Travels with Pops

I WAS THINKING ABOUT JOINING A SPINNING CLASS

AND THEN I HAD AN IDEA........

Just did a kickass shitty weather workout. It was basically interval training set to my riding music. I have the good fortune to be able to use a staff workout room at my school that has machines and cardio equipment. I can also plug my music into the sound system. 

The idea was to switch to a new machine at the end of every song. The machines I used were an upright excercise bike, a recumbent bike, two ellipticals, a treadmill, a leg extension, a hamstring, a hip abductor and aductor, and a back extension. I didn't feel like doing anything upper body because I can never stick to that workout anymore for some reason. But I figure my legs will always be in shape so I can work them out and not feel shitty for the next four days, and I'm still good if I don't get back to the workout for a awhile since it's only a back-up plan for when I can't ride. The upper body stuff always seems to screw with my back anyway. 

I wore my cold weather tights, a hoodie and a stocking cap, which I took off to moderate my heat. 

I started with the upright bike and set the difficulty relatively low to warm up. Then I set the recumbent a little harder. I used the first elliptical at its lowest elevation setting and made sure I was standing on the front of my feet like I was pedaling, rather than flat-footed on the foot pad. The treadmill was set at an easy jog. I took about a minute break after the cardio machines, or partway into a song. Then I did 15 reps on each machine for the rest of the song and for the next song after that. 

I did this circuit twice and adjusted the level/difficulty of each machine as I went. By the time I was done, I was sweating my ass off and feeling really good - not too bad for a cycling/leg workout when it's 17 degrees outside! Just what the doctor ordered. The recumbent bike felt good so I finished off with a 10 minute cycling program and warmed down. 

I'm gonna do this workout whenever I can't ride. I think it might be better than indoor training since I get to switch up exercises before I get a chance to become bored the way I did with my trainer. Switching up after each song made things more interesting, too. Two circuits took about an hour and fifteen minutes which is equivalent to a quick ride, but I got to train a lot of muscle sets and could vary things up as much as I wanted in terms of difficulty. 

Just throwing it out there if you have access to a similar facility.