Todays Workout - First Day of Spring

Wow!! I don't recall a spring this springy ever before!! I mean, 20 Celsius temperatures in mid-March?!? Not complaining, nope, not at all. In keeping with the turn to spring, tomorrow I will present an article about exercise outside of the gym.

Today, I will update you on my current workout routine. This week, I changed up my routine once again. Upon entering the gym, I spend 10 mins on the elliptical. Then I switch over to the treadmill. On the elliptical, my wonderful, patient BF explained to me the proper use of the settings. So now, I set my 10 min elliptical session to a "fat burn" setting. The computer asks you your weight, age and asks you to set the level (fat burn) and the duration (10 mins) The only thing I don't like is that its constantly asking you to check your heart rate. The reason for this is because the computer calculates what your heart rate should be at to achieve the maximum fat burn by using your age and weight. My optimal heart rate for a fat burn workout is 114 beats per minute. It seems a but slow to me, I was used to the overzealous pace I had set for myself previously.    

On the treadmill, I now start off with a 20 min fat burn session, inputting the requested information into the readout. After that, I switch over to a 20 min cardio session. I discovered my optimal heart rate for this is 140 beats per minute. I was able to make it thru the 20 minute cardio session yesterday. Today I didn't. No big deal. I will try again tomorrow. Never beat yourself up because you fail to perform up to some standard you've put out there for yourself. I mean, who is gonna know??? We are all, waaaay tooo hard on ourselves most of the time.

I finished off my workout with 15 mins on various weight machines; arms and legs. And of course, ended with my 10 min stretch.

I will keep this routine for a couple weeks now. Then change it up again. Most advice I've heard and read says you should change up your exercise routine every 3 weeks. The reason being, your body gets used to certain stresses (exercise) and will adjust over time, thus decreasing the actual results you will get from the workout. (weight loss, muscle build, toning etc)

Until tomorrow; don't sweat the small stuff!!