May232010
Armchair Gym Sociology
Filed under health by Kim at 10:53 am on May 23 2010
Today was a special day in my gym. The SportFit Laurel is already pretty “for the people” in the sense that every time I am in there it’s like an episode of a mid-90s kids show trying to prove it’s diverse enough. Old folks! Young folks! Kids! Multiple languages, all different abilities, and everyone is friendly! Look we can all work out together! I love this. It always feels like there is no way you could feel like you don’t belong.
That does not extend, gender-wise, to the weightlifting end of the gym. That section usually has all men, or possibly one woman who is only over there because a trainer is working with her. But not this fine sunday morning. Today for most of the morning it was all women! And I don’t just mean two! Before I went over there to see if I could buck up and do the iFitness arm workout, there were four women. I made five. Unprecedented. Pleasing. By the time I left it was all guys again but still.
(I should note however, that as I went to close iFitness, I noticed the arm workout description said “for the man who wants to gain a little muscle in his arms”. I missed the memo where iFitness was only for guys, or that only guys wanted to gain muscle in their arms. Douches.)
Oh and while I am talking about it, someone convince me I can do a bench press without someone spotting me, because I am terrified to lay down under a weight bar alone, and out of budget to get a personal trainer. I need to go back and read the New Rules of Lifting for Women because it was very fear-dispelling.
There was one lady there who was already there and working hard when I got there. I worked out for 1.5 hours. When I left, she was still there, plugging away. Wow. Another lady, and I have seen this a lot, had a little binder where she was checking stuff off. I guess iFitness is my version of the binder, but I have slowly come to realize that nothing is dorky at the gym. Whatever gets the job done.
I am at the end of week two of the couch to 5k plan and it hurts and I am terrified of week three. I may repeat week two. Basically I have to listen to metal to get through the third run and I have to pretend I am in a preparation-for-extravagant-movie-revenge montage to push past that. My HR goes between 130 and 170 the whole time. Bleah. Oh and I let the treadmill give me the gentlest inclines the other day? Horrific shin splints were the result. Going from zero to hero is hard.
OH AND while I am brain dumping about exercise: I am SO UPSET with myself that I have an iPhone 3G. The final straw is that 3GS works with Nike+. I just bought fancy Nike running shoes. But to get Nike+ and C25K app to work together I would have to upgrade to a 3GS. WHY DID I NOT WAIT 6 MONTHS. Hrmph. (Other things: the camera on the 3G is shit compared to 3GS. And I hear that multitasking won’t be happening on 3G.)
1 Michelleon 23 May 2010 at 11:39 am
I’m so excited that we’re both doing couch to 5K now. It always seems to inspire me when we do something diety, schoolish, or workout-ish together.
[Reply]
Kim Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:32 pm
I’m glad it inspires you. I can’t tell you though, how frustrating it is that we don’t get to decompress together over margaritas all the time. But knowing you are doing it too helps so much. 🙂 What week are you on? Did you have the same thing where you hate it but do it anyways?
[Reply]
Michelle Reply:
May 24th, 2010 at 6:17 am
I’m on the end of week 3. I didn’t hate it in the beginning but it’s really getting hard now and it’s frustrating. But I want to keep going because I hate failing at things if that makes sense. It just seems to me that if I’m so good at weight lifting I should also be good at running. But I guess weight lifting was really hard at first too, right?
I wish we could hang out A LOT more than we do. It would make my life a lot happier.
[Reply]
2 Lizon 23 May 2010 at 2:54 pm
All I have to say about women and weightlifting I learned from Mistress Krista.
[Reply]
Kim Reply:
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Love her site. It used to be non-RSS friendly but it looks like it’s been vastly improved, I will have to go back and check it out again. Thanks!
[Reply]
3 Terryon 31 May 2010 at 4:34 am
Reading about compatibility issues between running shoes and mobile phone apps makes me feel so, so old 🙁
(Does it run on a ZX Spectrum …. that’s what I want to know ..)
[Reply]
Kim Reply:
May 31st, 2010 at 8:25 am
Oh I have not heard of a ZX Spectrum, not due to my youth I expect but due to my American-ness. At that time we had an Atari 800.
[Reply]
4 Susanon 21 Jan 2011 at 8:56 am
I can also recommend one app for training – All-in fitness. It’s very convenient, easy to use and has more than 700 exercises for various muscles. If you have time – you can try it.
[Reply]