I love my gym!
Some of you might know that, two weeks ago, I was terribly nervous about joining a gym for the first time. I thought I wouldn't like it or be any good at what I was doing, that everyone would look at me and see how unathletic I was. I thought I'd never be able to keep up an hour every couple of days.
Well, it's a fortnight on, and I have a surprising conclusion.
I love it.
The initial attraction, for me, was the enormous TV screens that show MTV's Most Wanted while you're exercising. The music helps me set a pace, although some of it is better than other bits (I hate Avril Lavigne and Paramore with a passion, but love Amy Macdonald's Mr. Rock and Roll). I've tried the various fitness machines, but the one I like most is the walking/running machine, where I can easily keep going for a couple of hours. Now I hate missing my daily (!) session each afternoon. How well I do varies, but it helps if I can watch someone on TV being as active as I am: although various *shudder* American urbanists are good for that and that alone, I've found another surprising ally. On one of the screens I'm NOT listening to, they show a kids' programme at half-past three. I have no idea what it is (or why they seem to have run out of child actors at the BBC and hired a midget in a bright pink wig) but all the characters are so bouncy and energetic that it really helps! Fancy me watching kids' TV at twenty years old. Well, Mum always suspects I'm not grown-up enough.
The exercise is monitored by heartrate and speed on the walking machine. I have to maintain a heart rate above 130, but that's becoming easier and easier and I find now that I'm staying over 150 without even trying. One of the best things for me, and one I haven't been able to explain, is something that happens when my heart rate jumps a LOT higher than normal-- at the moment, over 180, though it used to be 160. When that happens, I get an inexplicable feeling of joy, and a desire to keep going and push myself harder. I wish I knew why it happened, but if this is happening to other people too, I'm starting to see why people do sport for fun.
I want to keep doing this. I have no idea if it's having a beneficial effect on me, but I love it.
One final thought: Is it contradictory to work out energetically and determinedly to Mika's "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)"?