Chapter Two
- Tai Chi
- The Trainer
With the mind set of my last entry, I went back to my old bookshelves. Despite having moved many times over the years and purged my collection a few times (down to 900 from 1600, I still have a good solid research section. And in there I have a series of Tai Chi books including one on diets used for Martial Arts and what you should avoid. Contrary to most people who start with their doctors, my wife and I eat a lot of veggies, don't do much fried foods, and she is a european so she doesn't like much salt and sugar. I get the impression most medical folks are quite surprised when they hear about her illnesses since they automatically turn to diet points to correct the issues. Learning we were doing all those things for the last five years and quite a bit before this stuff muddles the clear diagnosis down fairly fast. It might be why they have had a hard time figuring out what the cure is going to be as well. In any case, our diet is already very good so the food and martial arts book, although really well written, has no surprises for me on this third reading. I do have a very simple one which just does positions and not all the extra fillers and explanations and this one I decide to use for the time being. With my wife's balance being so off, I can't think of many things that would help more then Tai Chi with that.
Tai Chi has been used for hundreds of years in China where nearly any eighty year old moves with a grace that is astonishing and the flexibility of a teenager. That was my original reason for searching it out in college and many of the same things still hold true. It's simple, not difficult, and unlike many sports, you rarely get injured doing it. Other martial arts can cause knee and ankle weakness over time, but this one strengthens them. Just what she needs. I work a third shift job which is nice as I have a lot of time on my hands so I take the book with me and use it on breaks, working my way through the movements again and reminding myself about it. Why did I ever stop? Mentally I want to kick myself for not keeping it up continuously the entire time as it is one of the best things you can do for your body. Heck, they use it in some nursing homes to help the elderly regain their sense of balance! I go to bed in the morning with a new commitment to begin working this into my life again cause I do find I have missed it -- the smooth movements, flowing lines, and the energy I can feel flowing through my veins again all feel comfortable and right with the world.
The next afternoon, we go in for our trainer sessions. When they asked us for preferences over female to male, neither one of us had one, but we find we have been assigned same gender anyway. Probably a good thing for my wife in particular and we were told they had a few trainers who had worked with several of her issues before. The woman seems confident and careful and I watch her take my wife off to show her what she would like her to do. Brad is a young man, solid seeming although not heavily muscled which suits me just fine. He asks my goals even though he has read the stuff taken down yesterday which I also give him points for mentally. Hearing the way someone phrases things can often tell you far more then what they think they are revealing. I make sure he understand that I think I could lose the pounds without the gym, but I want to be there for her and he nods. He's friendly, but in charge showing me right away to a rowing machine. Wow, have these changed! Being an outdoors type, I take to the rowing machine immediately despite his comment about how most people avoid them cause they look intimidating. In a few seconds, I have a good solid pull going right at chest height and you can tell he's pleased I fell right into the right form. That's what a rowing merit badge can do for you, scouts! Remember that! :D
With that success under my belt on the very first thing, I feel much more at ease with what's happening and he next shows me a stair master. Perfect! I worked at Biltmore House in Asheville for nearly sixteen years where I walked (and sometimes ran large sections of it) an average of three to four thousand steps up and down a day and an estimated six miles on unforgiving limestone. Stairs not only give me no hesitation, they are like old friends come to visit lol. Once again, he seems very pleased with the way I take to this contraption with enthusiasm. The stair master will be an excellent cardio and one to remember, in fact it's easier for me then the rowing machine. Good thing, since it burns more stuff anyway! We've set a goal for me of a long one, since I don't have an urgent need and I want to pace myself off what she can do, so a limit of two pounds a week is what we agree to, I'll start slow and low on most of the stuff to be sure. From there he shows me an elliptical machine which is wild cause instead of just running forward on it, you can do it backwards! He laughs and mentions that you have to think on this one to do it, but I feel kind of determined to work on that one in particular. From there it's onto a device I've seen on TV, the Jacob's ladder. An interesting device, most of the contestants I hear thought it was one of the hardest machines to work on. A few minutes on it, and I can see the challenge. You pick the speed, but you also have to try and stay in the middle of it and it keeps adjusting to how fast you grab rungs. The advice this time is not to look but find something else to stare at and fall into a pattern. It's good advice.
