Thoughts on Working Out

This may not be a revolutionary statement and you may have heard many people spout this cliche before but I have a love-hate relationship with working out.

Wild, right?

My dedication to working out comes in ebbs and flows. I consistently worked out when I had a gym partner, then I didn't. Then I got addicted to spin class, then I burnt out on it. Then I jogged a bunch for the summer, then it got cold. By November I hadn't used my gym membership in three months (meaning my $44/month was going to great use).

I started feeling some symptoms of the Winter Blues when it started to get cold and out of sheer desperation for some sort of energy I dragged my butt to the gym. It was at this time that I decided I was going to master the stair climber.

In the past I have enjoyed the stair climber just due to the fact that it was so hard that it made you feel like you'd worked your butt off in as little as 3 minutes. The problem was that I wasn't truly using the stair climber properly. I would clasp my hands to the side rails and put the majority of my weight on my arms effectively making the stair climber a heck of a lot easier than it's mean to be. Basically I was cheating myself through poor form (see example below):

I decided that I would finally master the stair climber even if it meant starting with just a couple of minutes at a time.

I looked up proper form for the stair climber and promised myself that I would walk straight up next time, with my hands lightly placed on the rails for balance only. What that meant was that my first trip on the stair climber was exactly 5 minutes and ended with me wheezing for air. But I did it.

I made a plan to increase my time slowly like so:

Session one: 5 minutes, level 7
Session two: 5 minutes, level 7
Session three: 7 minutes, level 7 (pause at minute 5 for a rest)
Session four: 7 minutes, level 7 (pause at minute 5 for a rest)
Session five: 7 minutes, level 7
Session six: 7 minutes, level 7

A slow progression but progression nonetheless!

<< My first time on the stair climber >>

It's March now and I'm at 16 minutes, level 7. 5 minutes now feels like a dream, although it all still feels hard most times and I continue to wheeze by the end of each climb. My goal is to make it to 20 minutes and then I'm going to work on climbing higher. I like to see how many floors I get to and equate that to an actual building (the Eiffel Tower is 108 floors, the CN Tower is 147 floors, the world's tallest building is 160 floors).

<< My most recent trip on the stair climber. I'm half way up the CN Tower!)

I've also signed up for two races this year in the spring and summer and am going to work on getting my run times faster and my run lengths longer.

I still have trouble getting myself to the gym most weeks but I feel like I'm finally seeing it differently. Working out is a chance for me to re-energize myself. I know that when I'm feeling incredibly tired for no good reason and the cold of winter is getting to me that if I get myself to the gym I'll feel better within minutes. I also have a goal that I'm working towards that kills me to skip out on.

This still doesn't work some days and I still struggle with all the fun things that come with being a human bean trying to enjoy their life and take care of themselves and just plain find a way to be comfortable in my skin and happy more than not- but it's a thing. It's a thing I'm accomplishing and failing at and continuing to try to accomplish and that's good enough for me.

When in doubt I'm going to continue to be like Chris Traeger and make a fun, beautiful goal like running all the way to another planet:

<< I love him so much >>

From the desk of:

Taylor Brown

Human Bean