exercise

October & November 2014 Exercise Results

Now that we’re into December (and the Christmas shopping season, in case you haven’t noticed), it’s time to look back and see the exercise results from the previous month.

As you can guess by the title of this article, this time we’re looking back at both October and November.  I never got around to making the article for October, and by the time I actually started caring (yeah, yeah), it was the end of November.

Anyway, neither October or November was that great.  In October I was distracted by a couple cases of sickness, and at the end of the month my wife and I were out of town on vacation.  The start of November saw one more illness (this has to be a record for getting sick so many times within a couple of months) and then very busy times during the week of Thanksgiving.  In addition to that, my car needed to be towed to the repair shop so that I could get a new fuel pump installed.  🙁

October of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 6 sessions; ~ 45 minutes each

– 278 minutes (4.63 hours)

– 58.6 miles

– 2,932 calories

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 5 sessions; ~ 45 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 500 Read more…

September 2014 Exercise Results

Now that we’re into October, one of my favorite months of the year, it’s time to take a look and see my exercise results for September.

Sadly, September of 2014 was one of my worst exercising periods in over a year.  I only exercised for FOUR days during the entire month.  However, I do have a note from my doctor allowing me a break from exercising.

During the first two weeks I had a nasty sinus infection.  After that my wife and I were in central Florida for a week.  I didn’t keep track of any numbers, but each day in Florida I easily walked 6-8 miles.  After we returned from Florida, so did my sinus infection.  I spent the last days of September back on antibiotics and trying to get over this issue.

Anyway, as of right now I’m still taking the last few days’ worth of pills.  This means that my exercising for the month of October will be a little bit lower than the other months.  Plus, my wife and I will be out of town again for a week.

September of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 4 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 180 minutes (3 hours)

– 40.5 miles

– 2,026 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.4 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 1 session; ~ 90 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 250

Again, September of 2014 was terrible for my exercising program.  October will be better, but it probably won’t be until November when I’ll have another great month with my exercise program.

August 2014 Exercise Results

Another month has passed, so it’s time to go back and take a look at my exercise results.

Early in the month I had to visit my doctor for some blood work.  It’s nothing really, more of a formality for our health insurance company to give us a lower rate for being what they consider to be “healthy.”  For the most part my test results came back fine, but I do need to work more cardio exercise into my workout routine.  I should also cut back on the soft drinks and find an alternate beverage.

Grrrrr.

Sodas are my guilty pleasure.  I’m still going to drink them, but I’m drastically cutting back on how much of it that I drink on a weekly basis.

Anyway, I changed my workout routine so that I’m focusing more on using my exercise bike each week.  After each bike session I’m then doing basically half of what I would normally do with my strength training equipment.  I’m also doing my solo sessions with the strength machine, but now it’s a ratio of two cardio days to one strength training day.

So far this new workout routine seems to be working rather well.  The only downside is that my total number of sit-ups has dropped for the month (on my strength training days I do a total of 200 sit-ups, and only 100 for my cardio days).  What I might do is add 50 more sit-ups on my cardio days.  We’ll see how that goes.

August of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 9 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 405 minutes (6.75 hours)

– 91.9 miles

– 4,599 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.6 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 8 sessions; ~ 30 or 90 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 1,700

The new exercise numbers aren’t terrible.  Hell, I had the same number of cardio sessions as in July, and my total number of miles peddled and estimated calories burned slightly increased.  So far the only downside is that because of the reduction in strength training days, my total number of sit-ups decreased by over a thousand for the month.  Again, that’s one of the reasons why I’m going to be increasing my number of sit-ups on the cardio days.

Now it’s on to September.  Unfortunately, I’m already in the negative as I caught a cold at the end of August.  It’s still lingering in my system and throwing off my exercising.  On top of that, for one of the weeks this month my wife and I will be away on vacation.

If I’m going to have anything resembling decent workout numbers for this month, then I’m going to have to really push myself.

July 2014 Exercise Results

Now that we’re in August and everybody is heading back to school, let’s go back and take a look at my exercise results from July.

