went to the gym tonight and decided to step it up a notch. i went for 20 minutes on the stationary bicycle as a warmup and tried to keep the heart rate and the legs really pumping. (watch out when the industrial and metal songs are playing on the ipod 'cos my legs go crazy trying to match the beat of the drums and some days it feels like the bicycle will take off.) the program modes don't have a cool down step so i usually create my own and go for another 5 minutes. then i did my round with the various machines. i try to do 2-3 things that work on the arms, then switch to 2-3 things that work on the legs. i go back and forth like that so i don't tire out and give up. i had been doing the lowest or second to lowest weight on most of the machines to go for tone instead of bulk but i have been changing it up. as i do my thing and look around, i kinda laugh at all the guys that try to do as much weight as possible and then do it really really fast--these little quick bursts--because it's like they have some sort of idea that they have to become huge in the upper body (ending up with pencil legs) and that's the way to go about getting huge. tonight i tried to do the machines very slowly in controlled movements to really work the muscles and get some stamina. the slower you go and try to hold it at the key points, the more your muscles can feel it that it can be even more tiring than trying to go for the heavy weights. i tried to do that for a minimum of 5 sets of 20 reps but there was just one machine that i couldn't do it. i hadn't worked on the back muscles of the legs for awhile so i made sure to tackle that. i worked the machine 2 different ways to target 2 different sections and could only finish 3 sets--it was simply too tiring and i could almost feel the calf cramps kicking in. i also try to do 100 crunches but think i only got to 50 tonight. i usually only exercise while twiddle thumbs is doing her yoga class plus a little extra so that she can get some machines in after the class. tonight though things were running late and it just felt right to cut things shorter than usual.