wow, that's awesome! Your incredibly low weight is probably making it extra hard for you (my totally unprofessional assessment).
Gym Machines and Good Form
- Thread starter Gidds
- Start date
Btw, I was at the gym today and remembered something: you can also work on your form on the Summit o' Doom. Bring your feet to the insides of the platforms, as far as you can - so that your legs are held as narrowly as possible. Feet basically butted right up on the lip of the platforms.
And look down at your legs while working out. Make sure that your knees are staying aligned with the feet, the legs moving linearly. If they don't do this om their own ie the knees buckle inward or outward, well, just consciously work on keeping them moving in a straight line. Easy Peasy.
Something else good for form: Don't hold with your hands at all. Hold your arms in a running or walking position, let them move along as though you were trudging up a big, steep hill. Or, rest your hands lightly on your hips or thighs. The point is, you'll be forcing yourself to stay balanced using leg and core power, and this should (over time) help with your form as well ...
Like I said, I love this thing, although I'm really an exercise-machine hater (can't stand elipticals, and have a treadmill phobia ...)
And look down at your legs while working out. Make sure that your knees are staying aligned with the feet, the legs moving linearly. If they don't do this om their own ie the knees buckle inward or outward, well, just consciously work on keeping them moving in a straight line. Easy Peasy.
Something else good for form: Don't hold with your hands at all. Hold your arms in a running or walking position, let them move along as though you were trudging up a big, steep hill. Or, rest your hands lightly on your hips or thighs. The point is, you'll be forcing yourself to stay balanced using leg and core power, and this should (over time) help with your form as well ...
Like I said, I love this thing, although I'm really an exercise-machine hater (can't stand elipticals, and have a treadmill phobia ...)
What is that supposed to mean? 135lbs/61kg is far from pipsqueakish! According to all the women's magazines I'm a downright Sasquatch with my towering height and rib and hip bones hidden from view beneath a layer of insulation. Isn't that what women are supposed to look like?
I better never visit Europe, they might think I have an eating disorder and *gasp* force me to eat loads of full-fat artisan cheese and real sausage and real black forest ham! The horror!Anyway I will try the form bit. I already use it with my toes as far forward as I can get them. I have tried taking my hands off the pegs, so I could have a drink of water, and almost ended up on the floor. I would like to use the "fat burn" function but I cannot get my heart rate anywhere near the recommended 65% for my age. I can't even get it down to 80 or 85%, although I did figure out how to make the machine go reeeeeally slow, like <2mph but I like it best going 2.5-3mph. I'm going to lift weights tomorrow and do the Summit of Doom again Friday.
oh yeah, forgot to mention that. Fat-burning on the Summit Trainer happens for the first few hours after yuo get off the thing lol.
Definitely more an anaerobic thing o' doom, for sure.
Definitely more an anaerobic thing o' doom, for sure.
So, I came across this thread while looking for what people have to say about treadmills. It's going to be pouring rain here all week, so I'm beginning to evaluate winter options in a new way. How often do you use the Summit Trainer? When do you decide to use it? How do you think it compares to biking for cross training? I already ride the spinning bike 2-3 x/week and swim for cross training. My body can only take 3-4 days of running a week, so I don't want to give up any running days, but being soaked with cold rain is worse than dry cold or even snow for me.
Does anyone have anything to say about purchasing a treadmill for home? Should I start a whole new thread on that?
Thanks for any input you have time to share, all of you!
Well, I'm not in the gym all that often, kind of hit and miss on that one, but when I go - the Summit Trainer is the main focus, everything else is ancillary.
No comparison. Unless you're specifically looking for upper-body work ala sitting rower machines, The Summit Trainer blows every single piece of exercise equipment out of the water. I really think it's better training for runners than running. Or, put another way, I'd bet money I don't have that a runner who trained primarily on the ST and used running itself as secondary training would do better than if s/he ran exclusively.
[/quote]No comparison. Unless you're specifically looking for upper-body work ala sitting rower machines, The Summit Trainer blows every single piece of exercise equipment out of the water. I really think it's better training for runners than running. Or, put another way, I'd bet money I don't have that a runner who trained primarily on the ST and used running itself as secondary training would do better than if s/he ran exclusively.[/quote]
Interesting. I'll have to look and see if my gym has one. I've gotten so used to running outside, the idea of a machine is not easy. I hope they let me wear my running Mocs. Thanks, again.
Interesting. I'll have to look and see if my gym has one. I've gotten so used to running outside, the idea of a machine is not easy. I hope they let me wear my running Mocs.
