Week at the Gym

¶ … ocular visit at the gym. Appraisal of gym equipment and machines available. Review of training programs offered. Review of payment scheme. Check out other paraphernalia available for sale or rent at the gym. Water flowing everywhere for gym clients. Good music soundtrack on play. Everything looks good.

So I paid my first month at the gym, got my membership card, and because I have my gym clothes with me, started my gym program immediately.

For my training program, well, I chose not to have a personal trainer to dote on me on my work-out days. I know what I want to work on my body so I prefer creating my own program. My activities are a mix of cardiovascular workout, weight training, and dance workout. I would probably try yoga and boxing, but this will depend on my mood and schedule. So I committed myself to work five (5) days in a week for a one-hour workout each day. I'm thinking this is more manageable and sustainable for me than devoting so much time on workout for a day or two, then not going back until a week later. So yeah, everyday workout for an hour or so will be ideal for me.

Back to my workout program. For Day 1 of my training, I chose to do some warm-up exercises or calisthenics first, since I have not trained or worked out consistently in the past year. First, I did some stretching exercise on my lower body, particularly the legs, for fifteen minutes. Going up, I did my stretching exercises next for my torso, chest, shoulders, and arms. This I did for 15 minutes as well. A little bit of head exercise for five minutes. Once I'm confident that I have at least warmed up and my muscles can take the workout for Day 1, I set on for the cardiovascular workout machines. Between the elliptical and treadmill, I chose the former because it will give me a full body workout compared to treadmill, which would only work out more specifically my lower body (or the legs). Climbing on the elliptical, I worked out for 30 minutes at Level 6 and progressing towards Level 7 as I reached the 15th minute mark. After the elliptical, I ran on the treadmill for 15 minutes, choosing to alternate speeds every five minutes for a higher intensity workout. Lastly, to cap off my first day of training, I did a fifteen-minute exercise using the stationary bike. The stationary bike is my "cool down" exercise and it is also a great way to shape my posterior area (read: buttocks) after working out the rest of my body.

Day 2 is a mix of cardiovascular workout and weight training. Again, I started my workout with some warm-up exercises, from my lower body to my upper body and the head. But I only did this for twenty minutes. I started on my cardiovascular workout by doing exercise on the elliptical for thirty minutes again. I will consistently use elliptical in my daily workout because it exercises my whole body more than the treadmill does. Also, elliptical machines are not high impact exercise machines, which means that unlike the treadmill, I could workout with the same level of effort in the elliptical as in the treadmill, but with less impact and not feeling as tired as I could have been on the treadmill. To start my weight training, I decided to use some free weights first. Using fixed-weight dumbbells with 5 lbs-increments (5lb, 10lb, 15lb and 20lb), I did six repetitions of sixteen count exercises for each dumbbell and each arm. I progressed from the 5lb- to the 20lb-dumbbells.

On the third day of my workout, I did my routine cardiovascular workout using the elliptical for 30 minutes. But this time, I increased difficulty of the workout to Level 10. Since there is a hip-hop aerobics class scheduled that day, I joined the group and spent the rest of my workout day (i.e., the remaining 30 minutes of it) dancing to hip-hop music and awkwardly copying the instructor's hip-hop moves a la exercise-style. I have sweated more profusely in the dance workout than my workout in the machines and weight training, so I decided to join the dance class again the next day. Schedule for tomorrow is Zumba. I have no idea how to do Zumba, but I might as well try it to experience it.