Today was a landmark day at the gym for me because it marks a milestone in my renewed interest in working out. My workout this afternoon marked six days in a row that I’ve gone to the gym. Sure, it’s no big thing and there are many people reading this who go to the gym religiously everyday and that’s awesome. However, I went back through my Google Calendar and it seems that the last time that I worked out for even five days in a row was May 2007 (and only two of those days were actually spent at a gym). Today I beat my May 2007 numbers.
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Early Morning Gym Session
Today was the first time since January 2008 that I went to the gym before going in to work. No, this wasn’t the end result of a well-laid plan to begin waking up earlier and getting my workouts in during the AM hours instead of when I get back from work each evening. I just happened to wake up early this morning and felt like going to the gym would be a good use of my time. And, as always, this trip provided some interesting observations on my gym.
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Quick Update on Going to the Gym
About three weeks ago I wrote a post on this blog talking about how I joined a new gym down the street. I thought that since I felt the need to make the announcement that I joined the gym, it might be worthwhile to provide a brief update on how things are going.
Since I joined the gym I’ve worked out over a dozen times, which isn’t so bad when you consider that most days I am out of the house from 7:30am until about 6:30pm and that I have a two hour daily commute which is completely exhausting. In fact, the two hours that I spend in the car are the two hours that most other gym-goers would spend working out, but I don’t want to start a digression about my commute.
In my trips to the gym, I’ve primarily focused on aerobic exercises – riding the bike and walking on the treadmill. I’ve only just begun to do some light weightlifting and not the type of weightlifting that I used to do in high school where I was trying to gain mass and strength. Nope. The weightlifting that I am going to focus on this time around will solely focus on maintaining a certain level of strength and wellness.
Unfortunately for most of the readers of this blog, I don’t have many funny gym stories just yet. The gym I am going to is not staffed at all times so there are occasions when I get to the building and the lights are off and no one is there except for me. I guess that’s a type of oddity, but I assume that a bunch of other gym-goers at this location have experienced the same thing.
In terms of overall health, I feel good, but I wouldn’t say that I feel completely different from before I began working out again in March. That’s probably because I’ve been attending the gym sporadically and not on a set workout regime. Once I change my workout habits to be on more of a schedule, I think that I’ll feel a physical change. I have lost a few pounds since I started working out, but nothing major to brag about.
As I spend more time at the gym, though, I’m sure I’ll eventually have stories and craziness to tell you about – so stay tuned!
Joined a New Gym Down the Street
Just a quick entry regarding the new gym that I joined, which is located down the street from where I live. The place is called Snap Fitness and it’s interesting because it’s not really a “staffed” gym. In other words, when you join you get a membership card that unlocks the front door between the hours of 5am and 11pm everyday of the week. There is no office or locker rooms or anything like that – just workout equipment.
Actually, given the smaller size of the location where I joined it would be surprising if they could fit a locker room or an office in the building! The gym has got to be less than 1,000 square feet in total space, but the truth is that it carries itself very well. There are separate male and female bathrooms and a desk that serves as the “office.” Behind the desk is a set of cubby holes that serve as your personal locker, too. It’s really a genius setup for a smaller scale gym.
The other thing that makes this gym unique is that, due to its small setup, it really is not made to handle a high number of members working out at the same time. In fact, since I joined last Saturday I’ve been at the gym three times. The first two times I attended were at night on Saturday and at night on Sunday and when my roommate and I showed up there was no one there. The lights were actually off when we arrived (they automatically turn on via motion sensors when you walk in the door).
The third night I attended the gym there was a classic clod hopper on the treadmill next to me. And with that, the next chapter of gym stories on this blog seems to have begun!
Working Out is Okay for Barack…but not Bush
Special thanks goes out to GGL for bringing this story to my attention. Last week on Philly.com there was a story talking about how President-Elect Barack Obama makes time to work out during his transition period. This is just a small clip from the article, but it sets the stage for the end of this entry…
He’s not in the White House yet, but gone are the hours he once spent reading novels, watching television, and obsessing over the daily transactions of Chicago’s sports teams. He eats out only once every few weeks.
But one habit endures: Obama has gone to the gym, for about 90 minutes a day, for dozens of days in a row. He has always treated exercise less as recreation than as requirement, but his devotion has intensified in the last few months.
Personally, I’m glad that Obama is going to the gym because I think the image of a young, fit President is also part of what Americans need right now. Our young people need a national role model that exhibits integrity and healthy behavior, both of which Obama has to offer. However, on the “comments” section of this particular Philly.com article there was an interest note. Here is the full text of that comment:
A former WP writer named Jonathan Chait said this of GW Bush’s workouts in an opinion piece for the LA Times headlined, “The (over)exercise of power.” Recounting how President Bush ran 3.5 miles a day and preached more cross-training to a federal judge, Chait fumed, “Am I the only person who finds this disturbing? … What I mean is the fact that Bush has an obsession with exercise that borders on the creepy.” So Bush working out was “creepy” and B Hussein working out is defined as, “The sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” Nice to see the in the tank media hasn’t lost its ‘touch’ and can be counted on to do puff piece after puff piece on the messiah, B Hussein Obama. 2008-The Year Journalism Died.
Now the guy who posted this comment may have a bias against Obama, but he brings up a good point. With the help of Google, I went out and found that Los Angeles Times column where Chait went after after President Bush regarding his workout habits. Here’s a piece of it for you:
Given the importance of his job, it is astonishing how much time Bush has to exercise. His full schedule is not publicly available. The few peeks we get at Bush’s daily routine usually come when some sort of disaster prods the White House Press Office to reveal what the president was doing “at the time.” Earlier this year, an airplane wandered into restricted Washington air space. Bush, we learned, was bicycling in Maryland. In 2001, a gunman fired shots at the White House. Bush was inside exercising. When planes struck the World Trade Center in 2001, Bush was reading to schoolchildren, but that morning he had gone for a long run with a reporter. Either this is a series of coincidences or Bush spends an enormous amount of time working out.
The story gets a little bit more interesting when you put all of these pieces together, huh? I agree with the commenter when he says that 2008 was the year that journalism died. Between the destruction of both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in the media and the utter love affair that the mainstream media had with Obama during the election, could this gym story be the dot on the exclamation point declaring the end of the mainstream media as we know it?
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