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| I should've just had my address changed to my bed - I spent so much time there |
I tried to
exercise five days a week. The recommendation for exercise is 30 minutes a day
-and then I read some conflicting information which said actually
there was a need for 90 minutes of moderate cardio a day. Struck with
immediate concern that I was barely reaching 30 minutes of cardio let alone 90
minutes I decided I had to figure out some way to hit at least one of these
targets.
During the third
semester of law school I finally got my act together and joined the college gym.
I organized myself with a set of downloaded podcasts and jumped on a treadmill.
This process I
anticipated being a short-term measure destined to fall apart within a month.
My health kicks have never been particularly successful before and I had no
reason to believe that this one was any different.
Having not been a
gym bunny before my first experience in
the gym was honestly terrifying. There were a lot of machines that didn’t understand and a lot people making
weird faces.
I was so scared
to be laughed at or told off for making a mistake that I practically walked
around with my eyes on the floor the entire time that I was there. I’d barely make
it to thirty minutes before I was diving out of the door and crawling back into
bed. When I first started this experiment I wasn’t very energetic and most of
what I remember is being so exhausted I’d just fall asleep in the morning and
not wake up until night. It was a disaster during law school because I could
barely stand to study afterwards.
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| I tried to exercise outside once or twice but then an ant bit me - I haven't been back since |
It was at this
stage that I looked into the energising foods/preworkouts/whatever it took to
get me out of bed. I was throwing back coffee at about 7-8 mugs per day. Which
I know definitely wasn’t ideal for my teeth colour and probably had other
negative side effects. Over all I was disappointed because I really had thought
that exercising more would not only give me a big green tick health wise but
would improve physical and cognitive abilities. So far, I was just sleeping
more.
I stayed in that
physical exhaustion stage for about a month. Getting to the gym everyday was
one of the biggest challenges and even though when I was there I loved it – afterwards
it completely destroyed every other part of my day. I had to use my rest days
as study days and then I was done and tired and generally fed up with it all.
It was then that
I started to watch fitness vlogs – something that I had never previously done
because the idea of watching someone in tight yoga pants squatting and drinking
protein shakes was about as appealing as watching paint dry. Surprisingly
though these vlogs were far more informative than I anticipated. I learned
about lifting versus cardio, using macro and micronutrients to fuel my body and
how to properly train my body.
Thus started the
second month of my experiment. I was still mostly cardio, reluctant to let go
of my concept that a good workout required sweat and exhaustion – currently I
thought I could only get this from a good 90 minutes on the elliptical machine.
However, I revamped my diet – which I will talk more about later. I started a
flexible dieting program focusing more on nutritional needs rather than caloric
value and had an impressive energy boost. It was the second month too that I
started to read about too much cardio and
exercise can be damaging as well. I cut back from a 90 minute cardio regime
and instead stuck to a 30 minute cardio session and 20 minute weights session 5
times a week. This was much better- and suddenly I found those little
improvements were starting to show. While I still wasn’t able to run a marathon
or lift heavy weights I could focus better and I was more confident around the
gym machines – I even looked up from the floor occasionally to smile at some of
the other sweaty souls in there.
The third month
was the biggest challenge – I left my gym college and headed back home. I
thought initially that I’d have to be extra on the ball and prepared myself
with a pintrest board full of at home workouts built around pilates and HIIT (High
Intensity Interval Training). Of course at this stage I had very little
equipment and although I was using the 8FIT app to try and keep up my fitness
it wasn’t really giving me the same growth and movement that I was getting at
the gym.
I convinced my
dad to take us down to the local pool/gym place and was surprised to be faced
with that same feeling of intimidation. Despite my progression on the
elliptical and exercise bike my progression in the swimming pool was next to
none. I could barely hold my breath for three arm strokes – never mind actually
reaching the end of the pool in a decent time. Dad and I kept going for a few
weeks – but the novelty of swimming soon wore off as you can’t listen to
podcasts and your head is in the water pretty much the entire time. It wasn’t
enjoyable for me and I wasn’t getting any resistance training – something
I read was important for overall body and cognitive change.
So I turned back
to the gym – facing my fear head on and approached a personal trainer. The PT
was fantastic, working with me to create a whole body routine with alternate
sessions. It was similar to what I’d been doing before but working with someone
else gave me the confidence to set goals that before I had thought were impossible
to reach. I write more about what working with a PT was like in a later blog.
As of writing I am exercising 5-6 days a week for about 60 minutes with
different combinations of cardio and strength training. I am more able to focus
on a single task then I was before and I definitely feel more energised and
able to do things than I was prior to starting this experiment.
Overall, I don’t
regret my foray into the gym and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon!
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