Throughout the month of July, I established a regular pattern of doing my exercises.  My exercising was not at its maximum potential though as each week I had ended up having three days off, two of those always on my wife’s days off of work.  For some reason it worked out where I didn’t exercise almost the same exact days each week.

Oh well.

Despite having three days off each week, I still beat my exercise numbers from last month.

July of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 9 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 405 minutes (6.75 hours)

– 90.8 miles

– 4,545 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.2 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 10 sessions; ~ 90 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 2,900

July of 2014 was a great month for exercising.  Let’s see if I can improve those numbers in August.

Stretchkins (Stretching Kids’ Toy) – A Marketing Review

It’s another day in the summer and your kids are yet again sitting on the couch and playing video games.

As they periodically pause the game and grab a handful of potato chips and wash it down with another gulp of soda (followed by the traditional belch), you can only wonder how your precious little snowflakes transformed into couch warriors.  It wasn’t long ago that they used to enjoy playing outside in the sunshine, enjoying each day to the fullest extent possible.  Now that they’ve piled on the pounds of fat, and merely picking them up and giving them a hug has a good chance of straining your back.

Is there any way to get your fat kids off the couch and get them to exercise, or at least move their arm and leg muscles more than their bowels?

Stretchkins website — www.Stretchkins.com

What’s this?  Stretchkins?  A toy that can help get those lazy kids off the couch and to dance around and exercise?

an older Stretchkins TV commercial

Is it true?  Is there a faint glimmer of hope that an item can get the kids off the couch and to jump around and play, for at least a few minutes?

Perhaps there really is some hope for America’s future.  This almost sounds too good to be true.  Let’s take a closer look and review the advertising for the Stretchkins and try to see if this really is a useful product, or if it’s more of a scam.  We’ll be examining the commercial that plays on the Stretchkins’ website, and NOT the YouTube video.

Stretchkins TV commercial – It’s Stretchkins time!

The TV commercial for Stretchkins begins with a call to action by a woman telling kids that it’s Stretckins time.  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  I can hardly contain my excitement knowing that it’s now Stretchkins time!  I certainly hope that the product can live up to all of this hype about “Stretchkins time.” Read more…

June 2014 Exercise Results

Another month has passed, and now it’s time to look back and see the exercise results.

I’m going to rank June of 2014 as a so-so month for my exercise program.  During that month I only exercised for fourteen of the thirty days, leaving sixteen days of no exercising.  I do have a pretty good excuse though for having so many days off during the first half of the month.  My fiancée and I got married.

Marriage?  Really?

Yep.

Yes, part of the wedding date is intentionally blurred. No, I really didn’t wear a Hawaiian shirt during the ceremony. This photo was actually taken the following day at a picture studio.

There was a small ceremony in which my fiancée and I were married.  We’ve been living together for a couple of years now and finally made everything official.  We’ll take a honeymoon sometime this fall.

So, yes, with the wedding ceremony and other events surrounding it, I really wasn’t in the mood to be working on my exercise routine.  I tried to make up for it in the second half of June, but I ran out of days to make the exercise numbers look a little bit better.  Remember that with my newer version of the exercise program I’m alternating using the exercise bike and the strength machine, so to add another session to both machines requires two days on the calendar.

Anyway, here are my numbers for June of 2014.  The results aren’t terrible, but they’re also not as good as May of 2014.

June of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 7 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 315 minutes (5.25 hours)

– 70.9 miles

– 3,551 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.2 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 7 sessions; ~ 90 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 2,100

All of these numbers WILL improve for the month of July.

May 2014 Exercise Results

I think that I’ve found a winning exercise routine.

Remember last month when I was planning on doing my cardio and strength exercises every other day?

I used that strategy for the entire month of May.  On one day I used my strength training machine, and the next day I used my exercise bike.  This wasn’t exclusive though.  On my cardio days I also did a minimum of a hundred sit-ups and *some* strength training as well.  It’s not the full strength routine but rather a limited set of a few exercises.

One of the plans of splitting my exercises was to keep the exercising each day to around an hour.  In reality it’s still taking me about 70-90 minutes to exercise each day.  I can speed up this process by a little bit, but as long as this time is not exceeded, then it’s still okay with me.  This is still better than the over two hours it took to do my previous exercise routine.

