The gym in a nutshell...

Actually it's not in a nutshell as I tend to be long winded (so says my friend Keith who refered to each of my postings as a novel). But here's the 'skinny' (hehe) on the gym so far.

Surprisingly I have not been sore since starting working out there. I had been doing light weight lifting at home with free weights, so maybe this was the reason. At first it scared me. Everybody knows no pain, no gain... so maybe I was doing something wrong? I truly expected to be laid up in bed the first day after our first full workout. So when I woke up and was able to get out of bed without first popping 4 Ibuprophen I was surprised...and then scared. What did I do wrong?!?!?!?

I knew in my head I worked out hard, as I could barely finish some of my sets. I even did that gross grunting thing (quietly) that those muscle men do when they are trying to impress hot women. I knew I was "sweaty betty" when I left. I knew my body was shaking as I walked down the stairs to leave so why the heck wasn't I dying of pain the next day? Marco, on the other hand, was hurting a little. Not as much as anticipated, but enough to moan and groan with any sort of jarring movement. Since the first time we went his pain has lessened with each workout and he isn't feeling much pain at all anymore. I still haven't figured out why I'm not hurting, but I'm just not. As long as I know I am pushing myself then I'm not going to worry about it. Maybe my 'high on life' is acting as an anelgesic? (I did NOT use the words high on life without gagging a little and then cracking up.)

I've found that my feet burn like crazy and go numb when I use the eliptical machine for my 30 minutes of cardio. The trainer said it was because my feet are staying still as I work out and swelling a bit in my shoes, causing the burning and numbness. So last time I loosened my laces a bit before jumping on and sure enough, the numbness was lessened as my feet had some extra room to expand. Who knew?

I found out that I love running on the treadmill. It is so much nicer than running on the ground and seems to cause less joint pain for me later. I ran 2 whole miles the other night with only having to slow to a walk for one minute, 23 minutes into my routine! That made me feel great.

I tried the row machine and didn't like it as well as I thought I was going to. I think my hands are too soft because after 3 minutes of rowing away I was feeling a bit blistery and ended up switching machines.

Riding a bike for 30 minutes is the most boring workout ever. I use the bike only occasionally for my 10 minute warm up.

My legs are a heck of a lot stronger than I thought and my arms (shoulders) are way weaker than I could have ever imagined. There is one machine that really just kicks my arse. I don't know the name of the machine but the muscle it works is on the top and side of your shoulder and I seriously want to cry when I use it. I was originally supposed to lift 15 kilos with the machine but just can not do it. So now I end up doing one set with 10 kilos and the other 2 sets with just 5 kilos. What a wimp! That machine is the devil!

I like the ab machine a lot more than doing sit-ups and there is a boxing ring in the gym that Marco and I both have been eyeing every time we're there. I would love to get in there and just play around, kick a little ass, and beat some stuff. (geesh frusterated much?)We're working out 3 times a week doing both cardio and weights all three times we go. I am going to try to squeeze in a 4th day for just cardio when I can just for fun.

Fun? I just called exercise fun. Wow.