I can see my wife learning how to pull on some rubber band handles, a device I've seen others use and she looks to be in good hands. I heard later the trainer thought she was in good shape for everything that had happened which gives me heart as well, of course. After these machines, he wants to talk things I can do at home when I can't get her to the gym and stuff that will help both of us. Perfect again! I like this guy! He knows my worries exactly. There are days the pain is very bad for her indeed; having things we can both try at home would be great. We spend the next thirty minutes talking about different advantages and disadvantages in a number of different positions until my wife appears and says "Hey guys, the hour was up awhile ago." Needless to say, I was very surprised. So far, this place has beat all my expectations; the staff is friendly and helpful and not pushing me into anything, the equipment is varied and well set, and there is lots of variety. I expected to feel pushed, egged on, and more worried, but instead we both are leaving the gym feeling really good about the place and working out. Huh! This means I have to rearrange some ideas in my mind about how things are going to go.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Chapter One: The Setting
Chapter One:
- Setting
- Prices
- Goals
- Being Male
The gym itself is a chain, one of the more recent ones at that to my awareness at least, and is called the Rush. The place is busy and we set up an appointment with someone on the phone to come and take a look, specifically because of her issues which they assured us they had people well trained in this kind of thing. We entered and noticed there is no in between. Once you step through the door you are in the gym itself, only a free standing desk between you and the members. The first things I noticed? A kid's section to the right and a store (obviously the normal gym named stuff, but also towels and other items I can see for workouts) and a very busy person at the front desk. Phones, paperwork, and scanning tags; each person who enters shows him their keys where they have this handy barcode and he scans them in. He greets us, gives us the paperwork to fill out for the guide, and we sit down and write up a few answers to the not-very-invasive questions. So far so good. In a moment, the man from the phone conversation yesterday is there, greets us, and invites us back to a desk in the gym, separated from the members by a short half wall. We sit and talk about what we're looking for -- explaining health issues which never fails to get a sympathetic reaction. In addition, I have to mention a bum ankle and a back surgery years before which is well under control so far. He takes us on a tour.
The gym is well stocked and fairly large (like the size of a small Lowes) with the only dividers in the main space is a path between the sections of equipment. Nothing is too close to give everyone maneuvering space and is fairly clearly defined. For instance, the bikes are in four different types, all lined up in a row and you can go to whatever one you prefer. Their screens only operate when you operate the equipment (smart of course of the designers of them) and their are sanitation wipes in containers around the sections. So far so good. Swimming pool (lanes), locker rooms, basketball court, boxing ring, and some weird trampoline-in-a-soft-cage thing are the only set ups separated obviously by either doors or other barriers. Even more impressive then anything else, they have a door to a ladies only section which much of the same equipment set up for those ladies who don't feel comfortable out on the floor. By now, I'm impressed; this shows someone set this up with some good thinking and obviously caring about privacy of folks working there as well. Along the way I see the muscle bound, the casual exerciser, trainers moving amongst them. He explains that when you sign up, they get you an hour with a trainer for free right off the bat to make sure you are doing towards your goals. Also very smart. I wonder how many people get a gym membership somewhere and just go in and use the equipment wrong most of the time they are there and never change to something else? Probably pretty high numbers. I'm reminded of a fact back in one of my books on men's health which quoted (and I went and looked it up just for you) "Number of emergency-room visits in 1997 by elderly Americans injured while snowboarding: 75." It's both amusing and a warning; know what you are doing, use the right equipment, and pay attention. If you do this, it doesn't matter who you are, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Still, the image of an elderly man snowboarding brings a smile to my face just like it did when I first read it (a glance around shows that most of the people in the gym at noon are middle aged, but there are a few seniors as well). It's not laughing at the idea, so much as an odd mix of respect and admiration that they are trying, combined with an image of a man in his eightys wearing equipment designed for someone in their twenties. I'm pretty sure in his youth he didn't go around wearing brand names all over his clothes. Actually, neither did I as that was where my mom drew the line in elementary school and explained that those clothes were making someone else money by free advertising. I still have very few pieces of clothing with a company name on it and I'm fairly proud of that. In life we each set goals for ourselves and in college I took enough Socilology and learned enough about what horrors companies have done in the name of profit that I have my own personal list of 'I-will-never-support' companies and groups that I will make a point of avoiding. This includes t-shirt logos and other such stuff; why should I pay someone to advertise for them? That just seems like a fool's game even if it might look cool when the graphics designers have gotten finished with it and had a real blast with colors. Just because it's cool looking, doesn't mean you should choose it.
But, I digress badly.
