Born Again Gym Rat: Abbreviated Core and Cardio Day

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Abbreviated Core and Cardio Day

I rush my son out the door this morning to get to the gym at 9 am. That gives me two hours before time is up, and more importantly, the earliest movie showings start. He's hoping there will be more kids than the two little girls. Moms usually drop kids off right before class and there's a class at 9:30. I get on the LifeFitness for 30 minutes and pedal up a good sweat. Then I get one of the trainers to drag the Torso Twist machine a few inches back from the Cybex Back Machine. Apparently the larger folks like to slam the weight stack, causing the machines to inch forward until they're nearly touching each other.

I find a pile of personal foam mats by the side door and grab one from under a handwritten sign. Do Not Throw Out! These Are Not Garbage! Oh good. I was wondering why they were by the side door. The mat is cushioning enough to prevent me from bruising my tailbone when I do sit ups at the Nexersys machine. The gym owner had foot-bars installed last year for the cardio program, but I've never ever seen anyone use them. Except me. I like doing the flat-back sit ups with arms crossed against my chest so much better than crunches. The gym-teacher father of one of my son's cub scout friends showed us all how to do them. Crunches hurt my neck and that soreness will last for days. Not worth it. (I'm still reminded of how disappointed my father was when none of his kids could do a mere 10 sit ups and 10 push ups during warm ups before he tried to teach us basic martial arts. My son might struggle with pull ups, but he can definitely do push ups and sit ups.)

I put the foam mat back on the pile and do three sets of planks on the big mats. These seem harder than last time. But every time is different. Then back to the elliptical for Performance Program #3 for 30 minutes. I like exhilaration I get from pedaling hard and fast, backward and forward. I have just enough time for a quick lower back stretch and a shower. I see a few regulars like Shaggy who seems to have dropped weight, but not in a good way. He looks haggard. Like he's been sick. A few of the younger guys stare a lot when I leave the gym with my son. I guess it never occurred to them that I'm a mom.

We buy our tickets to see the dog hero movie Max at 11:15. My son is upset that his phone has lost most of its charge during play time in the Child Care room. At 11:08 I realize that the party we're going to tomorrow will be showing Jurassic World, not Inside Out. So we haul out of theater 5 and ask if we can switch tickets to see Inside Out, which is already 5 minutes started. No problem. We don't really miss much and theater 3 isn't really very crowded. It's kind of a weird tear-jerker, but not as bad as Bambi or Dumbo. Whew! And we don't mind seeing Jurassic World again, although my son is adamant about not seeing it in 3D, because no one needs to see people being eaten by dinosaurs that up-close and personal.

Tuesday Cardio and Core
(6.6 miles total)