Slow and Difficult All the Way

So with my last two workouts I have been doing some experimenting due to a rant by Jenna Marbles that I watched the other night.  If you have not seen any of her videos, you're missing out on some hilarity.  While not all her videos are nuggets of comedic gold and can sometimes be a bit brash, when she's on, she's on.  So the one that I watched the other night was a rant about people in the gym (a topic which I can certainly relate to).  Her particular gripe was with the people that are always looking over at your machine to see how long you have been on there or what distance you have gone.  I can understand that for sure, but I think I am a little guilty of it myself.  I definitely take a peak at the machine next to me when people have gotten there before I have, but it's more as a motivational tool - seeing what other people are up to is a way of kicking my competitiveness into high gear allowing me to push myself further.  I get it though, I catch people doing the same to me sometimes and you kind of feel like you're being judged which is not at all what I go to the gym for.  So in this rant, her annoyance was with the fact that people are looking over at her because she is going so slow - this is because she cranks up the difficulty on the elliptical instead of hanging out on a lower setting and going as fast as possible.  So I decided to test this out for myself, yesterday during my workout I stayed at a moderate difficulty but tried during bursts of higher intensity instead of staying at a consistent pace.  With those settings in the same amount of time I went .9km further and burned slightly more calories.  Today, I went all out with the highest possible difficulty setting and stayed at a consistent pace.  I found that in 15 minutes I burned the same amount as I had yesterday at the end of my 20 minute workout.  I also felt that I really felt my workout in my muscles a lot more while I was working out, I could feel the muscles throughout my legs (and even a bit in my arms) working.  So I think I am liking this new approach, if I can get more out of a shorter workout than I definitely think its worth it.  Also, I didn't get to do my sit-ups yesterday because there were two girls performing what can only be referred to as an ADD workout.  These girls were all over the place doing every kind of exercise imaginable.  They were doing burpies, push-ups, lifting weight, jumping jacks... it was like workout stereotypes from various had thrown up on these girls.  They had moved all the smaller equipment out of the way, and jammed them to the back of the workout room making it impossible to actually use any of them.  I don't know if what they were doing was an ideal workout, but even if it was the perfect workout, I just don't think I am interesting into that spattering of workout that reminds of elementary school gym class when you were only allowed ten minutes a station and then you had to move on to something else - I want to get into an activity, not move on to something else before I even really get to derive any pleasure or sense of accomplishment out of what I was just doing.  So I am going to keep on with my boring but consistent workouts.