We talk about it while he gets a calculator from another desk. We both know this is going to stretch our budget in an already tight economic time, but it's her health we're both concerned about. Both the trainers and we see the same on this part; it's an investment we can't afford to skip out on. Millions of Americans don't make this investment in their futures and it's about time we did. I remember also an instructor in a Tai Chi book (I have an old love affair with the martial art which will no doubt come up lots in this blog) who said he was putting aside chi-energy now in his bank while he was young to withdraw in interest later on in his golden years. It really is; what you do for your health today compounds to bring you much better health in your future. W have our goals, thirty for me (which my doctor would say is ten pounds too much; she always disagreed with the BMIs) and about sixty for her. Hopefully, this will cut back some of the nasty symptoms she is dealing with and fighting. But then we get down to prices. They want, of course, her to have a trainer for the entire time she trains, both to keep an eye on her and for her own good. While it would be lovely, it's simply not in any budget we can imagine. Maybe someday when we win money on the lottery (which we don't buy tickets for except every once in awhile when it's really high; odds are against anyone winning, but hope springs eternal. When I lose hope I'm dead so maybe buying the tickets is a way of pointing out I still dream), but that's not something to plan for. We haggle it down to six trainer sessions beyond the first free one, one each week even though we'll probably come in several times a week. I don't want to fasten her down to a certain number of days per week, just because I know the pain can strike and remove all plans off the board. But beyond that, it's far more affordable then I would have thought. All this access plus LOADS of free classes for both of us for under $50 a month. Wow. That means an individual really can get something that's worth budgeting for, not what I expected at all. Of course, our trainer time is going to be more then that, but we both need guidance.
Now with that in mind, I am reminded again of another memory. Bill Cosby once said that in one of his stories placed in Italy, he was losing his male-ness when he was allowing another to order for him, simply because he didn't know the language. I feel that urge now to do something for myself, not to be just under trainer's instructions. Is it a male thing, to b
e in control? Certainly has been a habit for a very long time, that male need to feel in charge of something, even if it is really an illusion. Look at the homes now a days. Has anyone not heard the description 'man-cave' by now? Sure, I have control issues from being under my mother's influence and, if you really knew her like my family does, you'd understand why I have those issues. I try not to let them take over, but they slip back in when I'm not paying attention. But this feels much deeper and I suspect that Mr Cosby would identify it immediately. Some part of this process of gym work outs, I need to find something which I decide what I will do if nothing else just to put my own personal touch on this whole process. I can't do it with her stuff; there I am going to be at her side when does work out to keep both an eye on her (for all these things have also destroyed her balance, a terrible thing to deal with) and because I'm worried about her doing too much too fast. There is a hidden, inner fear about this whole thing being a mistake and that it will activate something maybe as bad as the elevation issues and that I will rue doing this. Logically, I know that's not true. She's going to get good care, her health will improve, and she will regain confidence in herself. But I still can only encourage and watch from the sidelines here, I need to control my own stuff.
So, time to visit an old friend, my Tai Chi books.
- Setting
- Prices
- Goals
- Being Male
The gym itself is a chain, one of the more recent ones at that to my awareness at least, and is called the Rush. The place is busy and we set up an appointment with someone on the phone to come and take a look, specifically because of her issues which they assured us they had people well trained in this kind of thing. We entered and noticed there is no in between. Once you step through the door you are in the gym itself, only a free standing desk between you and the members. The first things I noticed? A kid's section to the right and a store (obviously the normal gym named stuff, but also towels and other items I can see for workouts) and a very busy person at the front desk. Phones, paperwork, and scanning tags; each person who enters shows him their keys where they have this handy barcode and he scans them in. He greets us, gives us the paperwork to fill out for the guide, and we sit down and write up a few answers to the not-very-invasive questions. So far so good. In a moment, the man from the phone conversation yesterday is there, greets us, and invites us back to a desk in the gym, separated from the members by a short half wall. We sit and talk about what we're looking for -- explaining health issues which never fails to get a sympathetic reaction. In addition, I have to mention a bum ankle and a back surgery years before which is well under control so far. He takes us on a tour.
