Oh, machines, how I hate you!

Some people say that working out at the gym can become addictive.  But a compelling urge to exercise on the fitness machines will happen to me…NEVER!   Truthfully,  I have been a member of Hempfield Rec Center for about 30 years, and this is my 3^rd or 4^th attempt on the work-out machines.  In the past, I found this type of exercise to be boring, and when other people talked to me, I lost track of what I was doing and injured myself.  So I went to tennis, racquetball, swimming, cardio dance, body vive, body flow, or body combat at various times over the years and avoided the dreaded machines.

But I’m back for the summer of 2015 effort.  So far, counting the orientation session of May 7^th, I have been on the machines eight times.  I think that’s a personal record. The catalyst for making another try is a golf injury that happened about a year ago.  It was a shoulder impingement that resulted in a month of physical therapy.  The conclusion of the therapist as well as the physician was that I need to strengthen my little stick figure arms.  How can they be skinny AND flabby at the same time?  I don’t get it.  Also, at my age I am losing muscle mass every year, so I need to strengthen my body over all.  So they say.

Well, luckily I go to the rec center 3 or 4 times a week for my beloved Zumba classes. Zumba is fun and even feels more like dancing than exercising.  If I go to the gym and do the machines after Zumba, it is only 25 more minutes, and I am already there.  Inertia is a tremendous force to overcome to get there for the machines alone.

But I do HATE the machines.  Even the names sound like torture: “converging chest press”, “diverging lateral pulldown,” and “leg extender.”  Then there is the humiliation of where I am in my weakened state—lifting from 10 to 60 pounds on the machines.  I have even lowered the weight on one machine.  That is the most hated one of all: “abdominals.” My abs are absolutely inadequate. Eighty year olds are lifting more weight than I am!  I have a long way to go. I am still carrying my beginner’s clipboard around with me because I cannot remember the 2 or 3 settings plus the amount of weight that I use on 10 different machines.  One day I couldn’t even find one of the 10 machines on my list, and a kind person helped me.

 A year from today, where will I be?  I hope I will be a success on the fitness machines with higher weights and more strength.  If I don’t set goals, I will never reach them.  My goal is to continue working out twice a week for the next year in order to stay fit and strong. Still, I am hating every sweaty, boring minute spent on the machines.