peeperjj's Journal, 11 Sep 18

Doesn’t seem worth it. 13.75 mph and I’d only burn about 345 calories an hour. I can burn 400+ walking and it feels like it uses more muscles. But when it’s just two of us in class I do whatever the other wants to do. Finding that cardio before weights limits what I can do on lower body. 190-210 when I skip cardio. When cardio comes first like in class I can only do 170-190(barely did 190 today- 5 reps was all I could do before taking it to 180 for 5 reps and 170 for 6). I’ve also been carrying a 38# kid around since 6:30 last night so that helps I think. Super hard to carry her, a full backpack with water and toys and two drinks along with my phone and keys lol... up stairs! Managed twice and that’s enough for me! Upper body was awesome today! There’s a machine that I could barely grab the handles and try to pull myself up. I was NEVER able to as a kid when I was at my strongest. Haven’t tried in probably 10-15 years. Tried today and I could use my lower body to help boost me up a tiny bit. Think I went up maybe 3”. Not a lot but considering I’ve never been able to pull up at all- it’s huge to me! Fingers/hands pointing in toward one another. The straight bars for actual pull ups and chin ups were too far for me to reach. Sucks being 5’3” sometimes lol. Had to give a bit of a jump to reach the ones I was able to! So held a ‘flex hang’ for about 20 seconds or so. I’ll try again in a couple weeks and see how long I can hang. Kiddo was messing with my phone so stopped to get it away from her. Seems she videoed me lol. Odd angle and like 40 pictures. She loves the camera on it but tends to drop it and I can’t afford a new phone! 

Great to hear your progress. Those hints of getting better is priceless. The photo came in handy. Reminded me of downloading a podcast so I can listen to that while riding. 

Thanks Diddlee! Glad the pic reminded you :). I don’t get to listen to music in the class because we visit. Or rather the trainers visit while I’m nosy and butt in lol.  

Chris ;). I’ve tried the last pull down machine. There’s a sight problem. If I stand on my tippy toes I can manage to get the bar down but I can’t move my arms on the slant after that. I’m not sure how much good it does coming straight down with each hand beside the rope. The seat doesn’t lift either 😭. I’ve thought about standing on the seat to get a hold of it properly but the ones time I tried that people stopped what they were doing and stared. Dude I’m short! What do they expect me to do when those machines are built for tall men?!? Doing to today, improperly of course, I was able to pull down 30# with no issues and 50# was easy but 3 sets of 10 and I’d have been feeling it. Was going to try 70 for a 3rd rep but the kiddo said it was time to go. She was a good sport for over 90 minutes so when she said her foot aches and her tummy growled it was time to go.