Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim: At the Gym (Open to All)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Achilleas Petrakos (Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim: At the Gym (Open to All)

Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim: At the Gym (Open to All)
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Achilleas smiled as he rolled his shoulders. “It’s alright, I’ll make sure to not do anything close to my limit. High weights isn’t the only method but also high reps with lower weights. Reps can help tone and define muscles without really adding to them. Either way we can both start with the leg press as you won’t need someone to spot you.

CSO Petrakos

Alexis nodded, “Alright.” She followed him over to the weight machine, her mind devouring the configuration and quickly picking up how it worked. She also knew that higher weights would increase muscle mass, but lower weight with more time, or how did he put it-reps, would increase stamina. Out of pure intellectual curiosity, “So why did you decide to start this type of exercise?” She wondered if anyone did it for other reasons than being “buff,” or whatever they called it.
Lt Bonner, AMO

Achilleas moved behind the machine that Alexis would use and set the weight to thirty pounds. He thought it’d be a good introduction without really pushing her and they could increase it if it was too easy. He moved to the machine he was going to use and set the weight to seventy-five pounds. As he came around the front and get comfortable on the seat he responded. “Well Starfleet wants their officers in decent physical condition, at least what they told us in the Academy. I’m not sure how much that actually carries over into practical life on a starship though. I’ve found that it’s too easy to get focused on your work and not manage your self care well enough. As for this type of exercise, well cardio is fantastic and all but a bit of strength training included is fantastic for a more well rounded regimen. Holistically a healthier body leads to a sharper mind.”

CSO Petrakos

Alexis smirked. She’d never bought the ‘holistic’ medicinal practices. They weren’t scientifically proven. But exercise of any kind didn’t fall under the holistic medicines. “I suppose cardio does a lot for exercising your organ muscles, but not so much for your skeletal muscles. Both are essential for the body to operate.” Alexis was curious about his hypothesis and wondered if it proves to be true what that would do to her already overly hungry brain. She sat down in the machine, half on her back, feet pressed firmly the press board. If she hadn’t been watching Achilles’s she wouldn’t have noticed the safety lock and known to release it. She pressed up, expecting it to be hard, but it was actually very easy.
Lt Bonner, AMO

Achilleas watched a moment to be sure that Alexis was doing it correctly as not to hurt herself and that the weight wasn’t too much. He nodded his head and focused on pushing against his weights. “The more your body can efficiently store and retrieve energy the better. While you don’t want your body to cannibalize your muscle mass, obviously, having a balanced diet and decent exercise regimen can regulate your metabolism.” He paused his explanation while he looked over at her. “Is the weight good or would a bit more be better?”

CSO Petrakos

“I find that when I talk to my patients about diet they have this idea of starving themselves. Which is so wrong. A good diet is all about individual metabolism. And most people don’t even know what theirs is. And then they ‘diet’ and instead of improving their health, it only makes it worse.” Alexis lifted the weights several times considering his question. “I don’t know, it seems pretty easy.” She wouldn’t know it but it was probably too light, as she was moving through the reps more rapidly than she should.
Lt Bonner, AMO

Achilleas nodded as he stopped pushing on the leg press and got up. He motioned for Alexis to likewise stop before he moved behind her machine and added twenty more pounds to it. “Give that a try and see how it feels.”

CSO Petrakos

Alexis paused as Achilleas added the weight and then she tried again. This time, the weight was not difficult, but she had to move through the press steadily rather than with speed. “Much better. Thank you.” Alexis had no idea how long or how many reps to do, but she did about 12 and then stopped to rest muscles that she wasn’t used to using in such a way. Then she did another set, and then a third. By the end of the third she could tell she’d been working and placed the lock and stood up. She was sweating and moved to get another bottle of water, and drank slowly until it was gone.
Lt. Bonner, AMO

Achilleas had added onto his own weight before resuming his exercise alongside Alexis. When she finally stopped after the third set and got up he also got up and followed her to get a drink. He had been pondering her words about dieting and brought the subject back up. “I’ve never considered going on a diet but that’s likely because I keep pretty active even when I’m not exercising. A good diet compared to cutting out caloric intake sure has a lot of difference to it. It seems like it’d do far more harm to starve yourself then to adjust what you eat.”

CSO Petrakos

Alexis nodded, “The term ‘diet’ in scientific terms indicates the food and nutrient sources that are best for a species. Some time or other it has, in social terms, changed to mean starving one’s self in order to be ‘healthy.’ And that simply is not the way it works. It’s like how we were talking about the amount of water intake needed when exercising. What type of food you need to eat depends on what type of exercise you are doing. Cardio requires carbs, simple and complex. Weights, depending on if you are working towards building mass or stamina needs proteins and possibly fats as well. And what types of foods you use to get those nutrients depends on your body’s metabolism.” Alexis could spout this stuff all day long. She lived and breathed the medical world.
Lt. Bonner, AMO

“Well that seems pretty obvious to me.” Achilleas replied with a grin. “Your brain naturally requires sugars as well especially during long periods of intense use. The balance is where it’s key, I would think. Too many carbs or fats and you get fatter, but too few and you starve and get emaciated. A diet mostly seems to stem from body image issues. What would you recommend for those who diet but are never happy with the results?”

CSO Petrakos