when you are done ... I could do 100 pounds on that but the free weights are much harder and I'm not comfortable lifting that thing over my head in case I drop it.

I've done the same thing for probably 7 years or similar sets of exercises and I never get any stronger. I don't really care since I don't want to be a lifter and I just do it for tone. When I'm done with the weights I will do a couple sets of ham string raises with weights (that's where you lie on your stomach and the weights are behind your ankles and you bend your knees and lift the weights). Oh, aren't these descriptions great? They also now have a machine where you sit upright and the pads go inside your knees and you squeeze in thus exercising your thighs. This one hurts.

When I'm done with all the weights I will do an aerobic workout, alternating days between the elliptical steppers and the bikes. I'll usually do a half hour on either. On some days I might do 45 minutes or even an hour but never more than that. On the stepper I can do about 5100 steps in a half hour (about 170 strides per minute) at an intermediate level of resistance. Usually my heart rate will be in the 150 range and I record that. On the bike, my standard is level 10 hill workout but sometimes I will do level 12 or a random workout. Once in a while to get a benchmark I do my 200 watts workout (see separate posting I did a few months ago) where the resistance is set constant. My heart rate will rise during that from the 150's up into the 160's and it's about all I can do for a half hour.

After I'm done with all this I will go into a separate exercise room where they have mats and I'll do some stretching and stomach crunches and yoga like movements. The whole workout takes maybe an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I avoid anything, like leg presses, that stresses the knees at all cause mine are terrible.

I find that this routine more or less keeps me constant in terms of aerobic fitness throughout the year. After over 4000 miles on the bike this summer for instance, my heart rate on the 200 watt workout was just about exactly the same as it was early this spring so I didn't get any fitter by riding. At least not in any way that was measurable on the exercise bike. I try to vary the workout to alleviate boredom as much as possible but there is only so much one can do.

In terms of improving this routine, I guess I could be more "scientific" about heart rate zones etc. but I do find that the hill workout gives me more or less of a good interval workout. And the stepper burns calories. Oh, one other thing I should mention, I found out years ago that if you do anything too much you run the risk of overuse injury. I was doing the stepper about an hour a day and not doing the bike at all and I came down with a pretty bad ankle injury that took months to heal; I was just pounding that one already weak joint too much.

That's my 2 cents.