Recording My End of Month Gym Efforts

On December 27th Gary, Charlotte, Lillie and I joined a gym together. We try to go as many days as possible each week. On a good week, we manage around five or six times, on a busier week, less.

I am forcing myself not to get caught up in weekly amounts because, through Noom, I am learning that an all or nothing approach results in an all or nothing result.

Even if I only go once, I count this as a win. One is better than none. That said, I’ve never been only once, because I enjoy it so much and feel so incredibly good after going.

Also, there is a benefit when you go in a group because you kind of get buoyed along by the others if your feel like you’d rather stay at home. But that rarely happens. I am more often in the buoyer role than the buoyee…

Anyway, I digress.

When I first went in December, I did ten minutes on the ‘armchair’ bike (a bike you could sit back on whilst pedalling) and I did it in level four (it very nearly killed me!).

I then did a few machines. I think maybe only five. They trained my biceps, triceps, chest, inner thighs and outer thighs. I started on the very lowest weight (maybe 10Ib) for my arms and embarrassingly even struggled to lift that and did two sets of eight reps. My legs were a bit stronger and I lifted maybe 25Ib, with the same number of sets and reps.

I would then finish off my time at the gym with a ten minute walk at level four. No incline.

Each time I went back to the gym I tried to increase what I was doing by the smallest amount. I have never weight trained before and was 1) surprised by how hard I found it at first and just how weak I was and 2) blown away by how quick the improvements came.

Now, at the end of March, I alternate my training. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I do cardio. I am focusing on building up strength rather than endurance right now.

So I opt for the treadmill and do forty minutes of fast walking on a level between six and seven, often with an incline of 1. I change my speed throughout the walk.

About two weeks ago I started to include a little jog. Oh my days! I not only nearly died, but also rather comically almost fell off the machine! And I only ran for 15 seconds! The next time, two days later, I increased it to 30 seconds and so on. I can now jog fairly comfortably for 2 minutes.

Yes, I know, this is nothing to brag about, but when you start from zero capabilities any achievement is a huge win!

On a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I weight train. I only use the machines, even though the rest of my clan use the free weights. I don’t want to injure myself so I’m sticking with the machines.

These days, I work out on fifteen machines and work on my legs, arms, chest, abdomen and back. In general the weights I use to train my arms have increased to 40Ibs, those for my legs are at 70Ib. I now do three sets of eight reps and an additional five reps on the next weight up to try to train my muscles to lift a little heavier.

These are still fairly low weights and reps but the improvement is vast and I’m loving competing against myself! I have also taken to finishing off my weights with a quick jog. My muscles are so warm that it seems a little easier to run then. I’m still only just hitting 2 minutes, but I intend to improve that in the next month.

I kind of want to apologise for this post, because I realise it probably won’t be that interesting to most but I wanted a place to jot down my progress each month.

If you work out or are working towards some exercise or movement goals, please do share in the comments. Perhaps we can encourage and support each other?