Olympic Workouts: Results

It's been a summer of sports with the Olympics on the BBC and the Paralympics on Channel 4. Team GB raked in 67 medals in the Olympics, and 147 in the Paralympics.

I spent as much of this time as I could at the gym, and when I was there I used machines from which I could watch the action in Rio. The cross trainers, running machine and bikes had in-built TVs, and there were some flat-screen TVs on the walls. If I could watch the games using a machine, I would try and hit a PB on it. My aim was to lose weight and tone up, and I managed that to a degree, shedding 4.6Kg in the process (a little more overall, but that's what I ended up with. It's a little over 10lb).

Here are of the improvements on certain machines:

9/8-18/9

Calf press: 10Kg up

10 minute cycle, with no backrest: 660 metres up

10 minute cycle, with backrest: 187 metres up

I think using a bike without a backrest, requiring you to lean forward in the saddle, is much more conducive to pushing up speed. I was watching the Olympic dressage whilst practising this machine. Some Asian guy was watching me train.

“Is that you doing that?” He asked.

“Is that me doing... what?”

“Oh, is it the TV? I thought you were controlling it by pedalling.”

“No, mate. It's the Olympic dressage in Rio.” Hardly something I can control from an exercise bike in Oldham Sports Centre, is it? Unbelievable.

So. Some improvements, although many machines I'd hit over and over again and not get any gains on, hence not being mentioned here. Watching TV does require a little concentration, so it can be hard to put in the graft at these times. I'm looking forward to getting a bit more variety into my workouts again.