As a result, these exercise numbers for May of 2014 are some of my best numbers yet after about a year of exercising.  The next goal is to reduce my number of off days . . .

May of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 10 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 405 minutes (6.75 hours)

– 90.3 miles

– 4,521 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.2 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 10 sessions; ~ 90 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 2,875

There we go.

May of 2014 was a great month for exercising.  Now it’s onward to June!

April 2014 Exercise Results

With the conclusion of another month it’s time to look at my exercise program.

While March of 2014 had some good results, the same is not true for April.  It turns out that April of 2014 was one of my weaker months.  I was only on my exercise bike four times, and only used my strength training machine eleven times.

How did this happen?

The first few days of the month were strong and I was doing several strength and cardio sessions.  I knew that the strength part was going to be needed as my friends were undertaking an outdoor project involving a lot of concrete.  The project ended up requiring lifting and moving 80-pound bags of concrete as well as mixing it with water.  There was a slight glitch in the estimated amount of concrete that was going to be needed, and as a result the project required more manual labor and time to complete.

Using a shovel to help mix some concrete.

We spent all day outside and finished the project, but my muscles were almost dead for the next couple of days.  Throw in some sunburns and general aches from the work.  After working outside I didn’t want to touch my workout machine for several days.

Also in the month of April we had a special event to attend, there was Easter, my fiancée and her mother and I went to the Georgia Renaissance Festival, and I’ve been working hard on my websites as well as teaching myself new (to me) computer languages.  It’s been a very busy month with events happening each weekend.

As it was mentioned, I found the time to use my strength training machine a total of eleven times this month, but only four times on my exercise bike.  I believe the root problem is that I simply don’t want to spend two or three hours each day doing all of the exercising.  While it’s a great workout doing both the cardio and full strength routine in a single, massive workout session, I simply don’t have the time for it on most days.

Right now I’d rather continue building my muscles than work on my cardio.  It’s more tempting to use my strength training machine for several sessions than to sit on the exercise bike and ride it for 45 minutes.  Another factor to consider is that it’s easier to lose weight by going on a lengthy bike ride rather that doing strength training exercises.

Despite my rather unimpressive exercise number, I did beat my number of sit-ups by just shy of three hundred sit-ups.  In March I had thirteen exercise sessions and did a total of 1,760 sit-ups.  In the month of April I had two fewer sessions but increased my number of sit-ups to 2,140.

April of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 4 sessions; 45 minutes each

– 180 minutes (3 hours)

– 40.4 miles

– 2,020 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.2 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 11 sessions; ~ 60 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 2,140

My plan for the month of May is to alternate the days for strength training and cardio.  One day I’ll do my full routine with the strength training machine, and the next day I’ll use my exercise bike.  The goals here are to keep workout sessions to around an hour each day, and also continue to improve my fitness with both cardio and strength training.

Now it’s just a matter of having the discipline to stick with this routine.

March 2014 Exercise Results

The month of March has concluded and my exercise program is still going strong.

This time around it felt a little bit harder to ride my exercise bike.  I didn’t use it for as many sessions as I probably should have, and some of those sessions were for only 30 minutes instead of the usual 45-minute sessions.

While the exercise bike felt like it wasn’t up to par, the strength training machine has been going great.  I still haven’t fully upgraded to the next level of resistance, but this month I added a third set of exercises.  I also increased my total number of sit-ups for each day of exercise.

March of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio):

– 11 sessions; 30 or 45 minutes each

– 450 minutes (7.5 hours)

– 103.4 miles

– 5,187 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.6 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 13 sessions; ~ 60 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 1,760

March of 2014 was a good month of exercising for me.  It wasn’t great, but it was still a good month.  My goal is to kick the exercising up a notch for the month of April.  I might even throw in a little dieting as well to shed some of these extra pounds.

February 2014 Exercise Results

Here we are in March and some early Spring weather has just arrived.  We were in the upper 60s today with abundant sunshine.

Of course, this is just temporary as tonight a cold front is bringing yet another wave of cold weather down south.  We don’t have any snow or ice in our forecast for metro Atlanta, but the mere thought of more cold weather is really annoying the people down here.

