October 7, 2015 12:46 AM
Hello reader!
This is my fitness blog thing. I know it's not a blog. But it's where I'm going to keep a public record of my renewed fitness. Today was day 1. I've been saying to everybody that I'm getting fat. In reality, I'm not, but I'm definitely out of shape. I can't run to the stop sign without being winded. Good luck getting me to run to the next one. Yesterday I received a long awaited phone call from the Good Life Fitness near my house. I had filled out their website form for a free 7 day trial pass, and had been looking forward to hearing from them. I made the appointment for today at 6:30. I finish work at 6 so it was a convenient time for me. I went down there, in flip flops and jogging pants with no plan to exercise today, and filled out their forms/answered their questions to get my week pass. The salesman guy (or whatever his generically named position was) pushed to sign me up today, with the first payment coming out in one week, giving me a free week but being able to continue going after that. I decided that I've put out enough excuses for the last 6 years (I even had a 1 year gym membership and went TWICE. DURING THE WHOLE CONTRACT.) that it was a much better idea to let him sell me and just sign up for the membership today. I did this. I took the tour and grabbed the paperwork and went out to my car to leave.
Sitting in my car, I was proud of my decision. Fuck this flab life. I'm going to get a body to be proud of again. I was excited. I called my girlfriend immediately and she was ecstatic at how happy I sounded. I went home and chatted with my brother for a bit. I tried to give him some motivating advice when he came to me with career questions.
I threw on a motivating video for him, which is hyperlinked here, called "What Do You Want To Be Remembered For?" and watched it with him. Damn, was I ever motivated now. Two quotes that REALLY got me:
"Confucius said one time,
He who says he can, and he who says he can't, are usually both right."
"If you're number one, you've gotta act like you're still number two, trying to get there."
I went in my closet, grabbed out my old, nasty ass, running shoes, and scrubbed down the rubber to a socially acceptable state. I decided I was going to be remembered, not for my failures, but my ability to move past my failures and keep pushing until they become success stories. I put my shoes on, and I went to the gym. On the way to the gym, I decided that I will go to the gym every single day. Some days I'll work out, some days I'll just cardio, some days I'll just sit in the massage chair for 30 minutes. But I will go every day. I went and jumped in, no turning back. This was my first day, and successful to me:
GENERAL WARMUP:
Cardio: Treadmill
Pre-Warmup: 2 minutes walking (a good walking speed for me was 3 MPH (yes, I'm Canadian but this machine was in MPH for some reason))
Jog: 15 minutes at 5 MPH or 12 minute per mile
Cooldown: about 1 minute at 3 MPH, about 2 minutes at 2.5 MPH, about 1 minute at 2 MPH, about 30 seconds at 1 MPH.
I have treadmill issues, where if I get off too fast, everything feels like it's coming towards me, similar to vertigo. I have to slow down on the treadmill to an almost stop. And then I just stand on the treadmill and hold on for about 1 minute.
I am proud of this cardio. Originally, I had planned on doing the same pre-warmup and then alternating jogging for 3 minutes, and walking for 1.5 minutes, for a total of 13.5 minutes. When it became my first cycle to walk, I opted to keep going until 5 minutes. When I was at 4.5 minutes, I noticed that it said PACE: 12 MINUTE MILE and I decided to try to jog an entire mile. This was a stretch but I wanted to push myself. I made it to 12 minutes and decided to keep going. At 14:10 minutes, I decided to go until 14:30 minutes OR until the TV show I was half watching ended the scene. Whichever came second. The scene ended shortly after and the timer said 15 minutes. I was proud. Queue cooldown walk.
Next, I went upstairs to the stretching area. They have a stretching tool that I will take a picture of tomorrow, that gives you an easy way to press into your stretches. They have 8 recommended stretches and I did each one for 10 seconds. I will improve this to 30 seconds total per stretch, letting off as needed and pressing back into it, until I can do consecutive 30 seconds per stretch.
Here is an easier view of what is written below:
Exercise - Weight - Reps - Sets
Lat Pulldown - 42.5 lbs - 12 - 3
Back Extension Machine - 100 lbs - 15 - 4
Bicep Curl - 15 lbs - 12 - 3
Bicep Curl - 10 lbs - 12 - 3
Triceps Extension - 20 lbs - 12 - 2
Next, I went over to the weight area. I decided to do what ever my heart felt was right, and just have fun for my first visit to the gym. I went over to the lat pulldown machine and started low. I started at the lowest weight, and moved up until I felt some real resistance. 42.5 lbs per arm ended up being my working weight. I did 3 sets. My biceps and back were both PUMPED. I miss this feeling so much. I forgot how addictive it is. I decided that I should be cautious with my back and start building some muscle in my back/core since I have had back issues in the past.
I wanted to go straight to the free weights and do some bicep curls, but there was some beastly girl over there that had me very intimidated. She looked like she was training for a body building show because she was shredded! I decided, instead, to wander around and look at the different machines. I found one for back extensions. I used to do physiotherapy for my back and one of the exercises was back-extensions on a yoga ball with just my body weight. This improved my back pain dramatically. I decided to hop on this machine and take it VERY slow since it was the same movement. I started at the top of the weight stack and did 15 reps on each weight until I found some real resistance. 100 lbs seemed like a good level of resistance that was enough to build some light muscle, but not enough that I would injure myself or put my back at ANY risk. I did 4 sets with LONG rest intervals. Rested until my back was completely fine again. Between 2-9 minutes per rest. I wanted to do some squats when I got there, but I got nervous when it came down to it since I have never done even one weighted squat. I decided I'd wait until this weekend when I can bring my girlfriend and we can check each others form. I know how to squat in theory, not in practice.
After this, I checked to see if the girl had left the free weights, and she had. I went over and went straight for some concentration curls. Started at 15 lbs for 12 reps and decided that was a good working weight. I did 4 sets at 15 lbs, and then did 3 more at 10 lbs. Huge pump going.
Next, I went and grabbed a 20 lb dumbbell and and did 2 sets of 12 reps of triceps extensions.
This was my first day back at the gym in 6 years. I am going to exclude the 2 attempts at fitness, during that 1 year of having a membership and not going. I didn't even put effort in those 2 visits, from my mental calendar.
I will update this in posts and answer questions as I go along. I will also put all exercises into an excel sheet so I can graph it to show progress.
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