Workout Recap - Wednesday Workout on July 24th

I used the heart rate monitor again last night, and at first I was slightly disappointed with my results. I burned maybe 2/3 of the calories I did on Tuesday. But then I thought about it a bit more. First, my workout was 3/4 the length (time-wise) of Tuesday's workout, so when you calculate general calories burned per hour the numbers were pretty similar. Also, Wednesday workouts are a lot more static than any other workout. It involves more straight lifting, and isolated muscle groups. The point of this workout is to gain strength, and the fact that I did elevate my heart rate at some points and burned some calories is really just a plus. Joey thinks that next time I should leave the heart rate monitor on for the rest of the night. I could then see 1 - how many calories I keep burning after the workout is over, 2 - how many calories are burned doing every day tasks like making dinner, and 3 - how many calories I burn by doing absolutely nothing, like sitting on the couch. I think knowing my basal calorie rate will be helpful in interpreting anything that I see during a workout. Of course, I'm not using the read-out as a way to determine what I can eat during the day, or how much weight I should be losing. I'm using it as a read-out of my actual activity and how hard I was working.

To sum it up - I feel pretty proud that after yet another long work day, I came home and worked out hard! My workout is below. I used 10lb DBs for everything except the front+lateral raises, which I used 5lb DBs for. I looked at a previous workout and realized that I probably should have gone through arms and legs twice. Whoops. I was hungry and tired and didn't feel like spending any more time working out.

This is Day 3 of my 31-day challenge*. I fit all of this into the actual workout. To do this, you just have to make sure you get the following number of reps in the 2 Tabata rounds: >15 bicycles, >20 squat&press, >20 mountain climbers. I had to go a little longer than the 20 seconds to get 10 squat and press each round, but it was the last exercise so it worked out okay. If you're feeling more adventurous than I was, and you do two sets of arms and legs, then you won't have to worry about getting enough squats in!

*If you haven't started the 31-day challenge, start today! It isn't too late!

Heart Rate Monitor Results:

 

 

 This time my heart rate didn't go nearly as high, which is to be expected. I spent much more time "in zone" which was between 125 and 164. I actually kept going below the zone, but that makes sense since the zone is more of a cardio range, from 65-85% of your max heart rate. 

I also kept track of calories burned throughout the workout, to see what burned more than others. 

Tabata took 9 minutes total, and I burned 72 calories, at a rate of 480 calories/hour. Arms took 9.75 minutes and I burned 74 calories, at a rate of 493 calories/hour. Legs took 10.5 minutes and I burned 97 calories, at a rate of 554 calories/hour. Abs took 10 minutes and I burned 73 calories, at a rate of 438 calories/hour. Everything was roughly similar, with legs being the most work intensive section.

(Wondering why 72+74+97+73 doesn't equal 343? I kept the heart rate monitor on the whole workout, so it counted the breaks between sets.)

Also, I did all of this at home. I didn't feel like going down to the crowded tiny gym, and I hadn't prepared to take the bus to the regular gym. It worked out pretty well.