Exercise is Good
The Gym Diaries Vol. 2
I’ve successfully made it to the gym twice in a week! So far so good!
I was a little more relaxed today, since I had been there once and already had an idea what I was doing. So I dropped my stuff off in a locker and headed to the second floor where they have a 30 minute full-body workout area (which actually only takes me 20 minute; at first I was concerned, but I think they’re counting the steps in that and I don’t do steps. Not since the horror that was my college aerobics class. Our instructor was a nazi and the step sessions were pure torture. I swore never again.)
Today I learned that many of my fellow gym patrons do not follow simple rules, like how to do the 30 minute workout. There are 10 stations (plus 10 of those diabolical steps) you start on one then procede to do them in numerical order from there. The green light means go, red light means rest and switch. Pretty easy huh? Nope. There were maybe 7 or 8 other people up there with me and I was the only one attempting to use the machines in order. I say attempting, because if no one else is going in order you can’t either. And let me tell you, it’s more painful to go out of order because you end up doing to many arm machines in a row.
I finally managed to do all the machines and decided to head back to the locker room to grab my water bottle and iPod before using one of the eliptical (sp?) machines. As I walk into the locker room, what do I see? Naked people! Ok, maybe more person than people, but nakedness! Yes, I know it’s a locker room and there are showers and people change and everything, but I would have been perfectly happy going through the entire course of my membership at the gym without seeing anyone else’s boobies.
Compared to that the rest of my workout was fairly uneventful. I spent 30 minutes of the eliptical machine before leaving, and I learned that it really is easier to workout when listening to music. I forgot my iPod last time, so I made sure I had it with me this time and it made time go so much faster! Plus I made an awesome workout playlist. It has 51 songs, so I can’t share them all with you, but here’s what played today:
AC/DC – Rock and Roll Train
Third Eye Blind – Semi Charmed Kind of Life
Bon Jovi – Have a Nice Day
Sugar Ray – Answer the Phone
Def Leppard – Rock of Ages
Big & Rich – Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy
Bon Jovi – Bad Medicine
My Chemical Romance – Desolation Row
Relient K – Chap Stick, Chapped Lips and Things Like Chemistry
The music definitely made the workout much more enjoyable and I’m actually looking forward to my next workout! I think I might like this gym business!
The Gym Diaries Vol. 1
Last week I finished reading Such a Pretty Fat by (my new favorite person ever) Jen Lancaster and decided it’s time to get serious about getting healthy and getting into shape. So I went out and joined a gym about 5 minutes from work. The idea being that I would be able to go straight from work to the gym, since I probably would never go if I went home first.
I signed up last Thursday and yesterday was the first day I actually went to work out. And I won’t be going today because A. It’s Thanksgiving and B. I hurt.
You see, my gym has this 30 minute express workout that is a serious of 10 machines that work out your entire body. I thought this was a great idea, so I did it and now I can barely lift my arms. But it’s all good. I figure that pain will be a reminder of my workout, so I don’t need to feel guilty about eating tons of carbs today, since according to the eliptical machine (which I spent 20 min on after the 30 minute circuit) I burned over 150 calories yesterday. For a girl who rarely does any physical activity, that’s not bad.
I was actually impressed with myself; I’m not much for working out in public. I’ve never thought I looked good in sweatpants or work out clothes, however I did find a cute outfit at Target that actually makes me look a little slimmer than I actually am (I totally looked cute! And I realize looking cute isn’t really a pre-requisite for workouts, but it sure made me feel better about working out in the company of a bunch of strangers).
The only problem with joining a gym is that I’ve never been to a gym, outside of high school gym class, in my entire life. I know nothing about proper gym etiquette. I mean, my gym is pretty relaxed (they’re motto is “Judgement Free Zone” which is one of the things that attracted me to it) but I’m sure there’s still come common courtesy things that you must do. Needless to say I spent half my time there just spying on observing the other people. I learned a lot this way. For example, make sure you wipe your sweat off the machines when you’re done. Though that one may have been a given. I also learned that some people will pay just to come to the gym and read magazines while half-heartedly using machines that you want to use. (fortunately this person was willing to move when asked politely … hey, who says I can’t be polite once in a while?)
So I would definitely consider my first workout a success. Now I just need to make sure I go several times a week and keep it up. And maybe at some point I’ll actually be able to move my arms the day after a workout.
