I have never really been a gym person. I managed to get though my entire undergrad degree without ever going to the gym (that I was paying with through my tuition) except when leading tours for orientation. I much preferred to workout at home, which has its pros and cons.
Then when I lived in Ontario and my husband was spending a lot of time at the gym I did start joining him every once and a while, but it wasn’t something that I was super invested in. Then we moved back here workouts definitely got put on the backburner. I occasionally worked out at home, but it wasn’t very regular.
The itch to get more regular in my working out definitely started to creep in this summer and I really started to think about heading to the gym. I convinced Nigel to do a September experiment where we get a month pass to the community centre and see if going to the gym is something that we can do.
One great thing about where we live is the great community centres with a lot of different ammenities. There are six full gyms in the city that are included in our pass that also include pools, skating rinks, and a whole selection of fitness classes. We spent that month exploring all 6 of them (including the ones that are much too far away for us to go to very often) and trying it out.
It turns out I really like the gym. Sure it isn’t the easiest to get changed into workout clothes after a busy day at work and drive over to the gym, but once I am there it is a really enjoyable experience. Getting to spend an hour working out whether that is on the eliptical, using the weight machines, or with a mat on the floor in a different space has turned out to be really good for my health, both mental and physical.
So at the beginning of October we bought a full years pass.
The gym is a place I have found that I can get out of my head a little bit and just be. I am often listening to podcasts, upbeat music, or now with the launch of Disney+ some episodes of old Disney shows to reminisce. I have also seen myself getting stronger and have more endurance which has been great to experience.
One other thing I have been doing is going to a weekly yoga class. While I have done yoga alone before I had never been to an actual class. This is a way that I have found to really centre myself and have a full hour where I am not worrying about my phone, my problems, or anything else that is going on in my life. It is on Monday nights so it is a great way to start off the week. My flexibility and strength have also been improving through this as well which is something that has been great.
I never thought that I would be a person who looks forward to going to the gym and if you told me that even six months ago that I would have a full year of a gym membership I would have thought that you didn’t know me at all, yet here we are.
The community centre gym is great and I love seeing people of all ages and walks of life all working out together. In the next few months some of my goals is to get better on the treadmill, try out a different work out class, and just generally get stronger and more confident on the machines.
How do you like working out? What are your thoughts on the gym?
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