Sigh... having to change up my workouts again

I get into these workout ruts. I do something for awhile and then I get bored of them. Or, I outgrow them.

For some things, like step, you can increase the intensity by raising the step or doing propulsion. I haven't gotten to a fitness level yet where doing that gets to the point of being too easy. With spinning, you can spin faster or crank up the resistance.

But with straight up aerobics, it can get too easy. Starting in November, I started doing a cardio/toning class once a week. I did a lot more jumping around and bigger movements than the rest of the class or the instructor, but by doing that, I could get my heart rate up there. I still can for a couple of songs, but otherwise, I'm not getting in the zone for the bulk of the class any more.

Same with Zumba. There is only one instructor at our gyms that can really get my heart pumping, but again, I'm noticing that even with super big movements, I can't keep my heart rate up there for all the songs. It's just not intense enough.

Today after Zumba, I went to the elliptical machine and set it's resistance to 10 and then put in intervals for 30 minutes.  My heart rate was 139-146 the bulk of the time and I was going about 5.1 miles per hour on average. It was boring though as I didn't have any music or radio with me and the TVs there are muted and it's hard to read the captions if you are bouncing up and down.

All the people who read while exercising... are you really getting a workout if you can read at the same time? I guess it's better than doing nothing, but it's not a hard effort either. Maybe that doesn't matter to them.

So, for classes (cardio) that leaves spinning (not my favorite) and bodystep of those that I know. I think I'm going to try a few other new classes next week. I'm going to try  kickboxing and/or advanced aeroboxing. There's also Tae-Bo, but all of those are similar types of classes, so I don't think I want to do all three boxing like classes. That's it for harder cardio that aren't fee based. Sigh.

I thought about using the treadmill today instead of the elliptical, but that darn bladder issue I have is a nuisance! Grrrr!!!!  On easier cardio class days, I'll hop on the elliptical for 30 minutes (or longer if I have music/radio) to lengthen the amount of time my heart rate is actually in the zone.

I still need to figure out what to do for strength training too. Starting next week I'll be back with the personal trainer once a week, but I need to do something else at least one other time a week if not two. Just not sure! I'm thinking of doing/getting FitnessBuilder and/or doing the New Rules for Lifting SuperCharged and if not that then TRX. Actually they all three can overlap, but which to do!?!?!? I just can't do bodypump any more. Too many repetitive movements and it's given me two injuries.