Link to original post: [drupal=3323]10 minute work-out, 1 hour on my stomach hugging a trash can; SUCCESS! My First Step on the Path to Fitness.[/drupal]
Note: This is mostly a sort of journal entry that I'm making so I can look back at this later and appreciate the progress I've made. (Hopefully.)
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So it's been two years since I last did any sort of rigorous exercise. At that time, I was on the Water Polo team and did regular weight lifting. I was in good shape.
Then came Senior year and my over-commitment to the University of Utah. With an almost absolute lack of free time, my physical activity level fell to near zero. (It probably didn't help that whatever free time I did have was spent playing video games or posting on forums.)
So, here I am today; pretty big and moderately out of shape. I hold weight quite well though, so I don't look anywhere near as heavy as I actually am (found out I'm 270, apparently), and I've always dealt with exercise really well, so I was expecting good things going into the brand new Gold's Gym that recently opened here.
Walked in, the place looked excellent. Friendly staff. Brad, the trainer doing my orientation, was a cool guy. Went through the whole bit: setting my goals, firmly establishing that I know nothing about physical fitness aside from weight lifting, health risks due to weight, benefits of losing weight, etc. Watched the little "simulation" of what I'll look like in a year. Did some paperwork.
Enter Mike, another physical trainer. (Also a cool guy.) We head out into the gym to do my complimentary introductory work-out. We start out on those orbital walker things, which I have never used. He gets on and starts walking smoothly while I step up there and look like a complete moron as I try to get the stupid foot supports to rotate. Eventually I get it going. He has me squat down for 30 second sets while still walking, followed by a 30 second break. 30 seconds squatting, 30 second break. It felt similar to doing lunges, which I remember doing during Water Polo "Hell Week", so I knew this was going to be rough, especially given my 2 year hiatus.
That's followed by more squatting while passing a weight between my legs in a figure-eight style pattern. If I wasn't so distracted by the agonizing burning in my legs, I probably would have been amused at how stupid I must have looked doing it. Having lifted weights before, I'm intimately familiar with that delicious burning sensation, but this time it was far more intense and uncomfortable than I remember it being. When we finished that, he had me do some squatting rows. My knees were complaining rather insistently, but I managed to force my way through all the squatting. At this point, I was breathing rather heavily and I had to go take several trips to the drinking fountain.
We finished things off with some leg curls (pretty easy in comparison to the earlier bits) and then attempted to do some back/shoulder work, but my left hand started cramping so we had to abort that. (Apparently I need more potassium in my diet.)
All was going reasonably well, until we went into the office to finalize my trainer schedule. The moment my butt hit the chair my body just shut down --dizzying headache, profuse sweating, and overwhelming nausea. Brad mixed up some (supposedly) chocolate flavored protein shake and gave it to me, promising it would help out. (To be honest, it actually tasted pretty good, albeit not like chocolate.)
Suffice to say, the protein shake did not immediately work, and I spent the next hour lying on the floor in his office hugging the small trash can he had slid over to me. Brad and Mike gave me some quality alone-time with the trash bin so I could recover, and eventually my body started returning to normal. Fortunately, I never actually vomited.
Brad had finished all my paperwork and whatnot, so after giving me a "food tracker" chart to record my food intake, and after making sure I was good enough to drive home safely, they sent me on my way.
Overall, it was actually a good visit. I'm looking forward to the work-out plan they've got set up for me, and the gym is really nice. I'm going in tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. to meet with a fellow named Butch to work out a complete dietary plan and figure out what vitamins and such I am lacking. (Potassium, for sure, given the hand cramping.) They also cut me a good deal on the trainer costs; I settled on $80 a month, which is actually a great deal considering how much I'm getting out of it.
By September (my birthday) I'm planning to have lost 30 pounds. One year from now, I will have lost 60 pounds, and I'll be down to 10% body fat, with 10 pounds of extra muscle.
My next actual work-out is scheduled for Wednesday; hopefully it will go a bit smoother than today's and I'll only need to cuddle with the trash can for 30 minutes.
