A Workout To Remember!

Today I was in desperate need of a good workout. The last few weeks have just been OK as far as working out. I wanted to start the year off great and really kick it into high gear today. I sent Corey a text to see if he was up for a ride after I taught my spin class. I figured a 2 hour ride after teaching spin and then a quick swim would feed the need for a good workout. Corey and Lynda are two former clients that I trained. Corey said he was running 8 miles and then going to Chucke Cheese so he couldn't do it. My other riding partner Mark is still out of town, so this meant I was on my own. Most times I don't my riding alone but for some reason today I didn't want to do it. I opted for workout option number 2.

Years ago me and my friend Christian (pictured with me) did these great workouts together. We usually did them at 24hour Fitness in Summerlin. We would ride on the lifecycle like maniacs, run like crazy and then swim. We would total out times of each the bike, run, and swim and see who was faster. It was always a good workout. Here is a picture of us after one of our workouts! Even though I was alone I figured I would do a similar workout. This is how the workout went:

I taught a really tough spin class (at least I thought it was tough)

Ran 45 minutes steadily increasing incline on the treadmill

Back to spin bike 30 minutes pretty hard intensity

Back to treadmill 15 minutes 1% incline

In the pool for a quick 1200 meter swim................done hard workout completed!

After my workout I sent my friend Christian a text and told him I did one of his favorite workouts. He has recently had a bum knee so hasn't been able to run. He sent me a text back and said he wanted to cry! Christian is the ONLY person I know that has done 3 Ironman triathlons and only worked out in the gym not outside at all! He did all his biking on the lifecycle or spin bike and all his running on the treadmill! If you have ever trained for an Ironman you know this is insane!

There is only a few other things that are better than the feeling of being done with a really hard workout. I will let you guess what few other things I am talking about! The feeling of working out and giving it your all is a great feeling.

As I was sweating like crazy, breathing hard, working hard, and rocking out to my ipod, I noticed other people in the gym working out. I would say 90% of the people doing cardio on the machines at the gym were just going through the motions. These are the people that go to the gym probably everyday, don't really sweat much, and most likely don't see any results. Unfortunately, they may not really know what to do. So if you are going through the motions in the gym when you are doing cardio then listen to me and stop it!

You need to have a plan when you go to the gym. If you are just walking into the gym with your book or magazine and get on the bike and read your book for an hour then you are the person I saw today. First of all don't read when you do cardo. You should be focused on your workout. If you can read then you likely are not working hard enough. When I say have a plan, doing the bike for an hour is not a plan. Do intervals, hills, mix it up. Today on the treadmill my plan was to keep my same pace and increase the incline every 1/2 mile. On the spin bike I did hills one minute and stand and run one minute. If you need specific workouts the Internet is full of them. Always have something planned out for your workout. You can do this on any machine like stairs, treadmill, rowing machine or elliptical. Change up the length of your intervals from short 30 seconds one day to longer 3 minutes another. You should always wear a heart rate monitor and know your training zones. So quit going through the motions and go to the gym with your plan!