Laura and I have joined the Kenwick Park Health and Leisure Club, a nearby health club. They have a swimming pool, jacuzzi, steam room, sauna, beauty treatment centre, gym filled with Technogym equipment, weights, aerobics room, squash court, tennis court, and a golf course. There's also a ton of classes you can take, all included.
Unlike a typical gym, Kenwick only accepts people who hold a certificate for the club (which confused the heck out of us to begin with). This is some sort of shared ownership / cooperative scheme, so you have to have a certificate before you can even begin to sign up. We managed to find someone selling theirs in the local paper and bought it. We've done all the paperwork with the club, so now we're bonafide members. How great it is to be part of Louth's jetset ;-)
The club is great. Today we went for our gym induction, and I did an hour on the treadmill. Most of the hour was spent fast-walking at 6 km/h (3.72 mph) but I jogged for a few minutes at 9 km/h near the end. Definitely worked up a sweat, which shows how unfit I am. As I haven't done any form of regimented exercise in years, it's not much of a surprise. I'm working my way up to be able to run 2.5 kilometres (about 1.5 miles) in 12 minutes. Supposedly this will push me into the "Good" section of the fitness scale. This means keeping the treadmill at 12.5 km/h for 12 minutes.. oh dear.
Now I'm looking at ways to keep me motivated (as if the expense weren't enough!) and I'm going to be putting podcasts, interviews, audiobooks, and so forth onto my iPod so I can still be 'working' while working up a sweat. All the machines have flat screen TVs built into them, but I'm not really a TV person, so the iPod will come in handy.
Any fitness, gym, etc, recommendations are welcomed in the comments on this post! I'll try not to bore you with my progress, but will probably post from time to time if I hit any targets. My next target is to maintain 10 km/h for 5 minutes (pathetic, I know!).
Technorati Tags: fitness, gym, health, kenwick, louth
If you are starting a new aerobic exercise regime, I would **highly** suggest doing a few weeks of abs work first! Most people start running only to find out a month later that it gives them lower back pain. A few weeks working on your abs helps to alleviate 90% of that stress. (And the bonus part about abdominal work is that you only need to spend 3 to 7 minutes, at most, each day to get the maximum benefit!)
Posted by: Nick Gray at May 7, 2006 04:15 PMWhoops, I forgot to say - Congrats on joining the gym :) A great investment. Now I am going to have some serious competition in our 'Staying Healthy' challenge.
Posted by: Nick Gray at May 7, 2006 04:16 PMNot for several months you won't ;-)
I didn't know about that abs stuff but I'll look into it. The trainers at the gym said I shouldn't migrate off of cardio vascular for at least a couple of weeks while I get into the swing of things though, but might be good to find something a bit more muscular sooner.
Posted by: Peter Cooper at May 7, 2006 04:24 PMReturn to the homepage.
Privacy Policy