Day 1: 1st Gym Session

It's 2 am. I can't sleep. I've been awake since 12.40 am after a trip to the toilet. I've started my gym training. My list finished at 4.30 pm. I changed into my workout attire & headed to the gym. There were about 10 others in the gym. I just followed the exercise plan my assessing trainer did for me. But I think from next session on, I'll add triceps work.

I started off with 15 mins of rowing as my cardio warm up. The trainer told me that the key to fitness is doing what you enjoy. So no treadmill for the time being since I hate jogging. But I know it's something I have to tackle at some point since I have this "dream" to complete a 10 km run event 1 day.

Next, I moved on to resistance training: squats with 4 kg dumbbell in each hand, chest fly with 2.5 kg dumbbell & lastly, lateral pull downs. I was supposed to do 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise. But I could only do 10 reps for 2 of them. It'll be a while before I can hit 15.

Then I moved to mattress work. 15 crunches, 30 sec plank, another 15 crunches, 30 sec of back raise. He asked me to do back raise to strengthen my lower back since I have intermittent low back pain from previous injury at work. The back raise was the hardest for me.

This was followed by 10 mins of cardio which I completed on the elliptical machine. My heart rate actually hit almost 100% of my maximum heart rate at 182 bpm (my MHR is 188). I was asked to target for 75% which is more like in the 140s zone. Very very unfit.

Last was cool down with stretching exercises. By the time I completed everything, an hour has passed. I drank like 1L coz I was just so dry. Then I drank another 500 ml on the drive home. Which explains my interrupted sleep. I think due to the amout of water I drank, I wasn't hungry & I wanted to consume more protein post workout so I chose to drink my meal replacement.

I'm still trying to improve on the process. I found that I had to juggle 2 sets of clothes & 2 pairs of shoes. So from now on, during workout days, I'll simply wear my workout clothes & track shoes to work. My work place is undergoing lift upgrading so I had to take the stairs. My goodness! My legs felt like jelly. It wasn't hard climbing up but when I was coming down, I felt like my legs were going to give way.

I actually felt good after the gym session. I feel excited about doing it again soon. So I guess not forcing myself to jog is really the way to go. If I'm going to do this 3 to 5 times a week, I'll need more workout wear. Shopping this Sat it is.