a busy day

[redbird]

quility called yesterday morning, to ask if I wanted to come in to her office and do a bit of data entry, for money. I accepted. (They give me a flat rate for miscellaneous temp stuff, meaning that the data entry pays enough for me to be willing.) I headed downtown after lunch (cheese sandwiches and the rest of the previous night's cucumber salad), and was there for about three hours, typing stuff, asking occasional questions--we decided the database could cope without accents on Slovene and Canadian names and Brazilian addresses.

Then I went up to the gym, and did a quick workout Cardio, 12 minutes, top heart rate 154
Expressline, 12 reps on everything
Crunches, 4 sets of 20
Back arches, 2 sets of 16
Hip/back lift with physio ball, 2 sets of 16
Calf machine, 40 pounds, 3 sets of 15
Stretches


Quick because I had plans to meet roadnotes for dinner. eleanor, cattitude, and volund also joined us, and much good Japanese food and conversation were shared. Something in that workout made my knees unhappy; may have to go back to roll-my-own workouts (more fun anyway) and skip the leg press for a while.

From there, all of us except Cattitude went on to Rose's turn, where I hung out, listened, talked to people a bit, and sang along enough that my throat was unhappy by the time I got home. (I'd started with a bit of cough/cold, so this is unsurprising.)

On the way home, I was playing Bubblet on the A platform at West 4th when someone came along and asked if I had games on my Palm. She'd lost all her games. I had only Bubblet--not the solitaire she asked after--but happily beamed that to her, and took a minute to show her how it worked. In the midst of this, she called out to a friend "I'm begging on the subway station", which was fine with me because beaming Palm apps costs me nothing (this one is shareware, but will run even if not registered).

Last thing before bed, I logged on long enough to send one email: I'd forgotten until I was at 's office that it was the 16th, hence my brother's birthday, and while he probably won't have seen it last night, I at least wanted to send a happy birthday on the right day.

Comments

leg press...

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

How much are you pressing? Was this a % of your max weight?

And for curiosity? What is a roll your own workout? :grin:

Re: leg press...

[redbird]

Hard to calibrate: I'm using machines, not free weights. On this one, I'm doing 230 pounds with no trouble; on the gym's other machine, where my body moves as well as the plates, 180 is a lot.

"Roll my own" is basically a somewhat-variable set of weight stuff I do at the gym, based on things I've tried and liked over time. See previous cut-tagged gym entries for more info. The general pattern is cardio, weights, mat work, more weights, stretch, shower.

Re: leg press...

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

OK. I probably didn't communicate that correctly. Your working weight is usually a % of the max you can press. No need to answer, I was just being overly curious.

I have to do a lot more stretching now because I can't tell when I'm overdoing as easily anymore... I don't seem to feel it until the next day. But it's good that you have a sense of what works for you. One of the nicer things about working with weights for a while is developing that sense.

Re: leg press...

[redbird]

I don't actually know the max I can press: I tend to aim for a weight I can do 10-12 reps (on this Expressline set-up they run), or multiple sets of anywhere from 10 to 15, when working alone. Now I'm curious.

Re: leg press...

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

The way I was taught was to test for your max and then establish your 10-12 rep working weight as 75-80% of that. Assuming 3 sets of 10-12 reps. That's how we used to get set up to begin with.

I think what you're doing is fine. http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Guidelines.html You've been lifting for a while and you're working to the muscle exhaustion point.

I do more reps at light weights. Strictly free weights which is what I have at home. I'm _not_ looking to burn fat however or get bulky (which I think is hard to do anyway.) The greater reps at lighter weights just seems to make sense from a logic point of few compared to the activities I would want my muscles to be in shape for. Also, at this point in my life I'm not really concerned with advancing to heavier and heavier weights. Just more keeping in shape what I have (without injuring anything.)

From this perspective, I guess my finger is the most in shape... all that clicking on the mouse. LOL.

Is the knee problem a pre-existing problem? Or something that came form the weight work?