Muscle Max

Ahhh, Monday. I somehow managed to do a pretty tough workout this morning. Mondays are usually pretty rough - getting up so early after sleeping in over the weekend is hard to do. But I managed. And I did Muscle Max this morning, which is a strictly strength training workout using moderate to heavy weights. My weights were pretty moderate! Cathe and her crew were doing barbell squats with 40 lbs. I was doing dumbbell squats with 20 lbs. They were doing straight-leg push-ups. I was doing bent-knee pushups. They were using a 40 lb barbell for biceps curls. I was using two 10 lb dumbbells. And believe me, I was feelin' it. I'm pretty sure my legs have turned completely to jello now. Hopefully I'll be able to walk again soon because I think eventually I might need to get up and go to the bathroom. :-)

Workout: Muscle Max (Timesaver Pre-mix)
Duration: 57 min
Kcal / %Fat: 369 / 40%
Max HR% / Avg HR%: 92% / 76%
Time in Moderate Zone: 24:36

So, even though this was technically a strength training workout, I did get some aerobic benefit from this. The lower body moves (squats, lunges, plies, and leg press) really get your blood pumpin' because the leg muscles are so large. If I can ever do a set of squats with 40 lbs on my shoulders, I will be truly amazed. And these aren't just your basic, everyday, up-and-down squats. Noooo, these are "fancy" squats, with lots of low-end reps (where you pulse at the bottom of the squat for 7 counts, 15 counts, or however long she feels like torturing you). It BURNS! So after a few sets of squats and lunges, she wanted me to do leg press with a resistance band. Yeah right! My legs went on strike at that point. With that said, this really was a great total-body strength training workout. I am sure I'll be feeling it tomorrow. Or maybe even later today.

I learned something new about my HRM. There is a diary feature, which keeps track of totals for each week. I think. LOL! Well, here's what it says for the week ending April 10 (that's yesterday, so this would be Monday April 4 - Sunday April 10, I think):

Number of Workouts: 6
Total Exercise Time: 4:36:39
Total Calories Burned: 1795
Total Time in Light HR Zone (60-70% of max): 1:15:06
Total Time in Moderate HR Zone (70-80% of max): 1:44:55
Total Time in Hard HR Zone (80-90% of max): 1:35:58

This is cool - it's good to know how long I was in each zone. I think I can set it up so I can get this information for every workout, but I need to play with it some more.

I'm expecting some new Cathe step workouts, which I hope I get today so I can do one tomorrow morning. I will need to do cardio tomorrow, since all my muscles have been fatigued today and need to rest 48 hours before strength training again. One goal I have for myself is to come up with my own exercise video rotation plan - I'd like to do a 1-month plan, with 3 weeks of working out pretty hard (both strength and cardio), and then the 4th week is a "rest" week, doing more yoga, and lighter cardio. Then start over again. So one of these days I'll get around to that... :-)