Let's Get Physical!

I am far from the first person in the world to decide that the new year would mark the arrival of a new, better person. This blog is to be an example of this. Another example is my new healthier living policy.

I have decided to increase the number of visits to the gym from zero to once or twice a week. I think the trick here is to stay away from stupid, do or die ultimatums. If I say that I will go to the gym three times a week, I'm setting myself up for failure. But if I say that I'm going to go to the gym every week, there's a strong(er) chance I will do it.

So today, after I dropped the eldest off to school, I went to the local Aqua-park, which also has a gym with over 45 different machines designed to make specific parts of your body hurt.

As I got changed, I noticed that I was the youngest man in the changing room by about 25 years. A brief moment of fear that I was intruding on a private group was quickly replaced by a relaxed feeling of confidence that at least I would not be the worst in the gym. This feeling was short-lived, however, when I suddenly imagined that I might be the worst in a group of sixty-year olds

Remembering the basics from the scouts, or secondary school PE, or something, I did my 15 minutes of aerobic exercise, to get the blood flowing, and made the cycling machine my weapon of choice. After three minutes of level two at 76rpm, it really is hard to believe that three is not half of fifteen, but I trusted my eyes, and forced them to focus, to see the clock turn to fifteen.

Looking around to find the (other) old men, I wandered over casually, trying to act casual, to see what kind of exercises I could do next (while trying really hard not to look like the kind of man who follows other men around at the gym). I settled on a series of machines designed to get rid of stomach muscles by tearing them out of you.

Anyway, I also decided that my upper body needs to be more toned (ha! as opposed to the rest of my soft, pale, flabby body), so I forced myself to use a machine that firms and tones your pecs, bicept and triceps, or in my case, makes some teenagers smirk at you as you take the pin out of the 25kg mark and place it into the 10kg mark.

I finished the workout with 10 minutes of a 15 minute session on the rowing machine. I could do no more.

All in all, I was pleased with the first time. We'll see how I feel later in the week.

The betterment of Keith Byrne continues.