This makes me wonder if the gyms and workout centers see any decrease in activity whenever the cold and miserable weather arrives.  That’s one of the huge benefits for having a home workout center, even it’s just a couple of basic machines.

Unfortunately, having home exercise machines doesn’t do much good when one comes down with a cold, especially a rather annoying one.  My cold arrived just as we were hit with a second wave of winter weather a couple of weeks ago.  As the snow and ice hit and people were having fun playing outside, I was sick in bed.

The exercising that I did in the month of February wasn’t nearly as productive as my results from the previous month.  My cold was a bit stubborn and I lost almost two weeks of not exercising.  Basically, I only had two weeks of exercising that month.

February of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 8 sessions

– 345 minutes (5.75 hours)

– 78.5 miles

– 3,933 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.5 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 9 sessions; ~ 40 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 980

February wasn’t a terrible month for me, but it wasn’t anything really worth noting, either.  It’s time to put it behind and move onward to March, a month with 31 days (opportunities) to continue my exercise program.

January 2014 Exercise Results

January of 2014 was a busy month.

In addition to getting back into the work and workout routine that was disrupted by the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we also had some really cold weather that struck the country.  Earlier this week we had a couple inches of snow along with some ice here in metro Atlanta.

That’s one of the reasons why I absolutely love having workout equipment here at my house.  No matter how cold or nasty the weather is outside, I can still use my machines and exercise on a regular basis.  Plus there aren’t any membership fees, no waiting for machines during busy hours, and it’s extremely convenient.  The only trick is to not have the exercise bike or strength training machine become a coat rack.

Anyway, despite a couple of hiccups this month, I’ve done a good job with sticking to my exercise program.  My program has been enhanced with a sit-up routine, and now I’m drinking a post-exercise protein shake to further help my body develop.

I’m on the edge of increasing to the next level on my strength machine.  My routine with that machine is to do a set of exercises (10 different exercises) at the first level, and then the second set at the next level (more resistance).  At the end of the second set I’ll repeat a few of the exercises in a burnout period until my arms are dead.

January of 2014 exercise results:

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 12 sessions

– 525 minutes (8.75 hours)

– 118.7 miles

– 5,946 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.5 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 12 sessions; ~ 40 minutes each

Total number of sit-ups:

– 1,350

As a whole, this was a great month with my workout routine.  Hopefully next month I’ll upgrade to doing all of my strength exercises at the next level, and not just half of them.  I’m not rushing it though as, A) I don’t want to injure myself, and B) I’m still getting a great workout.

Now it’s onward to February.  Despite February being a few days shorter than the month of January, I’ll still try to match or exceed my exercise totals from this month.

December 2013 Exercise Results

Welcome to 2014.

I know that I’m not the only person to say good riddance to 2013.  Most of that year was pretty lousy for myself and my family.

Anyway, here we are in January, so let’s take a quick look at my exercise results for the previous month.

The month of December is busy with Christmas and everything else that takes place in that month.  There are plenty of distractions and reasons not to exercise.  Sadly, I gave in to some of the distractions.  I didn’t have a terrible month exercising, but I could have still done a little bit better.

December of 2013 exercise totals:

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 8 sessions

– 315 minutes (5.25 hours)

– 73.6 miles

– 3,689 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.8 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 12 sessions; ~ 40 minutes each

Towards the end of December I “leveled up” with my strength training machine and have been working myself at the next level.

I’ve also been keeping track of the number of sit-ups that I do when exercising.  Since I haven’t kept track of it for the entire month, I have not added those numbers to the other totals.  However, the number of sit-ups will be part of my totals starting in January.  It’s one more element that I can track and continue to measure my progress with getting in shape and growing my muscles.

Otherwise, my numbers for December really aren’t that impressive.  It’s certainly better than what I did in November, but I still feel like I should have been working out at least a few more days last month.

Both of my exercise machines are still working great.  My exercises for the month of January have already started out strong.  I just need to stay focused and keep pushing myself towards my goals.

New Year’s Resolutions – Are They Worth It?

It’s still wildly popular for people to make a listing of their goals / resolutions for the new year.

