Early Morning Gym (Janathon Day 3)

Gym - 55 minutes, machines various

I have always had mixed feelings about gyms. On the one hand I find them useful for working on strength and general fitness (especially if the weather is rubbish), on the other hand they can be rather joyless. I have bridled a bit at the idea of putting in shifts at a fitness factory. However it is a good thing for me to keep up my membership because if I don’t I don’t do enough resistance work and my strength conditioning slides. 

A couple of years ago I gave up the gym and bought some dumbbells, with the intention of saving money and working out at home - but it didn’t happen. For some strange psychological reason I could never work with the same intensity or have the discipline to maintain a regime. There was no reason why not and I could never understand it, but l always let it slide. There was an initial burst of enthusiasm, good intention and activity, but then a lull, another burst of more good intention, then a longer lull, etc, etc, until the lull took over entirely. Perhaps it is as simple as needing to go somewhere else for a specific purpose, or at least having a dedicated room.  (After all a number of writers either rent an office or have a  shed so they feel separate from their home). Whatever the reason the result was I that I had to recognise the reality,  admit my lack of resolve, rejoined the gym.

So here I am on day 3 of Janathon, at 7:30 in the morning, lifting and pulling weights, bending, twisting, and stretching. Looking round I am surprised at how many other people are here at this time. I thought I was being particularly virtuous being so early but it is not so. There are many others keen to look the new year in the face and promise to themselves that this time it will be different.

Juneathon Day 15 - So many earlybirds

Juneathon Day 15 - So many earlybirds

Gym - 45min

As there are no good photos to be taken in a gym so I thought I show some horses from the nearby moor. Far more visually pleasing and a definite link with my last post about biophilia.

Today was interesting because I had to exercise early and went to the gym as soon as it opened at 6:30 - new experience. I had thought that it would be like anywhere else when it first opens-up: slowish with one or two customers drifting in whilst the staff got things ready for the day ahead. Days ought to begin gradually and everybody needs to get set. But how wrong could I be: the car park was full, people were lining up for aerobics and spinning classes, the pool had people swimming lengths and the gym was full of people exercising with intensity.

The pre-work work out is a different world. People are very serious and the overall shape of the exercisers was slightly leaner. I was impressed by all the activity, except that I remembered my niece, who worked for a period in a gym, telling me that her gym opened at 5:30 and there were always regulars queuing to get in. In Hemel we are obviously a load of stay-a-beds. 

When I was in the changing room I overheard a conversation between two people who had gone to the spinning class. " I'm not sure I enjoy it anymore. It's something I do because I do it. The kit is laid out and I just go but I don't look forward to it." I thought this was interesting because there were two messages about exercise. One was the strong force of habit in keeping us going, making sure we maintained fitness but the other is about enjoyment. If you don't enjoy something you might as well look for something else because you don't want it to be work, to be drudgery. Really, I thought, we ought to be playing but perhaps 6:30 is not a playful time and the power of habit is really what is needed.

As i said the pre-work work out is a different world

Juneathon 2012 Day 7 - This is not seasonal

Juneathon 2012 Day 7 - This is not seasonal
Gym - 45min

This does not feel like Juneathon at all. It does not feel like June.

Another day for indoor activity as first the rain poured down and then the wind got up. So blustery that the scaffolding with its mesh sheeting just blew away. Sway, creak, bang, splat and there it was scattered across the road. Luckily nobody was there and so no damage, just inconvenience and problems for the police in tracing the contractors to fix the mess.

Now Travelling Hopefully is doing some sort of treasure hunt for this years Juneathon and taking pictures of what she finds. Yesterday it was twigs. Pah I  have joined-up metal poles - a toppled structure. Twigs indeed!

 As for the gym I quite enjoyed the ways in which it reminded me how far I am  from being an excellent physical specimen, or even a just reasonable physical specimen. This might seem strange to say, as the gap between what I am and what I would like to be is usually a cause of despair, but today it felt like a release. I have to work with the clay I have, recognise where and what I am and not worry about anything else.

I was on one of the mats doing an approximation of a cat stretch when a girl wandered up to the next mat, sat down, legs straight out in front and then bending from the hips, flopped forward so that her head rested on her shins. There is not a chance in a million years, practising hours everyday, that I could get anywhere close to that. In the same way I will never lift some of the weights lifted by the group of muscular men in the free weights corner. It doesn't matter, all I can do is get on with doing what I can

Juneathon 2012 Day 5 - Back to the Gym

Juneathon 2012 Day 5 - Back to the Gym
Gym - 45min

After the previous day's lollygagging it was time for something that actually felt like exercise: so off to the gym to push some weights.

I have a conflicted attitude to gyms. On the one hand having a variety of machines and weights available is encouraging: you want to try things out, you want to keep a record of the numbers, you want to push on. Also the act of going somewhere, to a space dedicated to exercise, means you have made a commitment and set aside the time. You are in the right frame of mind with only one purpose. But on the other hand gyms are fitness factories and represent the way even our movements have been industrialised and commodified. For some reason I find that a little irksome and want to rebel against the idea that fitness = gym time, when there is a deeper pleasure to be had out of doors. 

Two years ago the balance of my feelings tipped to the negative and I gave up my membership. It was however a mistake and in that time I have lost fitness. For some reason I found it virtually impossible to maintain a strength routine using dumbbells, neither could I stretch regularly. As a result I have lost strength and am too stiff. I also forget about the treadmill. Now I know many people find them dull and don't like them but for me they are a great help with speedwork. I can dial in a pace and force my legs to turn-over quickly, whilst outside I tend to be a bit lazy and just plod along. In the two years since leaving the gym I don't think I have run at any great speed (please remember though that for me speed is a relative term).

