Checking in

It's been a heck of a long time since I posted here and things have changed an awful lot.

From my initially fearful forays into the fitness world, I've come on literal leaps and bounds. I've had my share of injuries and illness, some more bizarre than others (if you ever thought bouncing down a concrete staircase on your tailbone would be fun, think again), and some proud achievements.

I've lost and gained weight through regular peaks and troughs in my gym going habits, but mostly enjoyed my long journey. In a similar timescale others would have achieved far more I'm sure, but I always felt I started somewhere behind the curve. Last August, my asthma led to my humiliation as I had to leave a sparring class, and I vowed to give up group cardio sessions then and there.

That said, I've since completed a 10k in Cape Town (it was supposed to be 5k!) and returned to spinning.

This year will see a 10k around Whipsnade Zoo, and cycling around Belgium for a holiday. Watch this space!

Catching Up!

So my last post talked of my frustration at the recovery period, which I chalked up to spinning and power plates. It's nearly a week on now and I've just finished another spinning class, so I'll let you know tomorrow whether I still have the same sore arms as I do get a bit of a workout of them as well!

Workout Number 2

So Thursday brought my second attempt at my workout. I decided to pick up a heart rate/calorie monitor as well as I'm really trying to document everything on MyFitnessPal. It's a big of hassle putting in your food and all but it has everything I eat on it (so far!) so it's not too bad, and it really keeps me away from stepping on the scales every morning "just to check" if I ate too much the day before. I know, I know, that's ridiculous. But it's a bad habit I got into. By counting my calories up to a value that will help me lose weight per week, I know I haven't been "bad" and won't get a fright. It's nicer to see that value change as well at the end of the week.

I did better with my cycle this time - where the first time I was doing it mostly at resistances of 2/4 and then the last bit is 1, this time I did more 4/6s and felt quite comfortable with that (on the bikes I use, resistance levels go from 1-12, 12 being the highest). For the strength portion of my workout, I plodded on as normal - still struggling a bit with the chest incline, by the middle of the second set I really had a hard time pushing the thing out, so I took 5kg off again for the third set. For my abdominal exercises, I spread them out throughout my workout instead, opting to avoid the traditional crunches entirely on this attempt due to signing up for a Legs, Bums & Tums class the following day. I did however perform one set on the abdominal crunch machine with 5kg extra on it instead.

Then it comes to the treadmill at the end of my workout. Last time this left me feeling really deflated, but I sought some advice from various places and once I started to struggle with it I just took my Technogym key out and did as much as I felt comfortable with. In the end I was on the treadmill for a good twenty minutes (Torchwood came on as well, which kept me occupied) of walking and running, and felt a lot better about myself.

After the session I spoke to one of the instructors who was around and asked him to look at my treadmill workout for me as it was completely beyond me and I wanted to try and stick to using the TechnoGym. He took one look at it and was shocked and asked me who programmed it for me... evidently it isn't normal to expect a newbie to increase their speed as they run up hill... so he set me a new program, a combination of running and walking at reasonable gradients.

The heart rate monitor thing worked quite well, I was a bit worried when my heart rate when too high (apparently), but I've been assured not to panic too much just yet and that it will come down. It's nice to watch the calories :)

Legs, Bums & Tums

This was my first "proper" class, a studio one. I chose it because it was the lower level difficulty for an actual aerobic class, whilst there are other classes that have 'no' difficulty such as yoga, pilates etc. I was nervous, again, and stood around like a lemon whilst waiting for people to come in, people asking me "are we not using the step today?" and I'm like "err...."

Everyone's really smiley and friendly though! This class was a morning one on the Friday and it was mostly populated by ladies of a slightly older generation. I followed suit eventually and got a step and two platform raising thingies out and then put a mat to the side. The instructor arrived eventually and she was really nice too, asked if anyone was new and myself and one other raised our hands. She said just to try and keep up/get used to it but that it was quite a lot of work on the lower muscles so if at any point we needed a rest then to take one.