But is this custom really just setting people up for failure?

Most of us aren’t perfect, and there are parts in life that we can control and we can do something about it.  As the month of December winds to a close and the new year approaches, many people will make a listing of goals that they want to accomplish in the new year.  Some of the more common resolutions include:

– Exercising more & losing weight.

– Quit smoking / drinking / drugs / other bad habits.

– Learning a new skill.

– Spending more time with family and loved ones.

– Going back to school.

– Finding a better job.

– Developing a long-term relationship.

You name it and somebody out there probably has made a similar resolution.  But in the end, does it really accomplish anything by waiting until the new year?

Accomplishing a resolution all comes down to willpower and personal motivation.  If you have to wait until a new year to force yourself outside of your comfort zone to conquer some personal issues, then you’re going to be facing a lot of trouble.  The desire to slack off and eventually give up your goal will be right there in your face, taunting you, urging you to quit working so hard.

That evil temptation is a huge reason why many people fail at keeping their resolutions. Read more…

November 2013 Exercise Results

It’s December.

The weather has been growing steadily cooler, the regular season for college football is nearly finished, and the Christmas shopping season is well under way.  Hell, Santa has already been in the shopping malls for a month already, if you can believe that.

Anyway, we’re here to take a look at my workout results for the month of November.

I won’t lie to you.  My workouts sucked last month.  I feel that I let myself down with a lack of better fitness results.

My November started with being out of town for the first week of the month.  My fiancée and I were at her condo in the North Georgia mountains.  The end of November involved my fiancée’s birthday along with the Thanksgiving holiday.

For me, vacations, birthdays and holidays are quite stressful occasions.  Not that it’s bad being with relatives and future in-laws.  No, not at all.  There’s just something else about those days on the calendar that make me very worrisome and anxious.  When those days approach, I tend to work out less often that I normally would.  My other work also somewhat suffers.

These aren’t excuses for my poor workout performance.  It’s just something that happens to me during certain parts of the year.  Unfortunately, the biggest of all holidays is just over three weeks away . . .

November of 2013 exercise totals:

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 4 sessions

– 180 minutes (3 hours)

– 39.8 miles

– 1,996 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.3 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 3 sessions; ~ 40 minutes each

That’s it.

I’ve already started to exercise in December.  At the very least I’ll double my results from November.

October 2013 Exercise Results

The month of October has passed rather quickly (as it normally does), and now we’re into November and the approach of Thanksgiving.

As it was mentioned in the previous exercise update, the month of September was rather pitiful for my exercise program.  My girlfriend (actually my fiancee) and I were out of town for a week, and the next couple of weeks after that I was very busy.  As a result I didn’t achieve the results on my exercise machines that I originally desired.

But in October I tried to make up for that.

For the first few weeks of the month I used my exercise bike and strength training machine on a regular basis.  This continued until the end of the month when we prepared for another week out of town.  Unfortunately, at that point in time we were hit by a very unwelcome surprise — a massive car repair bill.  One of our vehicles needed a new torque converter in the transmission, and that ended up costing waaaaay too much money ($2,400 for parts and labor at the Good Ol’ Boys Transmission Repair Shop).

Anyway, here are the numbers for my exercises in the month of October.

October of 2013 exercise totals:

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 12 sessions:

– 510 minutes (8.5 hours)

– 115.8 miles

– 5,806 calories

– furthest distance during a 45-minute bike ride – 10.7 miles

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 8 sessions; ~ 30 minutes each

Obviously this is a huge gain versus the exercising that I did in September.  These numbers are more on par with the exercising that I was doing back in July and August.

Exercising in November will be a little bit trickier as we’ll be away for a week starting on November 2nd.  Throw in the Thanksgiving holiday plus whatever else is waiting for us this month, and the final numbers may not be that great.  It’ll still be better than the month of September, but it won’t be on par with October or my better months.  The key thing here is that I’ll still be continuing with my exercise program, even if it’s only a minimal gain.  It’s still progress towards the ultimate goal of living a healthier and more active lifestyle.

September 2013 Exercise Results

Now that we’re in October, it’s time to take a look back at my exercise results from the month of September.

