Intensity, Intensity, Intensity

Updates: So far I’ve managed to keep my weight at a steady level while being unable to run last week. As long as I make a good effort of keep up the intensity of my stationary bike and elliptical machine workouts, I seem to be able to burn close to the same energy as running. I only say close because it doesn’t feel exactly the same. Even the elliptical trainer makes my ankles hurt when I start going faster because I still have to move the ankle joint. The only difference is there is no pounding against the ground so I can do interval training on the low impact machines.

Aggravating my injury has been happening too often in between brief recoveries. This is my new reality. The pain never really disappears and PTTD is progressive because it doesn’t heal, it just gets worse. With the poor balance caused by my ankle problems plus dizziness higher up in my head, I’m surprised I haven’t fallen yet.

As the elite men ran their last 7 miles in Boston on Monday, I started my own 7 miles from home. I wanted to watch the rest of the race while running on my treadmill but I was being considerate of my neighbor downstairs who would have complained of the pounding noise I was going to make. So I ran outdoors instead.

What a satisfying run/walk on Monday. I completed 7 miles in an hour and 10 minutes which was the same pace I ran 6 miles without walking in an hour last Saturday. This run/walk method is really something. I can still run with some intensity while saving my joints and sanity. 

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My Home Gym Is Complete

      After many years of accumulating exercise equipment at home, I can unequivocally say that my home gym is complete, even though it is missing weight stack machines. What I have is an array of aerobic specific equipment comprised of a treadmill, rowing machine, stairstepper, upright stationary bike, recumbent stationary bike, and the latest addition, an elliptical trainer. Those plus a couple of hundred pounds of free weights in the form of dumbbells and barbells, complete the home gym. I must not forget to mention the chin up/pull up bar attached to a door frame. The pursuit of fitness is not really a pursuit for me but rather a daily habit that needs to be completed. Since I have been unable to run every day for the last four years, I need the variety of workout machines to keep me engaged.

      In addition, what gym would be complete without a weighing scale? A few months ago when I thought the springs of my mechanical, round-dial type bathroom scale had worn out, I finally succumbed to technology and bought an electronic scale that measured weight, body fat percentage, and hydration level. How exactly that happens is hard to explain but has something to do with electrical impedance in which a very small amount of electrical current passes through your body while standing on the scale and your fat percentage and hydration levels are measured. Sounds like a good concept but which I find inaccurate. Case in point: pre-run, it indicates that my hydration level is 63.5%, then post-run when I’ve lost three pounds of fluids, the hydration level goes up about 1%. How can you lose fluids and gain hydration level? Another example: before running, my body fat percentage is show as 12.5%, and after running, 11.5%. Certainly I only lost fluid weight and not fat. I hope at least the weight measurement is accurate.

      So there you go, I have equipment for cardiovascular fitness and endurance, plus free weights for muscular strength and endurance. Flexibility is the only missing link to attain overall fitness. Two out of three ain’t bad.

      I know, I know… ain’t is not proper English.

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Trying Out The New Elliptical Machine

     I tested the new elliptical machine on Friday morning and for the first few minutes I could hardly believe how whisper quiet it was. My recumbent bike made more noise than the elliptical. However after about 15 minutes of continuous use, it started groaning, squeaking, and creaking but the noises would mysteriously disappear before another strange sound came up. The good thing is that the noise disappears eventually but replaced with another kind of noise. I hope it’s just the machine settling and redistributing its lubricants.

     I’ve only used an elliptical machine once before a few years ago when I walked past a gym and asked the owner if I can try it. He had me sign a waiver in case I got injured while using the machine. Now that I have one, I’m finding out how unnatural it is to move your arms and legs at the same time with the handlebars and the pedals. It was easier to just use the fixed handlebar. Another thing I found out is that it is difficult to read a newspaper while using the machine because of the up and down motion. Due to my poor balance I’m afraid to let go of the handlebar for fear of falling off. If I have to work out harder I’d have give up reading while on the machine. However, since the machine is quiet, it’s more feasible to watch TV or a movie without having to raise the volume too much.

