[Tart Cherry Jam]

I realized that this little gym in the apartment complex is not cutting it, so I am shopping for a gym membership. There are 8 local gyms that I will try between now and January and then in January I should be able to get a good deal at my chosen gym since January is the month when gyms offer discount trying to lure people who make New Year resolutions.

Yesterday I tried gym #1. I did, not counting warmup and cooldown:

- 40 minutes on a treadmill, with incrementally increasing incline up to 6 degrees, at 3MPH
- 20 minutes on the elliptical. It actually turned out to be easy. I did both backward and forward motion.
- 2 minutes on the stairmaster. It was so hard I stopped.
- 2 minutes on the Cybex ARC machine, a new piece of equipment for me. It was incredibly hard on the calves so I stopped. I then read about this machine and it is supposed to train glutes or quads, but I did not experience that. I experience it as something exercising my calves to an extreme degree.
- 30 minutes of swimming a leisurely breaststroke

Today:
- 1 hr of walking in warm water
- 5 laps (2 km) on the track of the closest public school, walking, not walking as fast as I walk on a treadmill, but it was exercise outdoors which is supposedly better for you
- 75 mins restorative (relaxing) yoga

Tomorrow:
- will try SoulCycle. I doubt I will be able to pull it through, but I need to see for myself. It is a free class just to try it.

In addition to sampling and touring gyms, I am trying a new combo: Vraylar plus Seroquel. Today is the first day.

[raspberrytorte]

I admire your dedication to exercise, Tart Cherry Jam!

I need to have more physical activity in my life. On Monday my therapist wants to walk to the closest coffee shop near our apartment, which is flucking far away. She's insane! It's going to take us like an hour to get there! Oh well. I guess I need the exercise anyway.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Walking meetings are great!

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Went to the free trial class at SoulCycle. Experi
enced weird spastic pain in my feet. Could not keep up with the cardio pace but did 80% of strength exercises.

Won't purchase classes but might go back for one class a year from now if I do cardio and strength religiously for a year because it will then be an interesting test of my progress.

I much look forward to riding a stationary bike on my own, without loud music in a dark room.

But the vibe was interesting and some people were clearly regulars. One guy celebrated his 700th class. This probably means he has been going for a few years at least twice a week.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

raspberrytorte, thank you!

Swam for 60 minutes at moderate speed this morning Nov 21, 2023. Felt the subjective sensation of a raised heart rate.
Later was in a meeting and then took a nap (I initially woke up at 5AM and was at the swimming pool at 6:15AM, so I definitely needed a nap later since I cannot subsist on so little sleep). Will work now and then take a break to go to a free trial pilates class. I have never done pilates. I wonder if I will be able to pull through.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

There was a glitch in the reservation system and as a result I was not on the roster at the Pilates studio with the machines. I watched. It would be too difficult for me now, but I plan to actually try it after maybe a year of personal training.

Scheduled a free 55 minute introductory personal training session at one of the gyms I am considering. And also, one day before the personal training, a tour of the gym. Created a Notion page to compare features of various gyms, record costs, and note my reactions. This should help me create lists of pros and cons for each and ultimately select one.

[Crazy Hitch]

You have some great strategies in place!

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Originally Posted by Crazy Hitch

You have some great strategies in place!

Thank you, Crazy Hitch! I believe I will need to put some hedonistic pleasures in place to assure reliable attendance, and that argues in favor of a full service gym as opposed to a fitness studio. I like swimming, like saunas and stream rooms. At a gym, I can proceed from a harder workout to easier swimming and from that to relaxing in a hot environment (if I am audacious enough, with contrasting temps such as from a sauna to a cold shower and back to sauna). I would enjoy that and such a relaxing ending to an exercise session would be something to look forward to. In a fitness studio, you just come for a group class and then leave.

But I will try Orangetheory Fitness on Sunday. I will let you know how it goes.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

I tried Yin yoga this morning Nov 22, 2023 at a local yoga studio and liked it. Yin yoga involves poses held for several minutes with the help of props, to engage joints. It is basically putting stress on the joints but not too much stress. I really liked it and plan to go again.

