Working Out

In August I decided I needed a two week holiday from exercise. Yesterday, I decided that the two week break was over. Being an accountant I realize that perhaps that period of time was a bit longer than two weeks….closer to three months. I have to wonder what goes on in my brain that would allow me to completely stop exercising for so long. I did enjoy it this summer. I enjoyed seeing new muscles popping up on my body. The area most improved by the weight training was my chest area right above my breasts. I would look at in the mirror and be astounded that I could have a defined muscle in that area of my body. So why did I stop. I haven’t figured that out yet.

So in order to jump start my exercise regime again I decided to join a weight lifting class at the YMCA. This is the second WOW class (Women on Weights Class) as I had taken the first WOW class earlier this summer. So I show up last night at 7pm a bit nervous as I was feeling completely out of shape. As I meet the people in my class I realize that everyone just finished the first class the prior week and they all knew each other. I hate being the new kid. The instructor asked us if we wanted to take a pre-test to see how we are going to improve over the next six weeks. I was the only one as everyone else had finished that task last week. The test consisted of 1 minute of sit ups, 1 minute of push ups, a flexibility test, chest presses and a 5 minute cardio test. This was awful and seriously lowered my self esteem.

The first things that we did were the sit ups and push ups. So I had to do the sit ups in the traditional way, you know the instructor sat there and held my feet down and then I had to lift my body up. After I endured doing six with much exhaustion I asked how much time was left….she said 30 seconds. I felt like I couldn’t move at all. I pulled out one more and I was done. I could only do 7 sit ups. Whatever! Then I did 1 minute of push ups, at least they were the modified push ups. I start off strong and complete about 12 and then I began feeling tired…I asked how much time left and the response was 30 seconds. I had to quit again after I had done 17. So I couldn’t even complete 1 minute of either exercise.

The next item was the flexibility test. She had me sit on the floor on a mat. She put a measuring devise on the floor next to my legs and I had to bend over and stretch out far. I assure you I didn’t get very far. If you had ever noticed my body shape you might notice that all of my weight is carried in my front. I don’t have any room to sit on the floor and bend over. So I measured a 15. I don’t have anything to compare that to except that I know that it wasn’t very far. The next item on the list I couldn’t even do. It was an assisted pull up. Basically you do pull ups on this machine that has counter weights up 100lbs which somehow reduce the amount you are pulling up by 100lbs. Even with that assistance I cannot pull myself up at all. I didn’t try last night because when I tried this summer I was an utter failure.

The final test was a cardio test. I had to go hard on any cardio machine and mark how far I went, how fast I was going and what my ending heart rate was after 5 minutes. So I chose the elliptical machine and I get going and it was fine enough. I went at about 100 spins per minute, and completed .25 miles in the five minutes. The astounding thing is that my heart rate was 170 after only 5 minutes. What a poor showing. It is going to be interesting to see how much I am able to improve over the next six weeks. I somehow need to figure out why I keep quitting and change that habit.