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Monday, Feb. 21, 2005 - 8:29 p.m.
gym-tastic
Travis and I joined the gym right near our house last Thursday night. He got the clearance from his doc to go ahead and start to exercise, and well, it was smarter for the three of us to join the gym than just him.
Since his knee is still a bit too swollen, I made my orientation appointments with a trainer and started going. I went on friday afternoon and met Kate, who is young, recently married, and a certified athletic trainer who used to work for the Richmond Ballet. It's probably not an accident of fate that I managed to work with her. She was terrific; Friday night she showed me all the cardio equipment and had me do about five minutes on each piece to get the hang of operating it all. What's cool is that most all of teh machines have the capability of checking your heart rate just by you holding on to the bars for a few seconds. I started with the treadmill, a machine totally familiar to me, then moved on to the elliptical machine.
If it's possible to be hooked on a piece of exercise equipment, then I am. If you've never tried an elliptical machine, it is fantastic! Once you get the hang of balancing yourself and doing the motion, it is smooth and really comfortable. It's like running, only your feet don't fully leave the footplate, and it's sort of like cross-country skiing, except that the motion isn't as back-and-forth. And, it's a very low-impact sort of exercise, which is fabulous for my knees and other overloaded joints. I swear, I could have stayed on that thing for forty-five minutes.
She showed me the bike and then a thing called an arc-trainer, which is similar to the elliptical machine except that the motion is more of a back-and-forth arc kind of thing, rather than around-and-around. I like the arc trainer too, and the motion is just different enough to be interesting and fun.
What's really cool is that in this first training session, I found out what my actual target heart rate range is. I also found out, after working on the equipment *in* my target heart rate range, that I was expending *waaaay* too much effort when I was trying to run and/or walk before. No wonder I had a hard time starting and sticking with it! I was miserable, and it was because I was working too hard, not to mention the fact that my legs and knees were always killing me afterward because my 34 year old bod can't take the pounding at my current weight.
It was a beautiful revelation, and contributes much to my motivational level.
The second visit with the trainer was Sunday, and covered the weight machines. They have some Freemotion machines, which are like your standard Nautilus-type stuff, except that the part you hold and move is a pulley, so there is an infinite variety of ways to move your arm or leg or whatever. It was really interesting to see the different ways I could use the machine; some motions were very dancer-like, which I love, and some motions were very obviously conducive to fighting. I think Travis will really dig these, once he is able to get to use them.
I felt really really good after my workout Sunday afternoon.
My goal is to make it to the gym at a minimum, three times a week, shooting for four times. I can lift weights three times a week, and do cardio as much as I want. I really need to build up my endurance, and I need to strengthen my back and upper arms and quads. Peeling off a few pounds would be a plus, as well. It would be nice to have a waist. Sometimes I feel like I am wearing a thick overcoat of fat. Gross concept, I know, but that's how it feels. I really want to peel it off, like, unzip it and step out, and so I guess the best thing for that is lots of cardio time with some weights thrown in. And less chocolate.
Sorry this is so lame, my diatribe about my gym experience; I really wanted to mull it over, and sometimes the best way is in writing.
Anyway, I'm hoping to get out of work early enough tomorrow to make an hour visit to the gym before coming home to get Kira off the bus. We're meeting with a financial planner (sigh, grownup stuff) in the afternoon, and then I am planning on going to TNK.
That's all for now.