I realised my co-ordination needs a little work, but hey I guess that'll come with practice. Strange though because again it's something I used to be really good with when I was younger! I found it quite tough in places (I always seem to hit a slight wall that I need to break through after about ten minutes of something) and took a couple of little breaks but for the most part I kept with it and I really enjoyed it too. I'm just a bit disappointed that the class isn't one I can attend around my working hours :( There is one LBT class I think but it's a Level 2 class and I'm not sure I'm ready just yet.. maybe after a bit more spinning (also Level 2).

Progress!

This day marked a week since I had my induction as well, so I thought I would brave the gym scales. They seem to weigh more than mine at home by about 1kg or so, which is a pain, so I don't know really how much I actually weigh, but when it comes to trying to shed a bit of weight it's all relative anyway so never mind. Anyway! I'd lost 1kg over the week, hurrah! I've trimmed a few centimetres off as well - 8 in fact over the places I measure, which admittedly includes three measurements over my belly (natural waist, bellybutton, biggest bit of belly). Oddly, I've added 1cm to my upper arms. I'm not worried in the least about that because it's all muscle, and I can see that it's all muscle. I just might end up being Guns of Steel Girl. It feels really pronounced to me...

Workout Number 3

I had a day off after LBT, then it was time for Workout Number 3 on the Sunday this week. On my "off" days I've been trying to exercise a bit gently otherwise - like walking to Starbucks to meet my friends rather than hopping the bus. One other thing I'm planning to do is walk to work when I start - not feasible these first few days as I'm on induction at another site which is too far away really - but from Thursday. Watch this space. If I can stick with it not only will I lose some pounds, but save almost £70 a month!

Anyway, off track. Workout number 3. I find I'm getting quite excited about going to the gym (except on spinning day, which still scares me) and this was no different. I decided I would really try and push myself on this day, and it really paid off.

I made it through my cycle routine without changing anything - I even tackled the 0.5km of level 8 resistance, though it was hellish! That's in the middle of my routine and then it gets easier again, back to 6, 4, 2 and finally 1 for a sprint. I really went for that - getting like 130rpm.

Strength training as normal, again I skipped the normal crunches, still did the ones on the wellness ball, and did a couple more sets on the machine at a higher weight. I think I will start on 15kg next time and do three sets on that. Still struggling with the chest incline, but hey ho.

Treadmill - first day with the new routine. And I did it. All of it. It may not seem like much but I don't think I've ever run 800m in one go in my life before, but I did it. My new routine has 800m of running over four different intervals - something like 7, 8, 9, 10 kph. The 10 was nice to have a bit of faster running. Then I get a rest of walking fast, and then a final run again. So proud to have completed it! And I burnt 720 or so calories that workout!

Spinning Round 2

I almost didn't go. It was also my first day at work so I was a bit tired, and I wasn't sure I could really cope with it after last week. But, the way I see it, the first class has got to be the worst, and at least the instructor knows that I'm still new at it.

I arrived early and went straight to the bikes (no power plates detours this time) and spent some time setting up my bike how I wanted it. A nice lady next to me helped me with this and we chatted a bit, which was nice! Getting the bike right probably helped me quite a bit, and all in all I coped a lot better with it this time around.

The instructor noticed my watch and asked me to tell her how many calories I burnt!

But my word it was HOT - even she kept saying so - we were all sweating buckets, I don't think I've ever actually had it dripping off me quite like that before it was insane. As with most things, I hit that little 'wall' where I just feel like I can't carry on, I took a little break for about thirty seconds and then I carried on and for the most part I kept up with the class. I'm sure my resistance wasn't as high as some of them, and I definitely struggled getting the pedals round at times, but I just focused on my own thing a lot more and found it much easier.

I think last time I was getting a bit carried away. See, this Spinning class isn't really a Spinning class I don't think. Spinning as I understand it is more about going as fast as you can all the time? This one, V-Cycle, is more about pretending you're actually on a bike. So sometimes it means going slow and pushing through. I struggle with getting my resistance right - when I sit down, it's at the right speed, but when I stand up I must be stronger because I suddenly move a lot quicker! Something to work on, I guess.

Anyway - got through it all, 571 calories burned, and feeling a lot better. Yippee!

Tomorrow is a rest day, especially as I've worked two days running, and then Wednesday I have a "Stretch and Relaxation" class which is a new class in my gym, so I thought it would be a good one to try because it will be new for everyone. I've got a half day on my work induction course so I could even think about doing my workout beforehand I guess, otherwise will save workout for Thursday... we'll see!

