As many of my long-time readers know, I have been rehabilitating my knee for a few months.  As a result, I’ve spent a little time on the treadmill lately.  I was pretty much minding my own business – listening to music, watching TV, grinding through the pain, just trying to get my workout in – that sort of thing, when I happened to notice the calorie counter.  After a mere five minutes of walking at an admitted slow pace (hey, my knee hurts!) it had tallied an amazing 72 calories.  At first I was pretty pleased, I didn’t really think that I was burning so many calories just walking along for a few minutes, but then I started wondering about what was going on.  I found one of my gym buddies who had been running on the treadmill for over half an hour at a pretty good pace and asked him about it.  He told me that he has always been suspect of the calorie counters, but he can’t resist watching them.  He said that his treadmill reported 786 calories burned on a 32 minute, 4 mile run with a very slight incline.  We both thought that seemed a bit high.

When I got home, I decided to break out my calculator and do some figuring.  For my walk, I burned 14.4 calories per minute.  During his run, he burned 24.5 calories per minute.  According to a few websites I checked; walking burns about 175 calories per hour at my pace.  Running burns about 880 calories per hour for his pace.  Of course, the actual calorie burn rate varies by body weight and composition, but I tried to match these as closely as I could to our weights and percent body fat.

Now assuming I wouldn’t have collapsed and been sent back for more knee surgery before the hour was up, I would have logged 864 calories on my walk.  My friend would have an astounding 1470 calories if he had gone the whole hour.  Numbers vary, but a woman who is 5’4” weighing 130lbs needs about 1800 calories for weight maintenance.  That means she would have burned 48% of her daily caloric intake in just one hour, not to mention her fitness clothing would be drenched!  At that rate, it would be impossible to even maintain your current weight.  Something isn’t right here.

A man who is 175lbs and 5’8” needs about 2400 calories a day.   So my friend is burning over 60% of his caloric intake with an hour run?  I don’t think so, his workout shorts would be falling off with all the weight he’d be losing, lol!  The internet is full of people questioning the calorie counts on exercise equipment and I found references to studies that cite the counters can be off by as much as 15% to 20% even when you correctly enter your age and weight into the calculator.

I think my gym’s counters are off by a lot more than that, but I didn’t do that math too.  I guess the important thing is to use the counter as a tool to gauge progress and effort.   I wouldn’t use them to decide that you can eat an extra piece of cake since it only has 250 calories and the counter claimed you had burned that in your first 15 minutes of warming up.

Do you use the counters, or do you have a different way to gauge your progress and results?

The last time we chatted I asked if the gym defined who you are.  At the time I was awaiting word as to if I was going to need surgery for my knee.  I questioned what I’d do and really who would I be without the gym and fitness since it is such a huge part of my daily life.  Well, the news came, knee surgery for me   I was going to need a lateral release of my left knee, I was bummed!

In the meantime, I made a new friend, she’s actually the wife of a good friend of my husband.  We began to talk about different topics regarding fitness and nutrition and out past experiences with both.  It was interesting to me that even though she and I had different fitness journeys and goals, we were still both very commited to our goals.  I laughed when she mentioned that she thought I grew up being athletic and confident, read my about us and you know that’s the the case.  I don’t know that even now I view myself as athletic or confident, I feel healthy, so maybe that makes me appear more confident and athletic.  I mention this because a few weeks later we were chatting on Facebook, gotta love social media, and she told me I was “an inspiration and that my commitment to a healthy lifestyle shows and that it motivates her” WOW, I can’t tell you how that made me feel.  What I took from those kind words is that even though my body may need to take a break from the gym, my mind, nor my ability to learn and help others does not have to!  Thank You S.P.T for helping me see this,  you are an inspiration to me

I’m now a few weeks post surgery, it went great!  I’ve started physical therapy which I am viewing as a couple of personal training sessions each week with a great trainer.  I’ve enjoyed meeting some unique people at physical therapy and hearing their stories, the common theme is that there is no substitute for good health.  I’ve also found that it’s a great place to show off some of my favorites from CynFullyFIT.

So, what’s your answer, does the gym define who you are?  For me, the answer is No.  I will always love the gym and working out, and I hope I am always able to do so, but at the end of the day I am so much more than a girl in the weight room, and I bet you are too

Tell me your thoughts, I’d love to know what you are thinking.

StayFIT!

 

 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately.  Dangerous, I know, but every now and again I like to pull a few sets with the old grey matter.  So what I have been wondering is this: Does what you do in the gym define You as a person or impact your opinion of yourself?

I mean by going to the gym do we see ourselves as athletic, fit, or somehow more disciplined than those who choose not to exercise?  Does it matter what we do when we are actually engaged in exercise?  Or is doing anything enough to have those positive feelings about ourselves?

Recently, I have been having some problems with my knee that have me rethinking my gym strategy.  The problems have been going on for awhile and when I say ‘awhile’, I mean a couple of years.  I have put off going to the doctor, because the mantra from the medical field has become very predictable.  The doctors see that I have reached a milestone age that I shall not divulge here and the answer is “you’re getting older, you know, you cannot expect to keep it up like this.  Cut back or just stop.  Why don’t you try doing something else a little less active?”  Yeah, right!  I am not the kind of girl who likes to take it a little less active.  I like to lift weights.  I like to spend my free time thinking about fitness.  Well, I like other things too, but I do plan my days around my gym time.  I read fitness magazines; I plan my workouts with special care to work certain body parts in rotation from varying angles; this is what I do!  It’s a hobby.  It’s my time for me.   This is who I am!

