A surprise Friday edition of my workout updates. Instead of going to the bar for a beer or 10, I decided to go to the gym instead and try to lose some weight.
Today was a cardio day. No weights, no lunges, no wall sits, no bosu balls, none of that at all. Today was just the elliptical. If you think it was easy, think again.
In order to do this right, I had to find a target heart rate to workout at. Because I am just starting my cardio work, we decided that 75% of my theoretical maximum would be a good point. I also know that the formula of 220-age is not a good one to use, so Karissa found a different calculation for me that takes into account reserve heart rate. The formula is (220-age-resting heart rate)*target heart rate (as a percentage of max)+resting heart rate. For me this came to be (220-41-80)*.75+80 = 154 bpm.
So for 45 minutes, I maintained a heart rate of 154 bpm and then had a 5 minute cool down to get the heart rate to come down to a more reasonable rate (it got to 128 by the time my cool down was done).
I was going along just fine for the first bit but then the legs started to go wobbly. There were a few times that I was thankful I was holding on to the handles as well as I almost went down. The last 5 minutes were a struggle to get through, but I did. I was able to get through the entire 45 minutes and felt good when I was done.
The thing I like most about cardio is the way my lungs feel when I'm done. It feels like I get a lot more oxygen in for the next few hours. Probably my imagination, but it's how I feel.
Anyway, I plan on adding 2 cardio days to my workout so expect extra updates.
See you Tuesday.
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