Sunday "Sweat" Fest

Today was my first day back to the gym since either Monday or Tuesday of last week. Most of my exercise last week came from low impact walking. I am starting to feel back to normal, so I ventured to the gym today. After chatting with Heather Lake, one of the participant's in the Gazette's Get Fit Challenge, I had a new treadmill workout that I wanted to attempt. It was an awesome, heart pumping, sweat-fest and it will be added into my weekly routine! You know it is a good workout when you can ring out your sports bra afterwards!



Incline Treadmill Workout:



5 minute warm up at a speed of 3.0 on incline level 1. (I walked at 3.7 speed for entire time) After the warm up, you increase the incline by 1 level. Walk for a minute and then increase the incline again by 1 level. The treadmill can go increase at .5 increments, but you actually go up 1 whole level each minute. You go all the way up to an incline of 15, walking a minute each level. After 15, I then lowered the incline by 1 level each minute, until I was back to 1. When I hit level 1, I did a 5 minute cool down. It was a total of 38 minutes ~ 300 calories burned ~ 2.3 miles. If you think you cannot get a great workout on the treadmill, try this routine! It was AMAZING! At about Level 7 or 8, I realized it was going to get tough. From level 10 through 15, I had to hold onto treadmill to avoid falling backwards. At one point I felt the urge to increase the speed, but I felt as if I needed to conservative and not be a hero on my first day back. Seriously, this workout rocked!



After the treadmill, I jumped on the elliptical trainer for 22 minutes, as I wanted to log in 60 minutes of exercise. For that 22 minutes, I burned 200 calories ~ 2.15 miles. I then went to the Ab Coaster and did 50 reps.



For strength training, I pushed around the large grocery cart at Wal-mart...you know the kind that has the seats in the front for two children. I had Karah and Seth with me, so it added at least 60 pounds of resistance. Add in a case of pop, bottled water, bottled tea, and 2 gallons of milk, plus all of the other groceries...it was one heck of an overall body workout just maneuvering through Wal-mart and trying not to take out an end cap or an old lady driving one of those electric carts. It was comparable to driving a semi! I worked up a sweat by the time I made it to the checkout.



So far I have had a great food day and hope to continue through tonight and into next week. Last week I logged 310 exercise minutes, 57 fruit/veggies, and 6 days worth of whole grains. Not too bad of a first week in the Walk Kansas Challenge, considering I was sick with strep for most of the week.