Today saw my second visit to the local gym for exercising. My first visit was on Tuesday morning (Monday was a Bank Holiday over here). I was more than a bit nervous of going at all but found one huge benefit - I was on my own and not part of a class or group all doing the same thing and I was working purely to improve my own health and performance not for any competitive purposes. I feel that unless you are good at physical education/exercise (or whatever else you want to call it) working as part of a group can be counter productive as there is a real risk that you will just compare yourself with the best in the group and then just give up. By doing this on my own I feel that I personally have a far better chance of continuing with it.
The exercises I do include sessions on the treadmill, one where you use your arms to "bicycle" round (as you can see I have a full grasp of all the technical terms!), ones where I am on a piece of equipment where I use either my arms or my legs to lift weights. Tuesday and today I started with a session on a stationary bike which I HATED. I kept on sliding forawrd and feeling generally uncomfortable and had difficulty in keeping going for more than a minute at a time. I am also sure that is why a personal part of my body is now bruised and painful to sit on or to get up from sitting. However the trainer there who is advising and helping me saw that I was having real difficulty in this and has changed my exercise plan so that in future visits I do two sessions on the treadmill, one walking on the straight and one going "uphill".
I do plan to continue with this. It was interesting though just how full the gym was today. I was told though that there is a significant number of people who come for the first two weeks of the year and then don't come back until the beginning of January the following year - something they do every year. I hope that I shall do better than that though.
P.S. I notice that today Nimrod the Mighty Hunter and Pickle are taking turns to peer into a crack between the washing machine and a cupboard in the kitchen. They would not, of course, do this unless there is something there to interest them. I have the suspicion that Nimrod is up to his old tricks and has brought in another "lodger". If so I hope I can find it and expel it without too much difficulty.
2 comments:
Super report on your exercise session--and you are correct that many more people show up at the first of the year than at any other time. Elegant Friend and I roll our eyes and whine about having to put up with the "new year resolution" crowd--LOL. By mid-March or the first part of April, the crowd will have thinned back down to the hard core of fitness seekers.
I'm sure that your trainer saw to it, but it sounds like your bicycle seat wasn't properly adjusted to your body. Of course, the stationary bike seatss are not totally adjustable, as are those on a "real" bike. It is a great idea to add a bit of incline as you become accustomed to it. I usually start at "flat" and alternate, with each passing minute or two, between increasing the speed by .2 mph and increasing the incline by 1 degree. I do this until I reach my target maximums. Toward the end of my session, I decrease in the same manner. Unfortunately, although there are elliptical trainers that allow one to "go backward", our treadmills do not. Do yours?
Truly, I enjoy a group--as long as it is relatively the same group each time. I find that we encourage one another; but, that is a very personal thing--not for everyone. My Hunky Husband would die before he would exercise with another person--let alone a group!!
Keep up the great work, Val!
Cop Car
CopCar, It's an odd thing that although I used to enjoy riding a proper bycycle when I was in my teens I just could not get comfortable on the stationary one. A gentleman on the one next to mine onThursday had a similar problem. The trainer was with e both sessions and showed me how to adjust each piece of equipment as far as possible - so I suspect thatit is just not possible to amend the height/pich of the stationary bike seat to suit me. As I am not going to do it again I am not concerned about this ~grin~.
As far as the treadmill is concerned I shall, as I said, be doing two sessions on this. Not a problem - as a matter of fact it was programmed (by my key) to go at something like 1.4 km/ph. This was far too slow for me so I kept manually increasing its speed to 3.5 which he has now programmed my key/programme to get the treadmill to go at. I shall be going back tomorrow morning and shall see how I get on with that.
I am glad to be working on my own so that as I said earlier I can work at my own pace. Everyone is different, of course, and I am sure that you enjoy working as part of a group. Me, I am rather a solitary person in many ways, this one included.
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