Thanks, again.
Hey Willie, I have a stair machine available to me if I want it--just have to go pick it up. Do you think this would be a useful supplement to running as well?
FWIW: Since I am new to barefoot running, I'm also new to the idea of a quicker cadence when doing so. On my non-run days, I hit the gym and use the spinning cycle. It has a meter on it that tells me, among other things, how many revolutions-per-minute I'm spinning. I try to keep it above 95, on the theory that, although I am recruiting different muscles than running, I am still developing some sort of muscle memory to keep my legs churning at that faster pace. I find that I AM able to maintain a faster cadence when actually running, and I think the spinning helps. It just seems like you'd want an exercise that roughly mimics the running movement while using slightly different leg muscles to counteract any imbalance that you're likely to get by running all the time.
However, that incline elliptical seems pretty darn cool.
However, that incline elliptical seems pretty darn cool.
Interesting. I'll have to look and see if my gym has one. I've gotten so used to running outside, the idea of a machine is not easy. I hope they let me wear my running Mocs.
now, I didn't say it was fun or gratifying, only that, from a purely performance-based perspective, it'd be more effective than running. I also mentioned that I'm rarely in the gym
Stairmaster/Stepper, I dunno. They've really been phased out and I think it's because they proved to be kind of duds. The problem with them (in my experience) is that the only motion you actually perform is a leg-lift. If you stop moving, the pedals sink to the floor. I'd call them purely cardio/aerobic machines. Hard as hell to use if you really push it, heart-bursting hard, but too low-impact, like elipticals (which I think are about the worst of all), and very limited, narrow range of muscle usage.
The Summit of Doom kicks my butt, even after working up my time. Nothing like biking, although keep in mind that my biking is done in a flat state on a cruiser style bike not usually faster than 15mph. The Summit Trainer does make my knees creak while I use it but it doesn't bother me usually. It engages the glutes with less effort than running to put it politely. I have to be mindful about engaging them if I am actually running outside. The Summit Trainer is really a lot more like hiking in rocky terrain and way more high impact that other activities, for me anyway. It isn't very popular here at sea level. I've only ever seen like two other people use it on purpose at my gym.
hahaha! yesssss ... that's the other advantage: there's always one available (even if there are only two in the house)
No comparison. Unless you're specifically looking for upper-body work ala sitting rower machines, The Summit Trainer blows every single piece of exercise equipment out of the water. I really think it's better training for runners than running. Or, put another way, I'd bet money I don't have that a runner who trained primarily on the ST and used running itself as secondary training would do better than if s/he ran exclusively.[/quote]
Interesting. I'll have to look and see if my gym has one. I've gotten so used to running outside, the idea of a machine is not easy. I hope they let me wear my running Mocs. Thanks, again.[/quote]
Interesting machine. That machine alone might prompt me to join a gym. I hate to admit it, but I am going to need to start doing some conscious "training" in this upcoming year as I have some big runs coming up next year. THAT machine would be perfect.
Interesting. I'll have to look and see if my gym has one. I've gotten so used to running outside, the idea of a machine is not easy. I hope they let me wear my running Mocs.
Thanks, again.[/quote]Interesting machine. That machine alone might prompt me to join a gym. I hate to admit it, but I am going to need to start doing some conscious "training" in this upcoming year as I have some big runs coming up next year. THAT machine would be perfect.
Thanks for the feedback. If I were to use it, it would be in the context of a new workout I've put together, at the end of the week, after three running days and three weights days, doing stuff like bounding, skipping, running backwards, box jumps, and such, so I'd just be doing the stair machine 5-10 minutes a week, hitting it pretty hard tempo-wise. I forgot to mention its intended use. Still, I don't really want to have it cluttering up the place (I just gave my rower to my dad). So if even with this limited use you or anyone else who cares to respond doesn't think it would do much good, I'll probably just leave it. I plan on doing step as well as jump routines with my plyo boxes once my knee heals, so that would probably be enough and it would have a much greater range of movement. Or I could just run up and down some stairs near the track.
And do the rest, use it by accident?
Two of my "runs" are going to be in the mountains, so now I am even more excited over finding a gym that uses this machine.Most others who use it do it because they have to use at least one of the machines for their wellness class. There are only three of us who seem to use it because we want to. The hiking I am referring to is East Coast Green and White Mountains or the Appalachians. It seriously feels just like them, taking BIG steps up over granite boulders and I am not a short person!
