"Jason Earl" wrote in message
...
On Fri, Oct 21 2011, RichD wrote:

I work out on the rowing machine twice per
week, among other things; running, stationary
bike, swimming, tennis, squash. It's the best
full body workout I know. I typically do 25 min.,
250 calories.

That sounds like fun, although I generally take the calorie readings
from machines with a large grain of salt. As long as you always use the
same machine (or same type of machine) it is a useful benchmark though,
and you probably do burn approximately that many calories.

However, there's one odd thing - I hardly
sweat! Is this a bad sign? Is the 'fitness
feeling' an illusion, am I really not getting my
money's worth? As opposed to the bike,
where I'm drenched.

Also, squash generates the most perspiration.
Which seems weird, because it doesn't feel
so draining as the others.

There's more to sweat build up than how hard you exert yourself. If the
room where you use the rowing machine has an unusually low relative
humidity, for example, or more airflow, then it would effect how much
sweat build up you get. Playing squash in a warm, poorly ventilated,
and humid room is going to make you sweat a lot, even if you don't
hardly move around at all. Heck, sit in the sauna for a bit and you'll
sweat buckets without even moving.

If you want to measure how hard you are working get yourself a heart
rate monitor. It's not perfect, but it is a heck of a lot better than
trying to measure how much you sweat.

Environmental factors being equivalent, sweat is proly a better indicator of
calorie burn than HR -- in essence a calorimeter, as sweat is a response to
body heat, whereas HR can be stimulated in a variety of ways.

The squash proly doesn't feel as draining because so many different muscles
are being used, so that no one group is being fatigued, but the total heat
production is very high -- environmental stuff notwithstanding.
--
EA