So I joined a gym after saying I would never join a gym. OK never say never, gotta remember that. The cold weather is starting and I thought it was time to find some other ways to keep moving so the short story is I joined a gym. The longer story is I am very much a fish out of water and I wanted to share with you my experience when I returned to a gym well really the first time since high school.
This local gym has a great deal $10.00 a month and I have 24 hour access (for those nights when I feel like jogging at 3AM this will really pay for its self). They even offer a free session with a trainer who is very young and crazy fit. Now I’m feeling pretty fit my self in the fact that I walk five miles a day and I toss around a 35lb Kettle bell a few times a week. Well this was an error on my part I am not fit, I was confused with James Bond who I was watching at the time just before I pulled into the gym in my Aston Martin DB5 sleek gray (in the States they pronounce it Ford Focus). My trainer lets call him Dr. No insisted on putting me through the paces jumping jacks, push ups, squats, planks and every now and then Dr. No would ask if I needed a drink of water or felt like throwing up. Well at no point did I throw up, very close but I held it in. Long last the 12 minutes of torture were over and the good Dr. said I had very poor form but was surprised that I had good endurance. Yeah for endurance and I intend to work on my form. I left the gym and was enjoying the cool air ,drove home just five minutes to my house and found that my legs had turned to rubber in that short time. I sorta danced like the scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz into my house and made it to my chair. The memory of the second day pain returned. Delayed Muscle Soreness DOMS!!
No one is actually sure what causes DOMS but trust me its real. I use to workout on Sunday mornings with a martial arts expert and every Tuesday I would suffer. Now all these years later I new the dreaded second day would arrive.
On the morning of the second day I felt such amazing pain from my hips to my knees, my arms, back were just fine (thank you kettle bell) but my thighs were burning from years of never bending my knees or ever doing a squat correctly. In my job I have to go up and down stairs a lot and each step was a fresh new hell. So what do you do about DOMS.
1. Pain killers ( your choice)
2. Ice then heat back and forth
3. Soak in a hot tub
4. Take two days break
5. Suck it up cowboy and get back on the horse!
I did all of these except I don’t have a horse, I did soak in a hot tub, and took some pain killers, but the thing that helped me the most was I stretched my legs every morning and through out the day I forced myself up and down the stairs. The next day or so was a little bit better and tonight I returned to the gym and hit the treadmill, rowing machine and worked out on several weight machines. I remember my dad saying every August when he coached me in soccer time to get your soccer muscles ready again. That first week was always hard but it got better very quickly.
Some guys dig the pain is a sick way because they know they are breaking new ground and they are up for the challenge. Well I don’t care for the pain but I know I can tough through it and so can you. The results you want will come in time, its not easy but its also not impossible.
This time of year I leave for work in the dark and come and its dark. My near by trail is closed when the sun goes down , so for me a gym is the perfect response to this time of year.
I have set some goals for myself for the next 12 weeks and I continue to up date my progress here on these pages in the week to come.
Its now day three and you know what ? my legs are little sore still but not so stiff I’m going have bath and soak a bit yet but I’m glad I was back at the gym tonight. I can’t let Dr. NO think I have quit.. that just would not be right.
Peace and Love all
