Thursday, March 22, 2007

Exercise surprises

I have been going to my cycling class with great consistency for about one year now. There were a few weeks I did not get there for one reason or another and a few weeks where one class was missed - but overall it's been 60 minutes of very hard work twice a week on a regular basis.

Yesterday I saw the best of the results - although at the time it was annoying : -)

I got a heart rate monitor a few months ago and learned that what my brain thought of as "hard work" was not hard work according to the monitor. To keep my heart rate at my good level, I had to increase either speed or friction on the pedals - UGH!

Anyway, yesterday I reached some sort of new [for me] levels. I had to work really really hard in class to keep my heart rate up. Why? I assume like all muscles, my heart is now in such better shape than it had been that it now found my "usual" level of work to be too easy.... It's like lifting weights - when once a certain number of pounds were hard to lift, now many more are needed to tire out say leg muscles.

So next week I will start off the cycling class knowing I have to work harder....but I won't be annoyed - I'll be happy that my heart is healthy....

Moral - if you are working out - try using a heart rate monitor. You'll be annoyed but happy with the outcome!

1 comment:

Tanno said...

It's true what you say. You have to mix it up to keep your body interested and challenges. I try everything:
yoga, tai chi, bootcamp, hiking . There are just too many fun ways to mix it up these days that I try to do a little of all of them.