Recovery is Frustrating

I wasn't really prepared for enjoying this exercise lark so much so soon, and I find myself a bit disappointed that I haven't been able to get to the gym either today or yesterday due to aching from my previous session.

I think it was the power plates that did it as it's been my arms in particular that are sore. What is strange though is that in comparison to my measurement last Friday, my upper arms have grown 1cm. Surely that's a bit soon? They do feel quite firm, though, maybe the power plates did do something. Official measurements/weigh in will be Friday, though, based on the gym's scales.

Anyway, in the absence of a gym session today I instead opted to walk to meet some friends for coffee, which involved a 1.8 mile climb up a big hill (the same hill I used to cycle up that I labelled the HILL OF DOOM or similar). It took me a little over half an hour, but apparently the walk there and back earnt me nearly 300 calories. I'm not sure I believe it, but I'm not going to complain, and I celebrated with a frappuccino (light) and an apple and cinnamon muffin.

It also saved me £3.20. I think I will try and walk to/from work next week as well, as I felt good doing it and I'm starting to see things in terms of health/fitness benefits as opposed to whatever is 'easiest'. But is it really that much easier for me to walk 10 minutes to the bus and then sit on it for 20 minutes? I'm not so sure. The only issue might be time as it takes a good half an hour to walk, but again that weighs up against waiting for a bus, sitting on the bus, and then walking home, which could take me up to 45 minutes in the past. I wonder if the walk might do anything for my cardio fitness that could translate to my running and cycling ability as well, but I quite often walk into/around town as it is. Hmm.

Anyway, tomorrow should be a gym session hopefully, and then Friday is legs, bums & tums! Next time doing my usual program I'm going to alter my abdominal routine a bit - do the medicine ball bit first, possibly drop down to 10 reps per set, then on the crunch machine, and then normal crunches, but spread throughout my workout rather than all together, to try and change how it affects my poor muscles.

Spinning and Things

So I had my first spinning class yesterday. I approached it with a hefty dose of fear because I know I'm unfit and felt I wouldn't be able to keep up. My plan was to arrive early so that I could settle in a bit; get my bike ready and whatnot and not feel quite so silly.

I made my way around to the spinning bikes and got stopped by Joe, who is the guy who did my induction on Friday.

"Before you get on the treadmill...!" he shouts,

"I'm not getting on the treadmill, I'm going round there *points*"

"Oh, well, what time does that start?"

"7.30..."

"Great! You can do my power plates class first!"

"Err.... but.. I need to warm up and things"

"This will only be ten minutes. I'm very stubborn you know."

"Ok.. I guess..."

"Great. Stay here!"

So I had ten minutes on the power plates before spinning, which didn't really help me to feel energised before class!

Power Plates

I'm not going to be able to say if they had a massive effect on me really, because I'm doing a normal workout program as well. I know the main selling point is that they are quick and everything - did I feel like I had a full workout after that session? Hard to tell because 2 minutes later I was pedalling like a fool.

It was enjoyable though, bit strange, but enjoyable. I couldn't do the abdominal exercise though because I'm suffering with Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness from my Saturday workout. Basically everything else in my body was feeling fine, just my abs - I really need to be careful with the next session not to overdo it. I mentioned it to Joe and he just said I should build up to it, no worries.

I find some exercises easier than others. Tricep dips easier than press ups, double arm plank thingy easier than one arm, deadlift position was a cinch compared to the ab crunch thing.

My muscles are aching today though, the day after the session. I guess it did do something, then, but I think I should delay my next workout until tomorrow.

Spinning

Was it a nightmare? Not quite... there were moments when I felt like I just wanted to get off the bike and hide in a corner but never mind.

I was having issues assessing the required resistance because the bikes used have twisty nobs rather than gears as some others have. This led to the instructor telling me to increase it several times at one standing up part which was moderately embarrassing.

I struggled, but I wonder if the power plates and my inexperience led to me not using the right muscles effectively at the start. Toward the end of the class something clicked a bit more and I was able to keep up with the hill climbing section a lot better. If I had managed to engage in the same way earlier on I think I would've done better.