----------------------------------
Note: This is mostly a sort of journal entry that I'm making so I can look back at this later and appreciate the progress I've made. (Hopefully.)
----------------------------------
So it's been two years since I last did any sort of rigorous exercise. At that time, I was on the Water Polo team and did regular weight lifting. I was in good shape.
Then came Senior year and my over-commitment to the University of Utah. With an almost absolute lack of free time, my physical activity level fell to near zero. (It probably didn't help that whatever free time I did have was spent playing video games or posting on forums.)
So, here I am today; pretty big and moderately out of shape. I hold weight quite well though, so I don't look anywhere near as heavy as I actually am (found out I'm 270, apparently), and I've always dealt with exercise really well, so I was expecting good things going into the brand new Gold's Gym that recently opened here.
Walked in, the place looked excellent. Friendly staff. Brad, the trainer doing my orientation, was a cool guy. Went through the whole bit: setting my goals, firmly establishing that I know nothing about physical fitness aside from weight lifting, health risks due to weight, benefits of losing weight, etc. Watched the little "simulation" of what I'll look like in a year. Did some paperwork.
Enter Mike, another physical trainer. (Also a cool guy.) We head out into the gym to do my complimentary introductory work-out. We start out on those orbital walker things, which I have never used. He gets on and starts walking smoothly while I step up there and look like a complete moron as I try to get the stupid foot supports to rotate. Eventually I get it going. He has me squat down for 30 second sets while still walking, followed by a 30 second break. 30 seconds squatting, 30 second break. It felt similar to doing lunges, which I remember doing during Water Polo "Hell Week", so I knew this was going to be rough, especially given my 2 year hiatus.
That's followed by more squatting while passing a weight between my legs in a figure-eight style pattern. If I wasn't so distracted by the agonizing burning in my legs, I probably would have been amused at how stupid I must have looked doing it. Having lifted weights before, I'm intimately familiar with that delicious burning sensation, but this time it was far more intense and uncomfortable than I remember it being. When we finished that, he had me do some squatting rows. My knees were complaining rather insistently, but I managed to force my way through all the squatting. At this point, I was breathing rather heavily and I had to go take several trips to the drinking fountain.
We finished things off with some leg curls (pretty easy in comparison to the earlier bits) and then attempted to do some back/shoulder work, but my left hand started cramping so we had to abort that. (Apparently I need more potassium in my diet.)
All was going reasonably well, until we went into the office to finalize my trainer schedule. The moment my butt hit the chair my body just shut down --dizzying headache, profuse sweating, and overwhelming nausea. Brad mixed up some (supposedly) chocolate flavored protein shake and gave it to me, promising it would help out. (To be honest, it actually tasted pretty good, albeit not like chocolate.)
Suffice to say, the protein shake did not immediately work, and I spent the next hour lying on the floor in his office hugging the small trash can he had slid over to me. Brad and Mike gave me some quality alone-time with the trash bin so I could recover, and eventually my body started returning to normal. Fortunately, I never actually vomited.
Brad had finished all my paperwork and whatnot, so after giving me a "food tracker" chart to record my food intake, and after making sure I was good enough to drive home safely, they sent me on my way.
Overall, it was actually a good visit. I'm looking forward to the work-out plan they've got set up for me, and the gym is really nice. I'm going in tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. to meet with a fellow named Butch to work out a complete dietary plan and figure out what vitamins and such I am lacking. (Potassium, for sure, given the hand cramping.) They also cut me a good deal on the trainer costs; I settled on $80 a month, which is actually a great deal considering how much I'm getting out of it.
By September (my birthday) I'm planning to have lost 30 pounds. One year from now, I will have lost 60 pounds, and I'll be down to 10% body fat, with 10 pounds of extra muscle.
My next actual work-out is scheduled for Wednesday; hopefully it will go a bit smoother than today's and I'll only need to cuddle with the trash can for 30 minutes.
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