12.3.09

None of them along the line know what this is worth

I started exercising again this week. It started off on Thursday when I didn't have lab but went to my professor's research presentation. I had a final the next morning, and felt like maybe exercise would do me some good. I hadn't had time/motivation to exercise for the past several weeks, due to homework, Aeva, and just a lack of nourishing impulses, so I was feeling pretty disgusted with my body. Like, I'm so skinny that you can clearly see when I haven't been exercising or eating well because there's nothing to hide lack of nutrition or lack of muscle. So anyways, in an effort to become stronger, be able to run cross country again and look better, I wanted to start working out again. Also, inb4 zombie apocalypse.

So on Tuesday, even though I really didn't want to, I walked over to the athletic center, known variously as the MARC and the Leonard Center. I changed, filled up my apple-juice bottle come water bottle (I <3 glass containers) and walked into the fitness side of the workout area.

As an aside, this place is practically palatial. There are about 25-30 fitness machines and probably double that in weight machines. The freeweights section looks like a fully stocked bar on a Friday night and, depending on who's there at the time, is nearly as busy. By and large two groups use the fitness center: athletes and women. I have a hard time identifying any man I see in there as not an athlete; most of those I do determine to not be athletes are alumni or professors. I guess staying fit is not important to Mac guys.

This was at about 5:00 on a Tuesday, where class ends for the most part at 4:30, with only a handful of 5-6:30 classes still going. So the place was packed. None of the ellipticals were open, none of the treadmills were free; the only thing available for use was bikes. There are two variety of exercise bikes in popular use: the upright bike, which is traditionally how bikes work, and the horizontal bike, which is like a row machine for your legs. Having never used one of those before, I decided to try it out.

For those who are interested, it's very similar to normal biking. It felt like it was using the same muscles, and I felt the same burn in the same places. It was easier on my crotch but harder on my ass -- in addition to diamonds, I can also cleave my own muscle and skin. It also solved my main problem with upright bike machines: being so far off the ground. Being lower to the ground, like on a proper bike, gave me much more confidence, and also made me feel like I wasn't really exercising, considering my seated position. Anyways, tldr; I biked 6.8 miles in 25 minutes, with the last .8 miles being a 5 minute cooldown.

After that I did an upper body workout, trying to hit all of the big muscles: rowing for upper back, chest press, shoulder press, crunches. Also, smaller muscle groups: bicep curls, tricep extensions, gratuitous amounts of stretching.

Earlier in the semester, I was trying to exercise twice a week and I found I was forgetting the weight levels I used. I've solved that problem now. Not by writing it down, as you would expect, oh no, that would be too easy: I've chosen a much more enjoyable form of memorization. Exercising every day, alternating between upper and lower body workouts after 20 or so minutes of cardio.

This may sound like a lot, but I don't reach my "cardio workout heart rate" or whatever until about 12 minutes into a continuous, strenuous exercise. Vinny said, "I'm glad it's not me." I would have to respond, "Then it's a good thing it's me doing it."