kathryn
Cathlete
I was at a conference this weekend, and had intended to workout in my room. But when I saw there was not even enough floor space to do push-ups (!), I ended up using their fitness center on two days.
(the hotel is a conference hotel, and used to be some kind of training center, so the emphasis is not on luxurious, spacious rooms! Glad I wasn't sharing, or I would have had claustrophobia. It was a bit crowded feeling as it was, with my presentation materials packed in my room!).
The fitness center was pretty good, and not many people were there, because I worked out at the time most people would have been eating, so there were few people around.
On day 1, I did some cardio: a bit of recumbent biking (though I felt like Goldilocks, trying to find which one of the 4 different recumbents felt best---I'm not used to machine workouts, and they all felt a bit odd, like the pedal not hitting where I thought it should) followed by treadmill. Then a full body weight workout, using both machines (each one hits a different body part) and free weights (they had a nice selection, but only one set of each. They had an assited pull-up machine, which was cool to use! Some other machines just felt too awkward, so I used freeweights. I didn't like the shoulder press, for example, or the bicep curl machine.
I used some of the machines after a couple of guys did, and some of my weights were the same (hee hee!) (though I couldn't tell exactly how much weight I was moving, because the stacks were just labeled "1, 2, 3" instead of with weights, and I think they varied from machine to machine. The ab machine felt like I could have added a lot more weight, and I bumped it up pretty high, so I wonder if I did it right!
I ended with some abs and planks.
On day 2, I did a cardio circuit: 10 minutes on recumbant bike, 5 minutes each on two different elliptical trainers, 5 minutes on stairmaster (I didn't get the hang of it, and it felt awkward and like I wasn't doing it right), and 10 minutes on treadmill, varying the incline (up to 15%) and speed. I followed with a long stretch.
While I was there on day 2, a couple of young boys (seemed younger than the 18 year old limit that was posted on the door!) were working out, and one kept clanging the dumbbells together when doing chest presses. Yikes!
We're going to hold the conference in the same place next year, so I made sure to suggest that they add a rowing machine or two, and some burst-resistant stabilty balls to their equipment. (though I was reluctant to use the stretching mats they had because I had no idea when they had been cleaned, and the people I saw using the equipment, even though they weren't necessarily sweating very much, didn't put towels down--like I did--or wipe off seats after they were done, so I don't know how I'd feel about lying on a stablity ball that someone else had possibly sweated on! Maybe I'll carry some wipes with me like Monk!)
(the hotel is a conference hotel, and used to be some kind of training center, so the emphasis is not on luxurious, spacious rooms! Glad I wasn't sharing, or I would have had claustrophobia. It was a bit crowded feeling as it was, with my presentation materials packed in my room!).
The fitness center was pretty good, and not many people were there, because I worked out at the time most people would have been eating, so there were few people around.
On day 1, I did some cardio: a bit of recumbent biking (though I felt like Goldilocks, trying to find which one of the 4 different recumbents felt best---I'm not used to machine workouts, and they all felt a bit odd, like the pedal not hitting where I thought it should) followed by treadmill. Then a full body weight workout, using both machines (each one hits a different body part) and free weights (they had a nice selection, but only one set of each. They had an assited pull-up machine, which was cool to use! Some other machines just felt too awkward, so I used freeweights. I didn't like the shoulder press, for example, or the bicep curl machine.
I used some of the machines after a couple of guys did, and some of my weights were the same (hee hee!) (though I couldn't tell exactly how much weight I was moving, because the stacks were just labeled "1, 2, 3" instead of with weights, and I think they varied from machine to machine. The ab machine felt like I could have added a lot more weight, and I bumped it up pretty high, so I wonder if I did it right!
I ended with some abs and planks.
On day 2, I did a cardio circuit: 10 minutes on recumbant bike, 5 minutes each on two different elliptical trainers, 5 minutes on stairmaster (I didn't get the hang of it, and it felt awkward and like I wasn't doing it right), and 10 minutes on treadmill, varying the incline (up to 15%) and speed. I followed with a long stretch.
While I was there on day 2, a couple of young boys (seemed younger than the 18 year old limit that was posted on the door!) were working out, and one kept clanging the dumbbells together when doing chest presses. Yikes!
We're going to hold the conference in the same place next year, so I made sure to suggest that they add a rowing machine or two, and some burst-resistant stabilty balls to their equipment. (though I was reluctant to use the stretching mats they had because I had no idea when they had been cleaned, and the people I saw using the equipment, even though they weren't necessarily sweating very much, didn't put towels down--like I did--or wipe off seats after they were done, so I don't know how I'd feel about lying on a stablity ball that someone else had possibly sweated on! Maybe I'll carry some wipes with me like Monk!)