There were times that the pedals got away from me a bit and my legs just sort of locked up, and that led to one foot falling off the pedal/out of the cage.

Most of the class seemed to really know what they were doing but there was one girl in front of me who seemed to just sit and get on with it as much as I did at times, so I didn't feel completely useless.

I'm going to stick with it, and with the same instructor. She was nice, didn't bark at me or anything or tell me off, and just let me get on with things when I was struggling. She knows I'm useless now and it can only get better so I'll stick with her. Until next Monday!

Tomorrow: Workout again, and I'm going to try and do a lot better on the exercise bike part of my routine, and try and run a little bit more if I'm feeling not sore.

Workout Day One

I was looking forward to this - nervously, I might add. I picked a Saturday night for my first go, which proved a good move as the place was very quiet.

I wasn't sure how I would cope with my program because I've got no experience of doing exercise to weights or times or distances or anything like that. I would get on a bike and go somewhere and back again, or I would play a game of football.

Bike was up first, started ok but when the resistance started increasing I found I was struggling, so I just kept it to a level I felt comfortable with. About three quarters of the way through I oddly felt a bit stronger so managed to increase it a bit more, and did the rest of my 4km.

Then all the strength stuff which I coped quite well with. I struggled with the chest incline a bit - I was doing reps of 15kg and for the third set I had to reduce it to 10 because I just felt a bit too weak on the left.

Plodded on through until my abs exercises. These were three sets of 20 reps on a machine, then three sets of 20 reps on a wellness ball, then three sets of 20 reps just on a mat normally.

By the last exercise... I literally could not do it! I couldn't lift up at all. But, I figure after doing 120 crunches that's not the end of the world and I will get stronger.

The running though...

That's what worried me most and it was justified. After very few minutes I just couldn't do it anymore. There's 2k on my program but there's no way I can get there just yet, and this really disheartened me until I heard a few stories from others.

Basically I just felt tired and achey all over, and my 'wobbly bits' (including two rather large wobbly girly bits) just felt like lead, adding to the ache. I walked a bit, ran a bit more, then gave up and went home.

Not a complete loss, but I wish I could've done a bit better.

It's a start though, huh?

My Program

So, this is my starting program. The idea is to build up the distances and weights, and things will be reviewed again in September. So I have these goal weights, and I'm aiming to get to those in about eight weeks time.

1 - Bike - 4km over varying resistances.

2 - Leg Press - 3 x 12 reps of 40kg, goal is to reach 70kg.

3 - Leg Extension - 3 x 10 reps of 20kg, goal 35kg.

4 - Leg Curl - 3 x 10 reps of 20kg, goal 35kg.

5 - Chest incline - 3 x 12 reps of 15kg, goal 35kg.

6 - Chest pulldown - 3 x 12 reps of 20kg, goal 35kg

7 - Abdominal crunches - 3 x 20 reps of 10kg, goal 30kg

8 - Crunches on Ball - 3 sets of 20 reps

9 - Traditional crunches - 3 sets of 20 reps.

10 - Run - 2km over varying speeds and gradients.

With a bit of luck I'll have abs of steel in 8 weeks if nothing else!

Gym: Day Zero

So, with blogs, I tend to start them from time to time and abandon them at some point. They do tend to serve the purpose of following some sort of little metaphorical journey of mine, though. In the past I had one for when I left for uni (the first time), and then I had one documenting my experiences as a radiotherapy student. This I actually carried on as part of a portfolio that was marked and it was apparently a good piece of evidence! So, clearly, blogging does have a purpose, and in that case it was a learning tool.

Here it's so I can look back over what I've done, maybe do a bit of learning, and maybe even offer up some encouragement to those of you out there who may have never ever even set foot in a gym before and feel terrified at the prospect.

A bit of background...

When I was a teenager I used to do a lot of sport. As in, when I try to think of all the different sports I participated in, I end the list with "is that it.. I'm sure I'm missing something", and I probably am. I was kinda good, too. Not excellent. Just hardworking enough, I suppose.

