It is now 3 weeks since I started going to the gym. I have not gone there every day, but in these 3 weeks, I have gone there 11 times so far. That is less than 3 per week and is also less than my plans of going there 4 times a week. And even in these 11 visits, only two have been on a working day and the rest have all been on weekends and on Pongal.
The reason why I couldn't drag myself to the gym on working days is simple - I feel quite drained when I reach home. Even on the days that I go to the office closer home, my new diet has kept me slightly famished in the late evenings and that clearly is not motivating me to leave the comfort of home.
But I have subsequently made small changes to the diet plan that was prescribed. The dietitian prescribed only things like சுண்டல் for evening snack. I do not always get it at work and so, in the last couple of days, I have started to have any one whole fruit. And the definition of a whole fruit according to the dietitian is an apple or an orange or a pear.
But, the one thing I really miss in my new diet is the great Curd Rice - தயிர் சாதம். It has practically vanished from my plate. Unfortunately, my genome is hard-coded to consume it and so, I just have plain curd, watered down to some extent.
Now to the exercising part of the deal. I have been asked to spend 50 minutes on Cardio machines every time I come to the gym. Even here, it is supposed to be Tread Mill and Rowing on one day and Cycling and Elliptical Trainer on the other day. Time to be spent on each machine has also been provided along with a target for the number of calories to be burnt. There are also floor exercises prescribed for one of the days and some moderate weight training on the other day.
I always exceed the target on the Cycle and Row, but for some reason, the Treadmill and Elliptical machines have been a real challenge. More so on the Treadmill really. That could probably be because I am only walking and not running on the T'mill.
One would think that using the Elliptical trainer burns up calories quite easily, but that is not the case. The minute you start “pedaling” faster, the handrails also start moving faster. And believe me, you are certainly not ready for it when you use that machine for the first time. Or, when you use it, being in the near atrophic state that I am in. So, when you automatically tend to slow down the pace by holding on more firmly to the handrail. Needless to say, this slows down the pace and hence you don't burn too many calories. The manufacturers have thought about this and have provided an alternate grip, for this very situation. But, when you use that grip and start pedaling fast, the handrails also move fast and appear to be headed towards your face. It is quite a discerning feeling to have, especially when you are doing something that you don't normally do – exercising!
The cycle has its own challenge, though I do burn up a lot of calories. The challenge is, needless to say, the saddle. Starting from my unbranded tricycle to the BSA Champ and moving on to the BSA SLR, the saddles on my bicycles have been quite generous. And on my SLR and even on my father's bigger bicycle, we had extra seat cover/cushion. So, you can imagine the difficulty I face while seated on this saddle, which to me is simply the manufacturer's nice gesture of not making the user sit directly on a sharp piece of metal!
I don't have any such issue with the T'mill or even the Rowing machine. And for that matter, when I do the circuit training, I don't face too many problems. BUT, I cant say the same about the floor exercises they put me through. These set of 11 exercises are probably the most innocuous looking movements on earth. And they consume around 20-30 minutes of your life. The best part is that, at the end of it, you are left gasping for breath. In fact, not at the end, the gasping in my case starts in the 4th minute itself.
The issue with the circuit training is more mental than physical. There are quite a lot of “gym-body” guys who come there. They are obviously into heavy training and usually the weight sets are in the 3 digit area. And I go there very proudly and move the switches on the weights back to my capacity range in the mid 40s and 50s!
And I have also picked up my first gym related injury – a slight pain in the right ankle, closer to the calf muscle region. The physio advised me to use ice pack and also to avoid the treadmill for a couple of more days.
I checked my weight yesterday and can confidently say that I have lost at least 1 Kg from the time I signed up in this gym. I wont say much about the reduction in weight, because I am going to measure the true impact of the visits to the gym, based only on how my trousers fit me!
