Back to the gym

Out with the old…

I first noticed signs of a foot injury in August.
I started my new job in January.

These were my two main reasons I decided to quit my old gym two months ago.

Before that my gym workouts had been quite sporadic.

Because of being lazy and the time off I have lost a lot of strength, cardio fitness and my body fat percentage has gone back up.

With getting back into the race calendar, I decided I need to find a new gym.

Where to go?

I was looking at a gym down the road from my work. It was 24 hours, I could walk to it in two minutes and it was relatively good value. In that sense it was perfect.

But when I went to sign up, there was no staff on – there was a number to call in an emergency and members got in by putting in a key code and going through the type of secure door you normally see in parliamentary buildings.

I looked through the glass and saw a pathetic, but packed free weights section. That sealed it for me,

I do believe that it is the quality of the workout and not the quality of the equipment that make a good gym session.

However I hate overcrowding – where you have to drop what you are doing to get on the popular equipment – if you leave it 30 seconds someone else has got on it!

The Second Choice

This was a council run gym, which with a slight detour is on the drive home from work. It is a bit expensive and it doesn’t quite have the space for functional fitness.

So I left it two weeks. To think about it.

I realised that I was delaying the issue here, the time not having a gym meant that I was losing out on valuable training time. So I decided to take the hit on the wallet and join this gym.

And its pretty good. Over priced for what I am paying, but okay:

It has decent opening times so I can sneak a quick workout in before work
There are some bars for pull-ups so I can get a bit of bodyweight exercise routines going
Reasonable free weight section – so it won’t be a fight for the squat rack
Lots of cardio machines which will help rehab my cardio fitness
And a swimming pool which will be good if my body is feeling a sore.

Future workouts

My plan is to do 4/5 workouts a week.
There will be at least two gym weights sessions – which are split into key areas (eg deadlift, benchpress, squats) and functional fitness
Will swim once a week
Will try and implement a class into my schedule
Any other sessions are a bonus
This will be supplemented with running, cycling and outdoor obstacle race workouts at home.

Aims

My aim is to drop 1 stone in weight by my first Spartan race in July.
Be able to have an intense workout for 1 hour 30 minutes so that I feel that I have worked hard – but not dieing!
Regain bodyweight strength.
Use sessions to help lower impact on my body after hard runs.
Maintain a nutrition plan to help meet these needs.

Time to get back to the gym!