The gym is well stocked and fairly large (like the size of a small Lowes) with the only dividers in the main space is a path between the sections of equipment. Nothing is too close to give everyone maneuvering space and is fairly clearly defined. For instance, the bikes are in four different types, all lined up in a row and you can go to whatever one you prefer. Their screens only operate when you operate the equipment (smart of course of the designers of them) and their are sanitation wipes in containers around the sections. So far so good. Swimming pool (lanes), locker rooms, basketball court, boxing ring, and some weird trampoline-in-a-soft-cage thing are the only set ups separated obviously by either doors or other barriers. Even more impressive then anything else, they have a door to a ladies only section which much of the same equipment set up for those ladies who don't feel comfortable out on the floor. By now, I'm impressed; this shows someone set this up with some good thinking and obviously caring about privacy of folks working there as well. Along the way I see the muscle bound, the casual exerciser, trainers moving amongst them. He explains that when you sign up, they get you an hour with a trainer for free right off the bat to make sure you are doing towards your goals. Also very smart. I wonder how many people get a gym membership somewhere and just go in and use the equipment wrong most of the time they are there and never change to something else? Probably pretty high numbers. I'm reminded of a fact back in one of my books on men's health which quoted (and I went and looked it up just for you) "Number of emergency-room visits in 1997 by elderly Americans injured while snowboarding: 75." It's both amusing and a warning; know what you are doing, use the right equipment, and pay attention. If you do this, it doesn't matter who you are, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Still, the image of an elderly man snowboarding brings a smile to my face just like it did when I first read it (a glance around shows that most of the people in the gym at noon are middle aged, but there are a few seniors as well). It's not laughing at the idea, so much as an odd mix of respect and admiration that they are trying, combined with an image of a man in his eightys wearing equipment designed for someone in their twenties. I'm pretty sure in his youth he didn't go around wearing brand names all over his clothes. Actually, neither did I as that was where my mom drew the line in elementary school and explained that those clothes were making someone else money by free advertising. I still have very few pieces of clothing with a company name on it and I'm fairly proud of that. In life we each set goals for ourselves and in college I took enough Socilology and learned enough about what horrors companies have done in the name of profit that I have my own personal list of 'I-will-never-support' companies and groups that I will make a point of avoiding. This includes t-shirt logos and other such stuff; why should I pay someone to advertise for them? That just seems like a fool's game even if it might look cool when the graphics designers have gotten finished with it and had a real blast with colors. Just because it's cool looking, doesn't mean you should choose it.
But, I digress badly.
We talk about it while he gets a calculator from another desk. We both know this is going to stretch our budget in an already tight economic time, but it's her health we're both concerned about. Both the trainers and we see the same on this part; it's an investment we can't afford to skip out on. Millions of Americans don't make this investment in their futures and it's about time we did. I remember also an instructor in a Tai Chi book (I have an old love affair with the martial art which will no doubt come up lots in this blog) who said he was putting aside chi-energy now in his bank while he was young to withdraw in interest later on in his golden years. It really is; what you do for your health today compounds to bring you much better health in your future. W have our goals, thirty for me (which my doctor would say is ten pounds too much; she always disagreed with the BMIs) and about sixty for her. Hopefully, this will cut back some of the nasty symptoms she is dealing with and fighting. But then we get down to prices. They want, of course, her to have a trainer for the entire time she trains, both to keep an eye on her and for her own good. While it would be lovely, it's simply not in any budget we can imagine. Maybe someday when we win money on the lottery (which we don't buy tickets for except every once in awhile when it's really high; odds are against anyone winning, but hope springs eternal. When I lose hope I'm dead so maybe buying the tickets is a way of pointing out I still dream), but that's not something to plan for. We haggle it down to six trainer sessions beyond the first free one, one each week even though we'll probably come in several times a week. I don't want to fasten her down to a certain number of days per week, just because I know the pain can strike and remove all plans off the board. But beyond that, it's far more affordable then I would have thought. All this access plus LOADS of free classes for both of us for under $50 a month. Wow. That means an individual really can get something that's worth budgeting for, not what I expected at all. Of course, our trainer time is going to be more then that, but we both need guidance.