But it is not cardio. I still need cardio. So I will go to the little gym in my complex tonight.

I also scheduled a tour of a posh fitness center in an adjacent city for tomorrow. A woman in my local Facebook women's group offers getting membership via a corporate discount through her, which would make it less expensive. They have an outdoor pool. We will see whether I like it.

For next week, scheduled a free session to try kickboxing, also in the adjacent city.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Posting on this thread definitely helps me. I do not think I would have gone to the little gym in my complex to do cardio this evening had I not committed to doing so when I posted.

38 minutes on the rowing machine: 5000 meters

plus 30 minutes on the treadmill at 3MPH, plus 10 minutes of warmup and cooldown.

feeling good! While I exercise, I listened to an audiobook about the importance of right brain orientation which was interesting and the kind of thing I like hearing.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

On Nov 17, my weight hit 237 lbs and I realized that I had regained more than 20 lbs since spring. That is when I realized that I must take exercise very seriously and started looking for a gym. Since then, I have been doing cardio and am showing a modest success on the scale: this morning my weight was 231 lbs. I hope to return my spring weight of 216 lbs.

Today I will do a walking HIIT on the treadmill plus 5000 meters on the rowing machine. Will go a little later.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Did not do HIITs. Tried, raised the treadmill speed to 4.2 MPH but started feeling discomfort in the heart area. This is probably because I slept so poorly last night, with Vraylar causing insomnia (I halted the trial of Vraylar for that reason). So I decided to just do steady state cardio but at a somewhat higher speed of 3.2 MPH.

Almost 30 minutes at 3.2 MPH plus 20 minutes total warmup and cooldown.

Tomorrow I will go on a tour of two local gyms.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Today I walked for more than an hour (not in one stretch). I have also visited three fitness centers. I am now torn between two of them and have ruled out the third. Tomorrow I will visit the last sports club on my list. I will also go back to one of the fitness centers I visited today to have a free personal training session and to swim. Then on Sunday I will go to a free introductory class at Orangetheory Fitness.

I will need to make a decision by the end of the month to take advantage of Black Friday specials. I have a Notion page where I am entering notes in a table, but I think it might ultimately boil down to a somewhat emotion-based decision, and I am OK with that because I want a place where I will really go often, otherwise it is a waste of money, and to want to go often I need to perceive a positive vibe coming from it, right?

[Tart Cherry Jam]

I used one free trial pass at one of the fitness centers I visited yesterday. I did:

- a few strength exercises with a trainer
- on my own:
8 minutes on the treadmill (up till 3.6 MPH speed)
10 minutes on the elliptical
14 minutes on the rower
~30 minutes breaststroke

I then did temperature contrasts and am feeling sleepy and peaceful now. Let us see whether this sensation actually translates into good sleep.

Tomorrow, a free trial class at Orangetheory Fitness.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

1 hr at Orangetheory fitness. Loved it. Bought basic membership to come once a week and, at 50% discount, the arm strap that records the heart rate. It will work for my workouts outside of OTF, too.

Everything in this workout is well thought through and I did not have to make decisions on how to do intervals.

At times my heart rate reached 153. Not bad for starters and I hope I can get higher with time and practice.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Had a free person trainer session. Unfortunately, this fitness center is too expansive for me, unfortunately because I really, really liked the trainer. How he shows the right form is amazing.

He told me that it was clear that I had lifted weights before because I was able to handle pretty heavy weights. That was certainly nice to hear. Such a shame I cannot work with him long term.

Afterwards, did an easy 20 minutes on a recumbent bike, my first time using that cardio trainer in years. Really liked it.

Finished with 20 minutes of intervals on an elliptical. Feeling so good.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

Went to a group boxing class for free, an intro. Won't go again: the instructor demonstrated the moves so quickly that I had no chance to learn them. There were six moves to learn. But I still had a good time punching a teardrop boxing bag. Every class participant was assigned to an individual bag. I can see myself hiring a private instructor to learn the moves and then punching a bag at the gym. It probably can be done in just one lesson.

[Tart Cherry Jam]

20 mins upright elliptical
20 mins recumbent bike
10 mins recumbent elliptical, which was a new cardio machine for me