Activity NSV

Last night was my Introduction to Free Weights class at the gym. It was fairly informative and the instructor was very nice, but I couldn't help thinking that there is no way I'm going to remember everything she taught us. I am really looking forward to having my personal trainer help me design a couple of routines that I can remember and follow regularly, rather than just haphazardly trying to bungle along on my own. (There was one really good back strengthening exercise that I am intrigued by though...)

Having said that, I enjoyed it and did get a teeny, tiny strength training session in because of it. And I learned about doing squats against the wall with the huge ball and holy crap did that make a world of difference in my technique. Love it!

So, even though my back was still bugging me, I decided that exercise might help, so after the class was over I signed myself onto a treadmill and gave it a go. Now remember, I've never been on a treadmill before so this was a BIG DEAL for me! I hadn't remembered my iPod (with the C2K podcasts), so decided to just try to do some intervals on my own. After warming up for 3.5 minutes, I did intervals of 2 mins speed walking, 1 min regular walking. I did this for 15 minutes, then cooled down for 2 mins. Even without actually running, I worked up a good sweat and the machine told me I burned over 100 calories, so that was pretty good. I moved over to the cross trainer (I thought it might be easier on my back and it was) so I was able to go faster and did 10 minutes of high intensity, then a 5 minute cool down.

I finished up with 3 sets of ball squats (cuz they are sooo cool and actually the ball felt great on my back) and some stretching.

Yaaieeee for my first big start!

(As an aside, I had an eating NSV afterwards too. I had already blown my menu for the day with a lot of odd, useless snacking...so instead of making a plate of leftovers that I didn't really need or want when I got home from the gym, I opted for a small glass of Arthur's Smoothie and a bowl of oatmeal instead. Ended up landing my points right where they were supposed to be.)