Now with that in mind, I am reminded again of another memory. Bill Cosby once said that in one of his stories placed in Italy, he was losing his male-ness when he was allowing another to order for him, simply because he didn't know the language. I feel that urge now to do something for myself, not to be just under trainer's instructions. Is it a male thing, to b
e in control? Certainly has been a habit for a very long time, that male need to feel in charge of something, even if it is really an illusion. Look at the homes now a days. Has anyone not heard the description 'man-cave' by now? Sure, I have control issues from being under my mother's influence and, if you really knew her like my family does, you'd understand why I have those issues. I try not to let them take over, but they slip back in when I'm not paying attention. But this feels much deeper and I suspect that Mr Cosby would identify it immediately. Some part of this process of gym work outs, I need to find something which I decide what I will do if nothing else just to put my own personal touch on this whole process. I can't do it with her stuff; there I am going to be at her side when does work out to keep both an eye on her (for all these things have also destroyed her balance, a terrible thing to deal with) and because I'm worried about her doing too much too fast. There is a hidden, inner fear about this whole thing being a mistake and that it will activate something maybe as bad as the elevation issues and that I will rue doing this. Logically, I know that's not true. She's going to get good care, her health will improve, and she will regain confidence in herself. But I still can only encourage and watch from the sidelines here, I need to control my own stuff.
So, time to visit an old friend, my Tai Chi books.
The Prologue
Why an exercise blog? Well, let me explain.
I am an outdoors man. Boating, kayaking, canoeing, rafting, hiking, geocaching; these are things I love doing. The woods are my battery charger and a good hike is a wonder for me, something I can't get enough of in any weather. I've never tried to build up muscles mainly due to the fact that I believed if I wasn't using them, it was wasted energy and effort. I stayed in shape through my activities and while I was not visible ripped, my doctor was very pleased with my physical condition. Now, don't get me wrong, if you are in a type of job where muscle helps, go for it. I was never a construction worker or an iron worker -- those guys benefit a lot from it. And professional athletes I don't watch (cause I'm not a fan of competitive sports at all, despite living in a basketball crazy state), but I understand why they would want the muscle mass. Me, not so much. When I turned thirty, I even went to my doctor and talked about it. I knew I was cresting that hill where things got harder with my body not bouncing back like it used to and there were things I was sure I needed to be preparing myself for. She was pleased and we discussed possibilities, she told me my good weight, and we both felt rather happy with the other. I read the Harvard study and took hydrogenated anything off my list and began to read ingredient lists and watch out for whole breads. Unlike a lot of guys my age, I was paying attention to my health and where I was.
A few years ago, I met a wonderful woman from Holland -- I'll spare the details here, but it's a true storybook romance that several people told us would make a better movie then "Hello, you've got mail" or "Sleepless in Seattle." We didn't care, we had each other and that's all we needed. That and two fairly well-behaved cats. :D We even moved to Montana to be near some friends of hers and I found work to help us get by. After a few years her health became dramatically worse one summer and we went to the local doctors to find out what was happening. Congestive Heart failure, sleep apnea, and several other conditions had sprung up out of literally no where and all activated in a year's time. There is still argument from her doctors on the source, but we had a guess. She grew up at -10 elevation in Holland and here we were 4900 in Montana ad the suspicion was that getting out of the heights would make a big difference to her body. Still, it was only a theory and we hesitated until her heart rate got down to 30% operation and she was on oxygen most of the day. That was the end of that and we high-tailed it out of Montana and back to North Carolina.
Now those who think (and we know two doctors in this category) that has nothing to do with it, here's our key evidence. Coming down the hills out of Montana, the feeling suddenly (at 1700 feet) came back into her feet and hands and she felt much better. We stopped and admired the effect and as we crossed into Wyoming and went back up again, the feeling went away again and her feet and hands tingled with pain. From then on (and still today) every time we approach that magic number of 1700, it happens again. Now, here in North Carolina she is moving much better and not using oxygen, but the doctors have her on multiple medications to solve the rest. She does have lots of pain which prevented her from getting out much or practically any kind of exercise and because I didn't like leaving her alone on those days it was particularly bad, I started packing on a few pounds as well. Plus, I was no longer in the wild on the edge of the woods, now we were down in the state and mostly in city areas without much wilderness around. So now that she is a bit more stable medically speaking, we needed to work exercise into her regimen, but carefully to not throw off the balance we had achieved. And being the adoring husband I hope I seem, I wanted to do stuff with her so I could monitor it as well and know everything was good. We decided to join a gym where she can work with some experts who can monitor what she does and help her get back on her feet.
