Fat lazy parents taking little Jimmy to the pool

What is with the fat lazy parents taking their offspring for swimming lessons whilst they sit on the side lines doing nothing? If you feel you need for a professional to teach your child to swim, let them do their job, they do not need twenty parents of the ten children in the pool looking over their shoulder. Can you not use the time to nip to the grocery store so I don't have to listen to your tired, hungry and board offspring screaming whilst I do my shopping? Alternatively here is an idea, whilst you are already at the gym for an hour, whilst your brood is been looked after by the staff why don't you take the time to do something for your own health?

Whilst you might at least credit the parents for caring about their child's health this is not the case. In an attempt to do as little as possible they cut the corners off the designated walkway leading their children through the weights area. Having random small children wandering oblivious in an area where lumps of iron often heavier than the child in question is guess what, not the safe. The number of children who have come within inches of been kicked in the head whilst I do leg raises I cannot count and rather than the parent rescuing the unfortunate child from danger they simply give you a distaining look for daring to exercise in the area marked "weights gym" and "no children".

Corporate chain gyms,

Corporate chain gyms are run to make money, occupied by clientele who think that they can purchase fitness and funded by those who were suckered into membership plans they don't want. Indeed this is my biggest gripe with these establishments, they offer long term, expensive and restrictive membership options sold by used car salesmen who lock you into multi-year memberships before you can try the place out to see if it fits your requirements.

In order to keep the place looking so pristine it seems all is done to keep drive away people who actually workout. Whilst during the sales pitch the sectorized machines appear to be plentiful and immaculate this is because on closer inspection they are predominantly useless focusing on very specific muscles, doing nothing for strength any supporting muscles or overall fitness and so remain lightly used.

On the plus side the cardio equipment is generally excellent, well arranged well maintained and surrounded by an impressive array of media options. Now I am not a big cardio fiend and the few I know do cardio where you can do it for free - outside. I can only assume this is generally true as looking around most users are reading, watching TV or talking on cell phones... none of which you should be able to do if your pushing your limits.

That said the free weights are generally insufficient both in quantity and range and whilst neatly arranged that is usually so the gym can devote as little space as possible to them. These weights and people who use them are unwelcome reminders that the gym should be about working out not posing on flashy equipment.

The regular attendees (and apologies to anyone who breaks this mold), seem to think that getting fit is a matter of going to the gym regardless of what you do there. You rarely see them break a sweat, they unusually spend more time chatting (either on a cell phone or to other patrons) than exercising and the immaculate latest fashion lets you know they spent more time than that picking out an outfit. The fashion also runs past the clothing and to the myriad of bizarre fad classes you can take.

new gym blues...

So after moving I need a new gym... not as easy as you might think. I have found that commercial gyms fit into three different categories, corporate (chain) gyms, meathead gyms and rec centers (local council gyms in the UK) and will be posting more on each of these in turn.

A gym needs to match your goals, it has to have the right equipment at the right cost in the right location and be open when you want it however most of all the right feel. Remember when you change gym it will most probably not feel right precisely because its different, however the longer you train the better it should be. That said, the best way to find out if it's a good fit is to train for as long as necessary to decide if its right and postpone locking into memberships until you know.

I train with my own personal mix of power lifter (shit heavy weights), bodybuilder (purely aesthetics) and general fitness (keeping the heart healthy). As such I need a gym that has the right balence of equipment for each of these, I also view a pool, hot tub and sauna as nice bonuses but personal trainers, spin classes and a crèche are most definitely not. I will not touch corporate chain gyms with a barge pole, so need to find the right balance between a meathead and a local rec center... wish me luck

New training pains...

So I'm in the new training pains at the moment. I find it hard to go to the gym and do a half-arsed training session, that makes easing myself into training difficult. I have also suffered this several times so know the timetable of pain to come, first day bad, secondary worse, third day onwards improving and a week later I should be mostly back to normal.

I did my first squat/deadlift day on Friday last week and by my standards I was restrained, I stopped squats a full plate each side less than my pre-break rep max. That said there was a deadlift machine in the gym so I did machine deadlifts as well as free weight deadlifts.

I knew I was going to be in pain after the routine before I even walked into the gym, this was reaffirmed when after the gym by how weak my legs felt. Saturday was bad that said I could walk - my wife did keep telling me to bend my knees something that wasn't going to happen. However Saturday was filled with the impending doom that Sunday is going to hurt worse.

True to form Sunday was worse, the idea of doing anything productive that day was gone. Walking generally was slow and painful and I needed support from nearby furniture, Doing a half flight of stairs took 5+ min, and going for a crap was dam near impossible.

I'm now into Monday, so things are improving and by Friday I should be mostly back to normal. The bad news is that I will be doing squats again by then, on the bright side this pain is a only ever this bad first time around.

I should say for those who think lack of warming up or cooling down is to blame trust me it isn't. I always do both warm up and cool down cardio even more so when I know I'm going to get the first time pains. I should also say there not injury pains - I know the difference well, these are waking my muscles up pains - they now what to expect next time and so will be prepared to deal with it this week.

Where I am now...

I am currently getting back into training after taking the summer off for a variety of reasons, not least moving house. This time of year is (for me at least) the perfect time to hit the gym. The gyms are in a relatively low season (compared to the Christmas chaos or summer holiday rush) and so it's a good time to get routine settled.

Looking at where I am now, I weigh in about 188lbs with more body fat than I would like and the edge taken off all my pre-summer max lifts / general fitness levels. The obvious initial goal is thus to get back to where I left off in July, the next goals are to improve on this. Specifically for next year I want to increase my lifts, general cardio fitness and work on my weak points - inner pec development, upper back thickness, outer bicep, grip strength and of course general body fat.

The weight loss is the lower priority, whilst caring more weight than I would like I don't need to look good on a beach until holiday season next year. I dropped 40lbs last year for the trip out to Cali, so as long as I'm sensible training and eating I am fine for next year.

Progress is always both diet and routine, however I know my diet is relatively good and the lack of time down the gym is the weak link and so needs solving first. As my training progresses I can worry about the diet side more.

Thus the initial route map is relatively simple, to regain my previous achievements I need to start training down the gym. For the first few weeks I will edge in slowly with a view that by the end the month I can do two heavy weight days and two high intensity days a week.

Ed's new blog...

So I have decided to keep a training blog. I have never kept a diary and could not see the point of sharing my thoughts on the world with a whole bunch of other people. That said I think the discipline of writing down my training will be useful for me, it will also hopefully give me an opportunity to share my gym knowlege and learn from others. Wish me luck :0D