2 workouts... in a row!
so for two days in a row (OMGOMG) I've actually gone to the gym and actually had a good time.
I just wanted to note that.
I bicycled for 10 minutes, stretched, and then did a series of 15 rep (single set) workouts on a series of machines. I think I've done what's called a leg press (where you go from a sort of seated kneeling position and push up with your lower body - I love this machine), a thing where you pull down (god I am so technical - i think this is a lat pulldown or something), rowing thingy, a machine doing front of thigh, and then upper body where you lift up for pecs and upper arms, and then inner thighs, and then bicep curls, and then I bicycled for another 20 minutes. The weight machine part must've taken about 25 minutes.
These are the first set of machines that the trainer boy showed me so I've done them, but I think I want to alternate between front and back of thigh and inside and outside of thigh from now on. I also need to be shown how to use the rowing machine thingy again because I think I did it wrong.
I also haven't done any ab work, and I dunno if there is a machine for that or what... I might skip the rowing machine that I can't figure out and do crunches and leg outs instead.
I am probably not going to structure these workouts much more than they already are, and I'm glad Trainer Boy showed them to me because when I list them out like that it looks like a pretty good workout.
I still think cardio at the gym is dull as dirt, but if I do the 20 minute bicycling after I do the circuit on the machines somehow I don't mind it.
I guess there's a way to be systematic about getting stronger and such, but I'm wary about pressuring myself too much. The point right now is to get into this groove of liking the gym, and looking forward to my time with the leg press.
I also realized that I can't get motivated if the plan to working out is to get thinner. I dont' give a shit. I'm a size 6-8 now, and I've been a size 2-4, and NOTHING WAS DIFFERENT about my life except maybe clothes looked prettier on me but as I get older and have more money I'm seeing that the fundamental problem with women's clothes is that clothes makers don't respect us. Even the most out of shape fat short whatever men can find clothes that fit them and make them look professionally dressed up, but a non-obese round girl like me has to go to the most expensive stores and pitch a fit and send shopgirls scurrying to the basement to find my size.
So [breathing deep] exercising for thinness or looking pretty in a bikini or to get a boyfriend or whatever just doesn't motivate me. It makes me not want to exercise, actually, in a perverse just to show them kind of crooked thinking.
What I do care about is being a healthy old woman. Given my two grandmothers and the fact that I'm a pretty lively person who doesn't get sick that often, I will live a long time. I do not intend to live with arthritis, high blood pressure, osteoperosis, slack muscles that lead to inability to digest food, and deteriorating mental alertness from inability to move for 20 years (this is assuming I live to be 90 and serious aging manifests at 70) and end my days bed-bound because I can't walk. I intend to be like my maternal grandmother, who at almost 90 is able to be fully physically independent. I physically take after my paternal grandmother, who, much as I adore her and love her more than anyone in the world, did not model good old age to me (she also smoked for decades and drank a lot, and was an ugly drunk), so I am going to work out in preparation for my 7th decade of life.
This, totally, makes me want to go work out. Hallelujah I have found my motivation.
I just wanted to note that.
I bicycled for 10 minutes, stretched, and then did a series of 15 rep (single set) workouts on a series of machines. I think I've done what's called a leg press (where you go from a sort of seated kneeling position and push up with your lower body - I love this machine), a thing where you pull down (god I am so technical - i think this is a lat pulldown or something), rowing thingy, a machine doing front of thigh, and then upper body where you lift up for pecs and upper arms, and then inner thighs, and then bicep curls, and then I bicycled for another 20 minutes. The weight machine part must've taken about 25 minutes.
These are the first set of machines that the trainer boy showed me so I've done them, but I think I want to alternate between front and back of thigh and inside and outside of thigh from now on. I also need to be shown how to use the rowing machine thingy again because I think I did it wrong.
I also haven't done any ab work, and I dunno if there is a machine for that or what... I might skip the rowing machine that I can't figure out and do crunches and leg outs instead.
I am probably not going to structure these workouts much more than they already are, and I'm glad Trainer Boy showed them to me because when I list them out like that it looks like a pretty good workout.
I still think cardio at the gym is dull as dirt, but if I do the 20 minute bicycling after I do the circuit on the machines somehow I don't mind it.
I guess there's a way to be systematic about getting stronger and such, but I'm wary about pressuring myself too much. The point right now is to get into this groove of liking the gym, and looking forward to my time with the leg press.
I also realized that I can't get motivated if the plan to working out is to get thinner. I dont' give a shit. I'm a size 6-8 now, and I've been a size 2-4, and NOTHING WAS DIFFERENT about my life except maybe clothes looked prettier on me but as I get older and have more money I'm seeing that the fundamental problem with women's clothes is that clothes makers don't respect us. Even the most out of shape fat short whatever men can find clothes that fit them and make them look professionally dressed up, but a non-obese round girl like me has to go to the most expensive stores and pitch a fit and send shopgirls scurrying to the basement to find my size.
So [breathing deep] exercising for thinness or looking pretty in a bikini or to get a boyfriend or whatever just doesn't motivate me. It makes me not want to exercise, actually, in a perverse just to show them kind of crooked thinking.
What I do care about is being a healthy old woman. Given my two grandmothers and the fact that I'm a pretty lively person who doesn't get sick that often, I will live a long time. I do not intend to live with arthritis, high blood pressure, osteoperosis, slack muscles that lead to inability to digest food, and deteriorating mental alertness from inability to move for 20 years (this is assuming I live to be 90 and serious aging manifests at 70) and end my days bed-bound because I can't walk. I intend to be like my maternal grandmother, who at almost 90 is able to be fully physically independent. I physically take after my paternal grandmother, who, much as I adore her and love her more than anyone in the world, did not model good old age to me (she also smoked for decades and drank a lot, and was an ugly drunk), so I am going to work out in preparation for my 7th decade of life.
This, totally, makes me want to go work out. Hallelujah I have found my motivation.