Hitting the gym

Editor’s Note: Apologies if my post last night made your browser go kablooey. Apparently the Alejandro Escovedo video I posted completely screwed up my formatting and I didn’t notice it until I was at work this morning. I’ve replaced the video with another one and now hopefully everything will be back to normal with my profile in the correct place. Also, let me know if my onslaught of YouTube videos is messing around with the load times. I could cut back on the number of posts on the front page (right now you get the past month in Battling the Current history).

It’s always wonderful to work out during the first few weeks of January. You learn so much about the human condition and how we are influenced by calendars during those first two weeks. Because it really is the invasion of the resolution people.

Now I’ll start off by saying that I’ve been working out regularly since October usually hitting the gym in my apartment four times a week. It’s not like they are good workouts or anything but I do cardio and am now lifting weights and my doing anything is better for me than sitting on my couch. The most incredible thing is that I now look forward to working out. I was very happy to be on an exercise bike for half an hour tonight and I can’t stand those things. So while I’m not a fitness fiend I do use the gym on a regular basis.

As with any gym there is a regular crowd. Everyone works out at about the same time and while you don’t know anyone by name you know the elliptical woman and the weight lifting guy and the woman who decides to walk on a treadmill at 1.5 miles hour just to annoy everyone. There are at most two other people with you at the gym at the same time and you never have an issue getting a treadmill. That is big because I usually use the treadmill. Speaking of which…I have a story to share.

There are two treadmills in my apartment complex. Ever since I started working out I always chose the one on the right. Over the past few months I kept on increasing the speed and incline and was very happy with my progress. I was so proud over the improvement that I had made since I left KC. Occasionally someone would be on my treadmill and I had to use the other one. For some reason those workouts always sucked and I ended up having to stop the workout early to save my legs.

Well, a week or two ago I go to the gym to find a sign on my treadmill saying that the motor is broken and it is out of service. So I now use the other treadmill regularly and have discovered that the challenging workouts that I could easily tackle on the old treadmill are now impossible on this one. So either a) my physical capabilities are dependent on my being three feet to the left of my preferred position or b) the other treadmill was calibrated badly and I was actually going slower than I thought. Talk about disheartening.

Anyway, back to the New Year’s Resolutions people. As a rule, the worst week to ever be in a gym is the first week after New Year’s because that is when everyone is trying to get in shape. Instead of two or three people in the gym now there were eight or nine; half of whom are trying to figure out how to work the machines. Or doing one of those “I’ll be on this machine for five minutes then switch to another and then another” workouts. And they even feel like talking in the gym. No one talks in the gym. We all have on our headphones (and I even have one of those armband things for my Zune now) and have no desire to admit that other people exist.

But tonight? Back to the same three of us that there were in December. They lasted one week. It’s nice that I’ve reached the point that I can laugh at other people’s exercise program. Sure, I’m still far from being in shape (and somehow have gained a few pounds since I’ve started lifting) but I am working out consistently. I feel better as well and that really is all that matters. Just wait until I start doing Yoga. Yes, that is on the list of things to do now. We here at Battling the Current do pretty much anything that is recommended to us in the comments.