Now what???

The other day I posted that my wife and I had joined a gym.  That's all fine and dandy, but the question becomes, what do you do at the gym once you've joined it?  That is a question that plagued us last evening as we went to the gym for the first time to "work out."

Let's really put this in perspective.  I am definitely in need of the gym, but have very little experience in what to do at the gym.  Sure I see all of the machines and other equipment like free weights and can figure out from the illustrations what they are supposed to do, but what, exactly should I be doing with them?  There are 9 different machines targeting various muscles and muscle groups in the upper body.  Should I work out on all of them, some of them or none of them?  There are ellipticals, treadmills, stair machines and spin cycles.  Should I use one, all or none of those?

It basically came down to trying to decide how we should spend our time at the gym.  I decided a start on the spin bikes to get the heart rate going and then a run through all of the upper body machines with 10 to 15 reps on each at a light to moderate weight followed by a short treadmill walk.  This is what we did.  the actual work out took about 35 minutes and I know I did some work.  Was this the best use of our time there, I don't really know.

Right now I think this is a good start in that it is working various muscles across our bodies and not overdoing it in any one area.  Do we need to increase this work out? Yes, but we want to work into it slowly as per the doctor's advice.  We will also want to vary what we do so as not to get bored with it.

What do you like to do at the gym????

Spinning

I bought a spin bike for the house. I never could figure out or trust rollers and none of the other exercise bikes in my price range seemed like they would hold up so I bought a spin bike. Spinning has taught me to be less concerned with mileage and with average speed – there is no speedometer, odometer or any other kind of meter on my spin bike. I could wear my Garmin, but it won’t show any progress – only time. That’s what I’m focusing on when I’m spinning – riding for x number of minutes at a time.

Now, granted my time on the spin bike is currently fairly short – only in the 10 minute range, but that will be increasing as I move forward. My goal is to spin at least 5 days per week.

Some people call it boring, but I find it relaxing. It gives me a chance to retreat a bit from the chaos of the house and focus only on one thing – turning the cranks. Its almost a zen-like feeling as I focus solely on what I’m doing and leave the rest to resolve itself.

I know riding the spin bike this winter will give me a new appreciation for riding my bike and actually going somewhere. Sure I’ll still be doing my training loops and out and backs, but I think I will enjoy them more.