     At the time of my first use, I still hadn’t figured out how to increase the tension of the pedals and it wasn’t until hours later when I read the instructions did I learn how to do that and the programmed workouts. The instructions itself wasn’t a very easy read because it was printed in China and you had to interpret in proper English what it was really saying. I’m sure some of your electronic items have instructions like that too. The machine has a manual setting, 12 pre-programmed workouts, and I think 2 user programmable workouts. It has the usual heart rate monitor, speed, distance, time, calories burned, plus two things I didn’t expect: a body mass index (BMI) calculator and body fat percentage calculator.

     Other than the squeaks, creaks, and groans of the machine which I hope is a part of the break-in process, I like all the functions that it has which appear to be similar to high end machines. And it mimics the running motion better than the stairmaster or stationary bike. If it gives me the same endorphin high that running does, so much the better. I tried out the new elliptical machine and lived to tell about it, so for now, two thumbs up!

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Space… The Final Frontier

Upon receiving my federal income tax refund on February 26^th, I earnestly embarked on a journey for the search for Spock. Oops, wrong journey. Let me regroup and rephrase: I searched the internet for a good deal on elliptical trainers (not the ellipses of heavenly bodies). The one I found with the features I wanted was on Overstock.com with a shipping price of $2.99. I searched Amazon.com for the same product and it was $20.00 lesser plus free shipping and no sales tax. I waited a couple of days for the government check to clear and by the time I checked Amazon again, the price of the elliptical trainer had gone up $20.00 more, with 5 left in stock. The initial price of the machine must have been that good that people were buying them quickly. Another economic theory in action: when the demand is high, the price goes high. I put in my order anyway and sent an email to customer service to see if they would roll back the price by $20.00. It was no go, but I think I still got a good deal with the free shipping and no sales tax. Why I didn’t consider looking at Amazon when I bought my treadmill last summer, I don’t know. I just stuck with Walmart after seeing the treadmill features and price I wanted.

Meanwhile, in my tiny corner of the cosmos, I’m concerned about space or lack thereof in my gym/living room. I’ve been trying to visualize how I can rearrange the rest of the exercise equipment so I can fit in the elliptical machine once it’s delivered and assembled. The only way I can make it work is to move aside the folding machines when not in use and pull them back out whenever I want to use them. That means the stairstepper and the rowing machine because the upright and recumbent bikes don’t fold, and even though the treadmill folds also, it’s too heavy to move around. Oh my, half of the living room will be a maze of cranks, levers, cylinders, gears, belts, and pedals. If I had a wife, she’d probably put me in the garage and leave the exercise equipment alone. Good thing I live by myself.

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Salvaging My Old Stationary Bike

I’ve had this upright stationary bike so many years and ever since I assembled it, the tension adjustment never really worked well and you can hear a clicking noise when you pedal. It has 8 levels of tension and even at its tightest it still feels relatively easy and not adequate to do stand up pedaling. That’s the reason why I haven’t been using it very often and opting for the recumbent bike instead.

I decided that the next time I had a few days off, I was going to try to find the problem and fix it. Already suspecting it had something to do with the cable, that’s where I looked first. Manipulating the top part of the cable near the adjustment knob didn’t solve the problem so I went farther down. This entailed disassembling the housing of the pedals. I encountered another problem when I tried to remove them because the screws were either too tight or already stripped. For some of the screws that I couldn’t remove, I ended up using brute force to break and peel the plastic housing apart. So I was now into the heart of the whole system, found the source of the cable, twisted a couple of nuts this way and that, but to no avail. All I could do was tighten the cable in a way not it was meant to be assembled. But it worked! Having broken the plastic housing, I just threw them away and the bike actually looks better without them. It looks more like a spinning bike now except that the handlebars are higher. Nevertheless the tension adjustment is tighter now, the clicking sound has disappeared, it's the quietest machine I have at home, and I got a better workout afterwards. With a series of what ifs (what if I do this, what if I try doing it that way), I managed to salvage an old bike and spared myself the expense of getting a replacement. I still want an elliptical machine though…

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