On the day I nearly tumbled head over heels down the steps into the living room because my knee folded like a cheap card table, I knew that I needed to give in and go see a specialist.   I spent some time researching orthopedic doctors in the area and getting referrals from other gym buddies.  I decided on a doctor who came highly recommended, focused on sports medicine and whose online profile said that he enjoyed weightlifting and golf.  He sounded perfect and I imagined a connection between kindred spirits.  I decided I had been all wrong in my thinking and would be up and squatting in no time.

I was both right and wrong.  I met with the doctor and he told me that the problem was with my kneecap.  It wasn’t tracking properly and my cartilage had worn pretty thin.  He seemed to think that with a month or two of therapy and some minor modifications, I would be good to go.  I was elated.  Why had I waited so long?

Feeling optimistic, I went to my first PT appointment.  It started out pleasant enough, but quickly devolved into the “your getting older, don’t do it” routine.  I was asked to describe my workouts – what exercises, how many reps, how much weight, etc.  Usually I’m excited and even a bit proud to talk about workouts.   This is something I know about and feel good talking about, but this time was different.  Very quickly, the look on their faces made me feel like a junkie in rehab having to list out her drugs and tell them which one is my ”go to drug”.  I’d have to say squats in case you were wondering    Everything I had feared was true.  I was ordered to stop doing what I love.  To me it sounded like I was told to be someone different.

The final verdict isn’t in yet.  The thinking now is that something might be torn, and an MRI is necessary to get a real picture of the damage, but it is clear that I have to change up my workouts.   If you read the ‘about us’ page on my website you will know something about my journey through fitness.  I’m not a world-class athlete but I do what I love and feel that it is an important part of me.  My whole reason for starting CynFullyFit was to make health and fitness a bigger part of my life.  I know this is just a bad knee and there is certainly much worse that could have happened, but I’m curious if others out there find themselves so tightly wrapped in their fitness regimes.  What part of You is defined by your gym experience?

They say that about 75% of people give up on their New Year’s Resolution within the first week or so.  Well, here we are going into the 3rd week and from the looks of things at my gym I’d say all those that committed to getting healthy & fit in 2012 are still going strong . It’s great to see so many take charge of their lives and get healthy.   The gym is crowded with lots of new faces and some I haven’t seen since January 2011.  It’s also a mess; dumbbells on the floor or not in the proper spot on the rack, bars and other equipment loaded up with a ton of weight.  I’ve never understood why some gym goers find it so difficult to pick up after themselves, it’s just plain rude, which brings me to the topic of gym etiquette. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines etiquette as “the customary code of polite behavior in society or among members of a particular profession or group”.

Are these actions a product of our society becoming more self-centered with a sense of entitlement?  Are they really that lazy?  Or is it just because they aren’t comfortable in a gym and don’t know or understand the basic rules of a gym?  I’m not ready just yet to give up on humanity, and they can’t be lazy, they did join a gym, so I’ll go with the thought process that most people just don’t know.

I’m sure some of you reading this are saying “yeah, yeah, I know all about gym etiquette”, great, but maybe a few of our fellow readers aren’t as comfortable in a gym setting as we are.  For the safety and enjoyment for us all, let’s help them out with a few pointers

• Be aware of what’s going on around you.  No, the gym is not as dangerous as being in a dark alley in the wrong side of town, but you do need to be aware for your safety and the safety of those around you.  I can’t tell you how many times I have been doing squats and someone tries to walk under the bar are set their stuff in the rack, trust me, not a good idea regardless of how little or much weight a person is lifting.
• Put your weights back where they belong.  Easy, no explanation needed!
• Unload equipment and bars when you are finished.  You were strong enough to lift it, now be strong enough to unload it!
• Limit chatting on cell phones, heck I don’t even think they should be on the gym floor at all.  Sure you want to make plans for the weekend, or whatever you so urgently need to discuss, but come on, how focused can you really be on your workout if you are on the phone?
• Our mom’s taught us to share, so don’t be selfish with equipment.  We all want to get in our 3-4 sets and we all need to rest a bit between those sets.  So, let someone work in and don’t be afraid to ask someone if you can work in too!
• If you are going to take a shower, make sure there is not already someone in it!  Ok, maybe this isn’t an etiquette topic, but it really did happen to a guy buddy of mine just a couple of weeks ago.  He was minding his own business and just taking a shower when some other guy opened the curtain and proceeded to enter the shower, wth?  I gotta a bit of a laugh out of it, but my friend was not amused.

The hard part is over, you joined a gym and you are committed to reaching your health and fitness goals, for that I applaud you!  Gym Etiquette is not difficult, just treat people the way you would like to be treated and take care of the gym as if it is your own, you are paying membership fees, so it really is yours.  Keep up the great work, spring will be here soon and you can show off what you accomplished with all your efforts

I’d love to hear your thoughts on gym etiqutte!

~ “Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength” – Eric Hoffer

 I recently saw and article about New Year’s Resolutions, not a surprise considering 2011 is winding down.  What was a surprise to me was that people listed “improve one’s financial condition” above “improve health”.  OK, did I miss something and everyone is as healthy as they can be?  Don’t get me wrong, improving one’s financial condition is very important; I’m actually working on a blog about that very topic. 

What I don’t get is how anyone can put money over health?

Let’s look at it this way…

The US has the highest medical costs of any developed country.  In fact, 50% of personal bankruptcies filed are due to medical expenses.  According to the CDC, 75% of total health-care spending  goes towards the treatment of chronic diseases.  At least 1/2 of those chronic illnesses are caused by smoking, obesity and physical inactivity- all of which are preventable.

With that being said, can we really afford to not improve our health?  It looks to me if we improve our overall health, our financial “health” will improve too!  What do you think?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

So, what are your New Year’s Resolutions? 

“The greatest wealth is health”  ~ Virgil