 So today was the first day back and as I type this I can feel an allover achiness from pushing weights. I am sure I will be a bit stiff tomorrow but after that all will be good. I might be unfit at the moment but this is the bottom and I am sure I will gradually improve.

P.S. I didn't mention the weather because in the gym it is irrelevant however it is worth noting that the bank holiday weekend ended as it started: cool, grey and damp. So my picture marks this by showing water droplets on leaves.

Is There a Gym Community?

Juneathon day 12: Gym

My gym is an ugly building - just a box but probably most gyms are the same. It gives little scope for my daily juneathon photo so instead I have used something else from I noticed: the number of bees in the garden. Maybe it is national been day or perhaps bee command decided to target this small area of Hemel Hempstead; whatever - they are all over the place. So day 12 will be marked by a picture of a bee pollinating an aster.

As for the exercise the most I can say is that it happened: (50 minutes 15 cross trainer, 15 rowing, 10 weights, 10 stretching)

Yesterday Phil asked me how my legs were holding up - the answer is not too bad but they do feel a bit leaden so I decided to go to the gym. Malheureusement - when I arrived all the rowing machines were taken. The only alternative was a cross-training machine. So I did 15 minute of that before a rower became vacant.

Why do I find some machines more boring than others? The are all basically the same in that you stay in the same place whilst moving your arms and legs in a prescribed way, but some are more enjoyable than others. The cross trainer, for example was really dull and the 15 minutes passed very slowly yet time on the rower went much more quickly. There is no good reason for this: the cross trainer was not physically harder (in fact I put more effort into the rower) and the view was only slightly different. So why?

I phrased the question as ‘less boring’ because nothing in a gym is really interesting. The pleasure comes from the warm glow your body gives you when it has been worked and the satisfaction of achieving a target, rather than the activity itself. I looked round the room for signs of enjoyment but all I saw were people in their personal space with inward-looking eyes, no communication, no joking, and hardly anybody acknowledged anybody else's existence. Gyms really are fitness factories.

When I finished, in the changing room, there was a huge contrast. A martial arts club had just finished and they were talking in groups, passing on tips, demonstrating moves, or generally chattering and laughing. They were involved both with each other and what they were doing. I know this is an unfair comparison because these people are in a club and have probably known each other for a long time, whereas nobody in the gym knew anybody else. But I think the difference was that together they were all trying to develop their skills.

Machines in the gym require very little skill.

Juneathon statistics 112/12
run 8/12
distance 52.63
time 4hr 39min
Cycle 2/12
distance 39.8 miles
time 2hr 58min
Gym 2/12
time 1hr 35min

Running Barefoot - But Not On A Treadmill

This is a very small story, just an application of 'rules is rules', but it is interesting in the way shows how things are justified and how fragments of ideas can float around.

It really started with my recent post about running styles and the realisation that although I naturally midfoot/forefoot strike and I have in the past discovered the pleasure of running barefoot, I spend all my time in standard, neutral, cushioned shoes. I was thinking about this when I was pushing some weights and looking at other people of the treadmills. There was quite a lot of heavy thumping and some of the runners really slapped their feet down and my thoughts wandered to what it is that makes some people lighter on their feet than others. It has nothing to do with actual bodyweight, as the person with the loudest foot strike was quite slightly built, but must have something to do with trying to force things too hard. The essence of good style I thought must be to move along the surface as lightly as possible not to drive the feet into the ground.

I then thought it would be fun to try a little barefoot running so I left my shoes by the side of the treadmill and started running just wearing very lightweight socks . I had forgotten how good it is to feel the foot moving freely - the way the forefoot spreads-out when it lands and then how the heel lightly touches the surface before it is lifted-off. I was quite enjoying myself, feeling a little bit looser and playing about running at different speeds, when one of the members of staff came over and told me to stop as it was mandatory to run in trainers.

"Why?" I asked
"Health and safety" was the reply
"What am I being protected from?"
"Things falling on your feet and you could catch your socks and be thrown off the machine."

But I think he was a bit embarrassed about these reasons and his heart was not into trying to describe the scenarios where these things might happen. He then shifted ground and suggested that running barefoot was not good for you.

I was both a little shocked and really interested by this because he was one of the trainers whose job is to advise on exercise. He ought to know better or at least have some good reasons to back up such a statement. He didn't and so I said a little about how you absorbed the forces when you landed on your forefoot and how lots of people think it is a good way to run.

"Ah forefoot running. That's Pose running and a bit different" he said
"No, all Pose runners land on their forefoot but not all forefoot runners are Pose runners."

This is really quite interesting because it shows the power of a brand name and the way it can become fixed in the mind of someone who only has a peripherally interest in the subject. I am sure that this trainer was expert in all of the machines in the gym, weight training and general fitness regimes but probably for him running is only another form of cardio vascular exercise. If so he would not pay close attention to issues within the running community but he would be aware of things that impinged on the fitness industry , so obviously Pose has a profile and has made some impact. It is more widely known than I thought. it is amazing how things can ripple out.

Anyway we started to talk a little about running styles but that was not really the point so we reverted to the main topic of me running without shoes.

I had no problems with stopping. The man was doing his job and I had no desire to give him a hard time or mount any sort of high horse. It is one of the rules of the gym that you have to wear appropriate footwear at all times (probably to stop people exercising in boots or flip flops) and that is all there is to it.

I wonder though about the thinking behind such rules. Probably it is something along the lines of:

Trainers are designed to cushion the impact of running
Therefore they are protective
We need to do everything we can to protect our customers from injury
Therefore protective footwear must be worn.

The logic might be totally flawed but at least it is coherent in an institutional sort of way.

Luckily outdoors none of this matters and running is not about thinking in an institutional way. It is about listening to the best advice you can find, hearing from other peoples experiences and then trying things out for yourself. It is about not being proscriptive.