I've started going to the gym recently in Leeds. It was Joy's idea really, I started off just tagging along with her for a free session.
I've been a member of a gym before, but it wasn't too successful. Although at that time I was allocated a personal trainer, I basically just had one session with him where he worked out a program for me and then after that, if I ever bothered to turn up at all, I would just go and do the workout he'd recommended minus all the boring bits or the bits I didn't like, and then go to the cafe next door and have a slice of cake and a latte with full fat milk, so it didn't really do much good at all.
The new gym I've joined is called Tribe, or at least I think it is. It has a fancy logo TRIB3, which I think is supposed to spell Tribe, but it may indeed simply be TRIB3. There is no actual gym there where you can just turn up and do your own thing. There are only classes. I've never really known what circuit training is, but I imagine that's what it that I've been doing for the last few weeks.
Generally we start on the treadmills for about 5 minutes and run till we're out of breath and till our heart rates reach their maximum, which is measured based on your weight and age by something you wear round your chest. This information is relayed to screens all around the gym so you know how close you are all the time. The ideal is to be in the Red Zone, which is above 90% of your target heart rate.
Then you go and pick up some dumb-bells for about 5 minutes and do various Resistance exercises with them. It's pretty dark in there and there are 3 sets of dumb-bells; 5kg, 7.5kg and 10kg. The first time I picked up two out of the dark I could barely lift them so I assumed they were the heavy ones but they were only 5kg. I've never really attempted to do anything with my upper body. I naturally have big thighs and a big backside and mostly over the years I've done running or cycling or sports like football and rugby but I was always a lot more interested in cardiovascular fitness than muscle definition or strength. I've never been any good at stuff like press-ups and so lifting dumb-bells with my two floppy bits of celery that I have instead of arms was hard at first, although it seems to be getting easier. And although I'm still flabby round the middle, it feels less so than when I started. Working with dumb-bells is very good at keeping me in the moment, because I constantly have to remind myself not to drop them on my foot or my face, and the higher in the air they are, and the more sweaty my hands get, the more afraid I am of doing that.
The third station is called Intensity. It's very varied. It can be running around in a little box drawn on the floor, or doing squats or starjumps or jumping about with no bodily coordination whatsoever as if you're a drunken disco dancer or touching hands fingers knees and toes to other body parts. Or it can be lifting kettle bells or medicine balls and throwing them around (without letting go obviously) Whatever it is, it usually leaves me with legs of jelly.
In an average 45 minute session you usually go round each area 3 times. Often I finish with Intensity and that means that I generally end each session crawling around on my hands and knees with jelly legs and sweat in my eyes as if I'm looking for a lost contact lens.
The sessions are quite expensive at £15 each, although so far I've had some free sessions and also they have multi-buy offers which make it a bit cheaper. I don't know if I'll be able to afford it long-term but I've been enjoying it while it lasts. Although the sessions are demanding, the trainers who run them are really supportive and unless I am a poor judge of character, they don't appear to be sadistic maniacs. They are really friendly and happy to advise and correct mistakes and seem genuinely interested that we're getting something out of it.
I thought I might be more self-conscious in there because a lot of the time I lack the coordination or the flexibility to do the exercises properly but a) it's dark in there so no-one else can really see you and b) everyone else is in their own world of pain, so they're too busy for sight-seeing.
The changing rooms have free lockers and showers with shampoo and body wash and deodorants and moisturiser all provided, so there's no need to lug around a big bag of toiletries with you when you go. Also, if you order it in advance you can get a recovery shake for when you finish. These cost £4 each. The sessions I've been to so far have generally been early on a Sunday morning, or last week I went to the 6.30 am session on a Wednesday. Although I don't like the getting out of bed part, once I'm there I get to feel virtuous that I'm doing exercise while lots of people are still asleep.
For me, the main point of the gym is to help improve my fitness for running, and I think that's already happening. My times are already improving on my regular runs and as well as that it doesn't take as long to get my breathing back to normal when I finish running now.
Overall, even though I just copied this idea off Joy and didn't think of it myself, it's been a good experience.