I tried a gym once years before, but I lost more weight and stayed in better mental health by being outside, so had not continued the experiment past six months. So, I decided to try something new as well; my first blog. I'd heard of exercise blogs and thought to myself 'who the heck would want to read about exercise?' But surely a competent writer can make it interesting as well as informative and while I'm not a big writer working on a novel, surely I can use this as a good mental work-out as well. The idea? To share our health progress with friends and family scattered widely, practice my writing skills and be creative, and to keep a record we can look back at as well and see how far we have come. So with some trepidation, I enter the world of steam rooms, muscle competitions, and the land of athletes and hope that the jocks in the locker room (hence the title of this blog) will be nice to me. Heck, if we spend enough time around each other as our inspiring Dian Fossey did, maybe we can come to understand each other better and the world of gym enthusiasts.
I am an outdoors man. Boating, kayaking, canoeing, rafting, hiking, geocaching; these are things I love doing. The woods are my battery charger and a good hike is a wonder for me, something I can't get enough of in any weather. I've never tried to build up muscles mainly due to the fact that I believed if I wasn't using them, it was wasted energy and effort. I stayed in shape through my activities and while I was not visible ripped, my doctor was very pleased with my physical condition. Now, don't get me wrong, if you are in a type of job where muscle helps, go for it. I was never a construction worker or an iron worker -- those guys benefit a lot from it. And professional athletes I don't watch (cause I'm not a fan of competitive sports at all, despite living in a basketball crazy state), but I understand why they would want the muscle mass. Me, not so much. When I turned thirty, I even went to my doctor and talked about it. I knew I was cresting that hill where things got harder with my body not bouncing back like it used to and there were things I was sure I needed to be preparing myself for. She was pleased and we discussed possibilities, she told me my good weight, and we both felt rather happy with the other. I read the Harvard study and took hydrogenated anything off my list and began to read ingredient lists and watch out for whole breads. Unlike a lot of guys my age, I was paying attention to my health and where I was.
A few years ago, I met a wonderful woman from Holland -- I'll spare the details here, but it's a true storybook romance that several people told us would make a better movie then "Hello, you've got mail" or "Sleepless in Seattle." We didn't care, we had each other and that's all we needed. That and two fairly well-behaved cats. :D We even moved to Montana to be near some friends of hers and I found work to help us get by. After a few years her health became dramatically worse one summer and we went to the local doctors to find out what was happening. Congestive Heart failure, sleep apnea, and several other conditions had sprung up out of literally no where and all activated in a year's time. There is still argument from her doctors on the source, but we had a guess. She grew up at -10 elevation in Holland and here we were 4900 in Montana ad the suspicion was that getting out of the heights would make a big difference to her body. Still, it was only a theory and we hesitated until her heart rate got down to 30% operation and she was on oxygen most of the day. That was the end of that and we high-tailed it out of Montana and back to North Carolina.
Now those who think (and we know two doctors in this category) that has nothing to do with it, here's our key evidence. Coming down the hills out of Montana, the feeling suddenly (at 1700 feet) came back into her feet and hands and she felt much better. We stopped and admired the effect and as we crossed into Wyoming and went back up again, the feeling went away again and her feet and hands tingled with pain. From then on (and still today) every time we approach that magic number of 1700, it happens again. Now, here in North Carolina she is moving much better and not using oxygen, but the doctors have her on multiple medications to solve the rest. She does have lots of pain which prevented her from getting out much or practically any kind of exercise and because I didn't like leaving her alone on those days it was particularly bad, I started packing on a few pounds as well. Plus, I was no longer in the wild on the edge of the woods, now we were down in the state and mostly in city areas without much wilderness around. So now that she is a bit more stable medically speaking, we needed to work exercise into her regimen, but carefully to not throw off the balance we had achieved. And being the adoring husband I hope I seem, I wanted to do stuff with her so I could monitor it as well and know everything was good. We decided to join a gym where she can work with some experts who can monitor what she does and help her get back on her feet.
I tried a gym once years before, but I lost more weight and stayed in better mental health by being outside, so had not continued the experiment past six months. So, I decided to try something new as well; my first blog. I'd heard of exercise blogs and thought to myself 'who the heck would want to read about exercise?' But surely a competent writer can make it interesting as well as informative and while I'm not a big writer working on a novel, surely I can use this as a good mental work-out as well. The idea? To share our health progress with friends and family scattered widely, practice my writing skills and be creative, and to keep a record we can look back at as well and see how far we have come. So with some trepidation, I enter the world of steam rooms, muscle competitions, and the land of athletes and hope that the jocks in the locker room (hence the title of this blog) will be nice to me. Heck, if we spend enough time around each other as our inspiring Dian Fossey did, maybe we can come to understand each other better and the world of gym enthusiasts.
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