4/10/13

Pumping


 I have said from the start I would share my mistakes on this blog, well Sunday I discovered I was making a big mistake and I hope you all learn from this.

I am a cardio girl. I love it. From the time I was a teenager, I could park myself on an elliptical for more than an hour at a time. When I was on swim team as a teenager, practice in the pool at 5:30 didn't bother me... lifting weights bothered me. Now as I am on this health journey, the main way I have been loosing weight is through pure cardio. I rarely have crossed the dreaded line into the weight training part of the gym.

Enter my trainer, who happens to be one of my closest friends Sheizka. From day one, she has forced me into strength training. I have dreaded every minute. Complaining the whole time that I am just not burning calories and right now all that matters in getting rid of fat is cardio.

I was wrong. So fricking wrong.

Last weekend I bought a heart rate monitor. The first time I wore it was Sunday for our normal training session. I jumped on the elliptical for 30 minutes and according to my heart rate monitor, in that 30 minutes I burnt 325 calories- awesome right! Enter Sheizka. It was leg day so we did 45 minutes of leg strength training and 15 minutes of abs. I burnt 613 additional calories in that 60 minutes. 938 CALORIES TOTAL!!! For those of you doing the math... I burnt the same number of calories per minute doing cardio as I did when I was strength training. But while I was strength training I was building the muscles that would speed my metabolism and help me burn more calories when I am not in the gym!

So because I am always skeptical, Tuesday I decided to try 30 minutes cardio/ 30 minutes arms, chest and back to see what my calorie burn looked like. 350 calories on the elliptical, 375 strength training, 725 total.

I am a believer in strength training. Sheizka, sorry I have been so whinny.

What you should learn from this-

#1- Get a heart rate monitor, a real one with chest strap. It doesn't have to be really expensive- I got mine from Target it was $69.00 (its a pink New Balance). The machines at the gym are usually 30% off... if your trying to lose weight, 30% can screw your weight loss. Also, you work outs will be more productive and dare I say more exciting when you can watch those calories float away.

#2- Strength train. Even if you don't have a gym membership, you can still strength train. Push ups, squats, lunges... find a way to get it in.

#3- If you are paying someone to help you get fit (which I recommend if you can afford it!!!) don't whine. They obviously know what they are doing or people like you wouldn't be paying them.

Happy Calorie Burning!!!!



My heart rate monitor after Sunday training session.

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