pride or concern
I need a medical opinion, or an exercise trainer opinion, or something,
I went to the gym last night, and was amazed when I walked in the door. Not all, but a fair amount of the machines were replaced with brand spanking new equipment. Wooooo Hooooo!
Gone was my old stationary bike. Gone were the old treadmills. Gone was one of the two elliptical machines. To be honest, all of them needed to be replaced. The treadmills were occasionally out of order and occasionally wouldn't hold a constant speed. The old elliptical machine made a banging sound with every revolution and the stationary bike was pretty much on its last legs too...or mine.
In their place though, were these new things with more buttons than a universal remote, and functions I won't figure out for at least 6 months.
I jumped on the new elliptical machine and just tried to be simple. Just set it up to do 35 minutes. It asked for my age and weight (and I'm thinking...oooooh boy...the women are gonna hate this puppy) and sent me on my merry way. About 5 minutes later I get this scrolling message in capital letters...
HEART RATE HIGH
Well, ooookayyyy. Isn't that the idea? I figured out, looking at the display, which number it was talking about, and it was fluctuating, but mostly staying around 150. I thought...that doesn't look too high. I consciously slowed down a little. A little while later I saw the same message scroll across the screen. The number was back up around 150 and my pace had unconsciously increased back where it had been.
For the entire 35 minutes, I cycled through this pattern.
Then I did another 35 on the stationary bike and while the message scrolled across less frequently there (because I figured out how to increase/decrease the effort required to pedal, which I hadn't figured out on the elliptical and it was kicking my butt), it still made an appearance.
So the question/worry is...should I be happy I'm pushing the heart rate up there? I would think so, because that's one reason I'm there in the first place. I guess I ought to ask someone with some expertise in that arena. First I have to find that person.....
I went to the gym last night, and was amazed when I walked in the door. Not all, but a fair amount of the machines were replaced with brand spanking new equipment. Wooooo Hooooo!
Gone was my old stationary bike. Gone were the old treadmills. Gone was one of the two elliptical machines. To be honest, all of them needed to be replaced. The treadmills were occasionally out of order and occasionally wouldn't hold a constant speed. The old elliptical machine made a banging sound with every revolution and the stationary bike was pretty much on its last legs too...or mine.
In their place though, were these new things with more buttons than a universal remote, and functions I won't figure out for at least 6 months.
I jumped on the new elliptical machine and just tried to be simple. Just set it up to do 35 minutes. It asked for my age and weight (and I'm thinking...oooooh boy...the women are gonna hate this puppy) and sent me on my merry way. About 5 minutes later I get this scrolling message in capital letters...
HEART RATE HIGH
Well, ooookayyyy. Isn't that the idea? I figured out, looking at the display, which number it was talking about, and it was fluctuating, but mostly staying around 150. I thought...that doesn't look too high. I consciously slowed down a little. A little while later I saw the same message scroll across the screen. The number was back up around 150 and my pace had unconsciously increased back where it had been.
For the entire 35 minutes, I cycled through this pattern.
Then I did another 35 on the stationary bike and while the message scrolled across less frequently there (because I figured out how to increase/decrease the effort required to pedal, which I hadn't figured out on the elliptical and it was kicking my butt), it still made an appearance.
So the question/worry is...should I be happy I'm pushing the heart rate up there? I would think so, because that's one reason I'm there in the first place. I guess I ought to ask someone with some expertise in that arena. First I have to find that person.....
Labels: It's all about me
John put this out here at 7:21 AM
3 Comments:
I don't work out, so I have no idea! LOL
Are you concerned? You sound concerned...I wish I had some good advice but I don't!
Go to the yahoo Health section...they always give me excellent advice (I sometimes don't use)
Well, I have seen it up there on other equipment, and I was never concerned before. I was all proud of myself, thinking, 'not bad for an old fart.'
Then they got this cool new equipment, and after you enter your age and weight, it puts the heart rate number on the screen and this little bar chart graphical representation of where it thinks you should be, with a green section for what I suppose is 'ideal', and a red bar above that. I got concerned when that little bar was consistently in the very last part of the green, or in the red part of the bar. When I see my heart rate go into a red color on a bar chart, instinctively I'm thinking...that doesn't look good. At the same time, I'm thinking...isn't that why I'm here? 'Confused' I think is a better term for what I am than 'concerned' right now. If I hear from some expert that having that kind of heart rate ain't a good thing, I'll get more concerned.
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