I’ll admit that last month I didn’t try to exercise nearly as hard as I did in the month of August.  The results on paper look pitiful.  Not that I’m making any excuses for myself, but there are a couple of reasons for my poor exercise performance last month.

First of all, the days between the tenth and fifteenth of September are sacred to me because of what happened three years ago.  Second, I was out of town from the fourteenth to the twenty-first, so no exercising on the machines during that week.  And third, immediately after returning I was incredibly busy with work.  I only did one workout session between the week of vacation and the end of the month.

September of 2013 exercise totals:

The one workout highlight during this month was my new personal distance record during a 45-minute bike ride.  On one day I reached 10.8 miles, and in the following exercise session I reached that distance again.  My previous record was 10.7 miles, and that was reached in August of 2013.

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 4 sessions:

– 165 minutes (2.75 hours)

– 39.3 miles

– 1,971 calories burned

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 2 sessions; ~ 20 minutes each

However, I also walked between 55 and 60 miles total while on vacation in Florida.  How do I know I actually walked that far?  Easy.  My dad’s ECV has an odometer and we kept track of his mileage each day.  It wasn’t exact and there were some discrepancies over the seven days of walking and theme park action, but the 55-60 mile estimate is going to be pretty close to the total amount of walking.

Oh, and I’m now engaged to my girlfriend.  I asked her to marry me while we were down in Florida.  It’s all detailed in the trip report if you’re curious about how it happened.

Anyway, now we’re in October and I’m determined to exercise hard and get back on track for getting into shape.  At least there are plenty of horror films to watch while using my exercise bike.  😉

August 2013 Exercise Results

Another month has passed and I’ve been continuing with my workout routine.

My workout equipment consists of an exercise bike along with a Total Bodyworks 5000 strength training machine.  Normally I’ll use both machines for several days in a row and then take a day or two off as a break.  I need to slightly change my routine to allow for more frequent breaks to allow my muscles to recover, but I tend to time my breaks to be on my girlfriend’s days off of work.

Anyway, I didn’t hit the number of sessions in August that I would have preferred.  On some days I was just tired, and on others I wasn’t feeling well.  I don’t like making excuses though when it comes to not fulfilling my personal goals of sticking with an exercise program.

The good news is that my averages have increased from the previous two months, and I’m still getting great workouts.

August of 2013 exercise totals:

In the month of August I set a new personal distance record for my 45-minute bike ride.  In July of 2013 my record was 10.6 miles in 45 minutes, and in August I reached 10.7 miles in the same period of time.  It’s a small increase but it’s still a new personal record.

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 12 sessions:

– 495 minutes (8.25 hours)

– 115.8 miles

– 5,810 calories burned

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 10 sessions; ~ 20 minutes each

When riding my exercise bike, my average time was 41.25 minutes, a distance of 9.65 miles, and it burned an average of 484.2 calories.  The main reason why my averages are so much higher compared to the month of July is that I had more 45-minute workout sessions in August.  The month of July had more of the shorter, 30-minute sessions, hence the lower average numbers.

We’re in September now and it’s time to continue with this workout program.

Let’s get going!

July 2013 Exercise Results

Another month has passed and I’ve been successfully sticking with my exercise program.

As it’s been mentioned in previous articles, I use an exercise bike along with a strength training machine, the Total Bodyworks 5000.  Normally I’ll workout for two or three days in a row and then take a day off to recover.

The catch this month is that I had an eleven day period where I only had one workout.  My girlfriend was dealing with a crippling medical condition that required a minor surgery.  The good part is that she’s doing much better now and is more like her normal self.

July of 2013 exercise totals:

It turns out that despite the break from exercising when I was taking care of my girlfriend, I used my exercise bike the same number of times as last month.  The main differences are that I had more shorter rides of 25-30 minutes, but I was riding at a faster pace and breaking my personal distance records.

In July of 2013 I set three personal distance records when riding for 45 minutes.  Right now my record stands at riding a distance of 10.6 miles in 45 minutes.

