Memoirs of a Gym Member - On the DL

On Tuesday, on Brad's advice, I started working my upper body and not just by swimming. On Wednesday morning I woke up in SEVERE pain in my left shoulder area (The pain was in my right shoulder as well, but not as bad). So I skipped the gym that day to give me a day of rest.

This morning I woke up in even more pain so I started asking around at work and was told that I probably over (or hyper) extended some muscles. I was advised to stay out f the gym for a while, take ibuprofen and use a heat/ice therapy. I had an appointment already to see my massage therapist tonight and so I had her look at it as well. She spent about 30 seconds on it before she repeated exactly what the therapists at work said. She STRONGLY advised ice and heat and to wrap my shoulder for a few days. She said it might even be a week before I can go back to the gym for upper body stuff. So I am putting myself on the disabled list for upper body gym stuff. I'm hopefully going to go to the gym on Friday and ride a recumbent cycle for 30 minutes just to exercise my legs (I might even do some of those exercises that makes me feel like I'm at an OBGYN appointment), but for now the shoulder is off limits.

This will probably delay my move for a few weeks, but I'm patient. Having a working shoulder is more important to me right now.

(Some of you might be asking why I take the advice of my massage therapist so accurately. She was a personal trainer for a while before getting into massage. She is using massage to pay her way through school to get a pre-professional degree in Physical Therapy at which point she will go to PT stuff. She carries a pretty good GPA and really knows her stuff. Therefore I trust what she says.)

Memoirs of a Gym Member - Relapse, Re-entry and Repentance

So a funny thing happened on last Tuesday. I paid for my gym membership for the month yet I hadn’t gone the entire month. Ever since the garden started, I have been going to work, going to the garden, going to dinner and going to bed. There was no going to the gym. And even though the garden does give me a work out (shoveling, clawing, tilling and raking) I’m still the tubby little guy I have always been. My arms are stronger, but the rest of me is still flabby.

Last week I made several attempts to go back but nothing ever panned out. If it wasn’t the garden, it was grocery shopping or eating out with friends or arguing with my roommate. Everything else seemed to just get in the way. So on Saturday, I made the decision to start going in the mornings starting today.

At 6:30 this morning the alarm clock went off and I straggled out of bed, washed my face, brushed my teeth and left my apartment. (Note – I did not comb my hair. I am not going to the gym to impress women.)

Because it was a triumphant return I figured there would be trumpets when I breezed through the doors at my gym. Strangely, there were not. Instead there was almost no noise. I guess it is packed from 4:30 – 6:30 AM and then it is packed from 5 PM on. At 6:50, when I got there, there were probably 10 people.

Following up on Brad’s advice, I didn’t go swimming. I went and worked my lower extremities. There were only three machines for that though. There was the one where you sit knees bent and there is a bar that you push up as you straighten your legs. There was one that made me feel like I was at an OBGYN appointment – where I had to spread my legs wide open and there were two pads on my inner thighs and I had to try to squeeze them together. The last, and third, machine was just like the second except the pads were on the outside of my thighs and I had to try to spread my legs apart.

That was it for machines and I still had 20 minutes left in my workout. So I went over to the recumbent cycle and pedal for my last 20 minutes. Though not quite the experience of Dun, I got to have a great musical adventure. The guy pedaling next to me was singing al of the 80s songs as they were being piped over the speakers. Occasionally he even knew some of the actual words. It was amazing. I really wanted to turn to him and remind him that there were people who wrote those songs that way for a reason, but before I could he turned to me and invited me to sing along. I think tomorrow I’m going back to the pool. A little less talking and a lot more action going on there.

Memoirs of a Gym Member - The Beginning

In what I hope will be a lengthy series, I introduce to you tonight "Memoirs of a Gym Member." In an effort to be more like Mike (though not gay) and more like Liz (though not a woman) and more than anything because I'm tired of looking pregnant - I joined a gym. It turns out that as a County employee, I get a 65% discount and I don't have to pay any initiation fee or activation fee or any other fees. I just get to go for an incredibly low price.

I joined on the 22 of January. I went on the 22 and did 10 minutes in the hot tub, 12 minutes in the pool and 10 more minutes in the hot tub. I swam approximately 150 yards or 6 laps.

The next time I went (Thursday the 31st) I swam for 20 minutes and I swam 300 yards (or 12 laps) before going to the hot tub for ten minutes. So far I haven't been very impressed with my performance, but I'm learning. I'm learning to stretch first because it hurts less later. I'm learning to eat dinner after a good swim, not before. I'm learning to walk to the gym because parking sucks. I'm learning to use the hot tub after and not before.

I learned all of this and came to the gym tonight. I stretched, I swam, I walked there and I didn't eat until I got home. I swam 600 yards (24 laps) almost continuously (I stopped every 8 laps to rest). In total I swam for 22 minutes and went to the hot tub for 8 minutes.

So for my next paycheck I'm pricing out fins and new swim shorts. I'm really excited that this is going so well. I know the hard tasks are still ahead (In a week I'll start doing crunches to start to do something about this baby inside me.) but it's a good start. Maybe in 18 months I'll be healthy enough to run a half marathon.