Then I went to uni and thought that everything would be beyond my ability, so it all fell by the wayside. Then I dropped out of uni, started work, dug myself into a rut and couldn't be arsed with anything. Back to uni! Loved it, but absolutely zero time between hospital placement and academic work.

A first class degree (yippee) and a job at the hospital I trained later (starting soon), I feel like I have the time and money to invest in fitness now, but not exactly the know how.

I live in a hilly city. I walk around, sometimes I even cycle but after getting completely drenched one day on the way to work I fell out of love with that. I've always been against the idea of a gym - paying money to go and do exercise, but I guess now I can see why people maybe do as it's a lot more than just handing over cash to get a space to do sit ups.

Starting Point

A friend of mine has been raving about certain classes for years now - Body Attack and such - and whilst I have little idea what this actually entails, his enthusiasm was infectious, and I sort of thought that maybe classes might be something I could really get into. But go on my own? Aggh!

Yeah, no answer to that really when there's no one around for me to really go with on account of finishing uni. The only people I'd feel comfortable with are at the uni gym which doesn't even have classes, so, I just had to get over it really to do it myself.

Started looking around at all the gyms in my city - there's a very good selection - and sent out a few enquiries. Basically, the first one to get back to me (and the only one with a climbing wall), was the one I ended up choosing. Partly because they were first, but also partly because they were somehow considerably more friendly than others. Be prepared for gyms to constantly call you afterward to try and set up appointments, though. I'm hoping that if I ignore them they will go away.

Complete Novice

And I mean it. I'm sure people can empathise with that. I mean, I went to get some new shoes and the guy wanted me to run on a treadmill so he could assess their fit and how I run. I hadn't ever run on a treadmill before so he made me run on the shop floor instead. Proper face palm moment.

I went along anyway to meet someone to have a look round the "club", and she was really nice and showed me all the bits and pieces. I forgot to ask things about how to use the lockers (bring your own padlock, I guessed thankfully), or if there were shower cubicles (there are). That kind of thing matters to a person who is completely new to the gym, I reckon.

Said I'd never been to the gym before, didn't feel an absolute idiot either, so felt I made the right choice. Signed up and booked an induction session, which is where I just came back from.

Induction

Again, no clue what to expect, of course. It lasted an hour, which I think is probably on the long side in comparison to some.

It involved first of all height and weight (cringe), talking about what goals I'd like to achieve (lose a stone amongst other things), whether they were achievable (apparently I don't need to lose that much, hurrah!) and over what sort of timescales. I really emphasised how new I was to it all and didn't want to go too hard and put myself off too early and such, and I think my trainer person took all that into account.

After that he put a programme together - cue lots of smiling and nodding as I have no clue about my own abilities and limitations - and loaded it onto an electronic key thingy for me that makes the machines load up my settings (how many times I do each exercise).

Then it was time to learn how to use all the machines. I hope I don't forget completely next time - yellow buttons and things are for moving the machine into the right place, I just need to remember that. This entailed having a mini run on each of them really, doing a set of reps (that's a set of exercises, before I get a rest) and I coped with the weights ok.

The thing I'm worried about though is running! I want to be able to do it so I can run with my boyfriend and it can be a thing we do together, but I've famously hated running in the past as I've never been good at distance, even when I had the stamina to do 90 mins on a football pitch. Part of my programme at the moment though is to do 2K on the treadmill over varying gradients and speeds, so I'm hoping I can cope with that.

And if I don't to start with, well, it's the last part of my programme so I can always quit early and not feel a complete failure :D

What next?

Tomorrow evening I think I will go and do a full workout. It should be quiet again, which makes it a bit easier when you're being a bit of a sillyface with it all, and at least now I know what I'm doing with this sort of thing.

The guy who did my induction today seemed confident that I'd be able to go along and do a class tomorrow if I wanted, and said how everyone's at different levels and there's always people at the back who can't quite keep up and such. Everyone's there for the same reason after all. I'm just worried I won't be able to learn the moves or do things wrong or whatever. Basically, all the things that were never a problem for my 15 year old self and seem to have fallen away over the past decade. That's why I'd feel better if I had someone to go with.

Nevertheless, I've booked myself in for a spinning class on Monday evening, i figure I should be able to manage not to screw that up :)