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 13 sessions:

– 483 minutes

– 105 miles

– 5,267 calories burned

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 10 sessions; ~ 20 minutes each

In June of 2013 my average bike ride was 41 minutes long, reached 7.6 miles and burned an estimated 385 calories.  In July my average bike ride was only 37 minutes, but I rode for 8.1 miles and burned and estimated 405 calories.  It’s clear how continual exercise can improve a person’s fitness, even over the period of two months.

We’re in a new month now, so it’s off to exercise I go!

June 2013 Exercise Results

In the beginning of June I wrote an article detailing my exercise plans.

Since that article’s publishing we have donated our old treadmill to a charitable organization, and I purchased and assembled my new exercise bike.  My new bike is the Exerpeutic Space Saver Magnetic Upright Exercise Bike with Heart Pulse Sensors (yeah, that’s really the name of the exercise bike).

The exercise bike was fairly easy to assemble, it’s easy to fold it for better storage, and it’s pretty fun to ride.  Best of all, the exercise bike is extremely quiet!  Now I don’t have to crank the volume on my television set when exercising, unlike when I was using that loud and clunky treadmill.

The easiness of folding and storing the exercise bike makes it significantly faster to move the bike out of the way to clear floor space for my other exercise machine, my Total Bodyworks 5000 machine.  Right now both of my machines are folded and standing upright next to each other.  Both of those machines are great space savers for those of us without a dedicated exercise room.

I’ve been using the exercise bike for a month now, and for the most part it’s a fantastic cardio exercise machine.  Considering that it was only $124 plus tax, it’s hard to beat that price for an exercise bike.

There are just two minor issues that I’ve encountered with this particular exercise bike.  First of all, even with the seat in its lowest setting, you have to be fairly tall just to climb onto the bike.  I’m 6’0″ and can easily hop on and off the bike, but those people a few inches shorter may have some problems, especially if they have flexibility problems with their legs.  But the seat is very comfortable and it’s easy to reach and use the pedals.

The other minor issue with the bike is with the display screen.  Personally, I don’t like it that the information keeps rotating without the options of skipping or staying on certain pieces of information.  For example, when I’m sprinting I want to know just how fast I can pedal the exercise bike.  The screen keeps changing between one of like six pieces of information, so unless you peak when the speedometer is being displayed for a few seconds, then you’ll have to guess as to how fast you actually peddled.  The same is true if you’re keeping track of the time or waiting for milestones like a certain number of burned calories.

Granted, those are just two minor issues with an otherwise fantastic indoor exercise bike.  This is a great cardio workout machine and I’m glad I made the purchase a month ago.

June of 2013 exercise totals:

My exercise bike was assembled on June seventh, and my normal bike ride lasts for 45 minutes.  If time is a problem then it’ll be a shorter session lasting between 20 and 30 minutes.

Exercise bike totals (cardio) – 13 sessions:

– 533 minutes

– 99.7 miles

– 5005 calories burned

Total Bodyworks 5000 totals (strength):

– 12 sessions; ~ 20 minutes each

Exercise Plan & May 2013 Totals

After months of procrastinating and finding excuses to avoid the hard work, I’ve finally begun my workouts with the aim of forming a stronger, healthier body.

This isn’t something seasonal so that I’ll look better when removing my shirt and visiting the beaches or pools.  This is a permanent change.

My plan is to use a combination of both cardio and strength training workouts, ideally alternating the workout every other day.  The catch for the cardio is that I have a mild heart condition, so for now fast paces and running is out of the question.  My cardiologist said that I should be fine for exercising as long as I don’t rush into anything.

My two pieces of exercise equipment are a ProForm treadmill and a Total Bodyworks exercise machine.

The ProForm treadmill was given to my girlfriend and I by one of her friends.  It’s not in the best of conditions but it still worked for what I wanted to do.  The display panel showed information such as the total time, distance walked, speed, and an estimated number of calories burned.  The machine is rather bulky and pretty loud, so I have to really crank the volume on my television set when I’m using the treadmill.

Unfortunately, the machine froze one day when I was finishing a fairly aerobic walkout.  I’m guessing that it overheated as it was operational again after cooling for a few hours.  But that really doesn’t matter any more.  I’m donating the still-operational treadmill to a local thrift store and I have an exercise bike on order. Read more…