Pump up and kick ass with Ilkka
The
roof-level gym currently has only one treadmill and one elliptical
machine, in addition to the usual weight machine, bike and rowing
machine. Somebody had posted an appeal for the building management to
purchase another treadmill and a stair stepper, and I happily signed
it. For this reason, you have to reserve a time to get onto either
machine. I rarely do this, but typically just go there around some time
that I know few people tend to be are up there. Even if the book shows
a reservation for the treadmill, quite often the person who made it
will miss it. Since the reservations come in 45-minute blocks, many
people are finished with their reservation long before it ends.
The treadmill that we have, Landice L7, is a bit strange in the sense that its display of calories per hour can vary wildly with the exact same settings. With the exact same speed and incline, one day the machine might say that the activity burns 450 calories per hour, and then the next day this figure might be over 1600. As far as I can tell, the machine doesn't have a user weight setting or anything else that could have this effect. I wonder which figure is closest to truth. You might think that calories per hour is a function of speed and incline, but I guess not.
If I am on the treadmill and somebody comes in near the time that the next reservation time slot would start, I will always pause the machine, step off the machine and ask them if they have reserved the machine, emphasizing that if they reserved the machine it's certainly theirs to use and they don't need to wait for me to finish. Especially if that person is a woman from some other culture, she sometimes tries to tell me that she doesn't have a reservation or that she can wait for me to finish. As a culturally sensitive person I am aware of the fact that these women might have been taught to always give way to men, so I will have none of it.
The treadmill that we have, Landice L7, is a bit strange in the sense that its display of calories per hour can vary wildly with the exact same settings. With the exact same speed and incline, one day the machine might say that the activity burns 450 calories per hour, and then the next day this figure might be over 1600. As far as I can tell, the machine doesn't have a user weight setting or anything else that could have this effect. I wonder which figure is closest to truth. You might think that calories per hour is a function of speed and incline, but I guess not.
If I am on the treadmill and somebody comes in near the time that the next reservation time slot would start, I will always pause the machine, step off the machine and ask them if they have reserved the machine, emphasizing that if they reserved the machine it's certainly theirs to use and they don't need to wait for me to finish. Especially if that person is a woman from some other culture, she sometimes tries to tell me that she doesn't have a reservation or that she can wait for me to finish. As a culturally sensitive person I am aware of the fact that these women might have been taught to always give way to men, so I will have none of it.
Is there only some machines in your gym and no dumbells, bars and weight so you cannot train bench press for example?
Posted by Anonymous | 1:21 PM
Ellipticals are very good machines that don't stress one's joints in the same manner that treadmills do. I frequently use one (the "ski machine," as I call it). The one downside is that to get exercise value similar to that of running on a treadmill, you have to set the elliptical's resistance level to a fairly high setting, at least one-third of the way up.
Calorie counters on exercise machines are usually inexact to the point of uselessness. What does give a much better idea of exercise value is the heart-rate counter built into the handgrips on some machines. Or you can just try talking to another person, or yourself if need be; if you can carry on a normal conversation, you're not exercising hard enough.
Peter
Iron Rails & Iron weights
Posted by Anonymous | 1:59 PM
Is there only some machines in your gym and no dumbells, bars and weight so you cannot train bench press for example?
The upstairs gym has machines only, no free weights. Otherwise people would just borrow a weight or two "to use while watching TV" and then forget to return them, I assume.
The one downside is that to get exercise value similar to that of running on a treadmill, you have to set the elliptical's resistance level to a fairly high setting, at least one-third of the way up.
I don't know if our elliptical is somehow bad, but even when I set the resistance to maximum, it doesn't seem to do very much unless I keep up a speed much faster than I see other people doing.
For this reason, I like treadmill more myself: it feels like exercise and I get a good sweat flowing without feeling like I have to break myself. I liked the stairstepper even more for the same reason, but unfortunately it broke and hasn't been replaced.
On the treadmill, I usually do 30-40 minutes with a 15% incline and 4.0 speed, which is about the maximum speed that I can walk and read at the same time without occasionally having to gallop. When you have to climb up and not just wave your legs back and forth, it feels a lot like the stairstepper.
Calorie counters on exercise machines are usually inexact to the point of uselessness.
Thanks, I kind of suspected that.
Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen | 2:20 PM
You are writing so often about the gym, it would be interesting if you could post a few photos of it.
Posted by Anonymous | 2:32 PM