Please note the time. I’ve just gotten back from the gym! And it wasn’t because I went to the gym at 11p. Oh no, Mr. W and I set foot on the weight floor a little before 9p.
I used to be pretty hardcore about working out. In my heyday, I’d hit weights during lunchtime for 45 minutes to an hour, supersetting everything and getting 8-9 exercises in, 3 sets of 15 reps each. And then I’d go back after work for at least 45 minutes of cardio. And then every other day, I’d run outdoors (4-6 miles on weekdays, 10-12 miles on weekends). Now, I hit the gym at lunch for 35 minutes of weights, working in with my gym trainee so I don’t always get to superset, so we get about 4-5 exercises in on average, and maybe but rarely I’d go to jujitsu for a few hours after work. I’ve been ditching jujitsu and even bellydancing, and both are now on hiatus until next year. I’m not running much unless it’s on the treadmill for 3o mins or so.
Now that I’ve got Mr. W a membership, he’s always suggesting going to the gym. And by always, I don’t mean daily. I mean he’s there every lunch that work doesn’t oblige him to do something else, whether or not I go to the gym, and he wants to go again after work. On weekends he tries to make plans with me all day to go. But I’m in a workout slump. Today, I let him drag me through the motions of what I used to do. With my new Apple iPod Shuffle loaded with music, we hit a new gym. (He’s also into trying all the ones within a half hour’s drive from his house, and when we go some place on vacation, he wants to try the affiliated gyms there.) We both really liked the Orange 24 Hour Fitness; it’s clean, spacious, has new updated equipment, and uncrowded. I think we’ve found our home gym. After 10 minutes of stairclimber (because he wants to try a new cardio equipment), we went upstairs to the weight floor. I did 7 exercises at 3 sets of 15 reps each and was ready to call it a day, feeling pretty proud of myself for doing more than I have been doing on my own. But Mr. W wanted to work his minor muscle groups now t hat he’s worked his major muscles. I figure it’s good for me, so I did some triceps with him. And then I went to him, ready to go, relieved it’s over and more proud of myself for hanging in there. He wants to do abs. I’ve been slacking on my ab work, too, so I drag myself down there to do it with him. It’s nice to end a workout with some abs, anyway. I did 2 types of advanced ab stuff as he did his. After we were done, I prepared to walk to the locker room. He leaned his body toward the cardio equipment. “You want to do cardio?” I said somewhat incredulously. I guess a 10-minute cooldown wouldn’t kill me. He looked hesitant. “What, you wanna do MORE?” I asked. He wanted to do 40 minutes. It was now 10:30p and an hour and a half past his normal bedtime. He’s usually very cranky if he can’t be in bed by 9p. We compromised and did 25 minutes of elliptical trainer with a 5-minute cooldown. I was SO ready to go home. He announced he’s going to the steam room. Good Lord, where is this energy coming from?! I was too exhausted to sit in heat, and I’d run out of water, so I told him I’d meet him outside. I took my time in the locker room showering and getting changed, listening to some naked old Asian lady hock up noogies in the shower and in the mirrored vanity area as she dried her hair, standing there clothe-less and dripping, with the hand-dryer. And then I waited for him in the lounge area by the front desk.
I called college roommie Diana from there. Diana is a well-known gym rat. I told her, “I’m at the gym.” She said, “Okay, that’s good,” noting that it’s late. “I’ve been here since before 9,” I wailed. She started laughing, because I’d previously told her how I couldn’t get Mr. W to buy gym membership, how he always said he hated gyms, the way they’re crowded and smelly and anyone is stupid to pay for a gym when they can just buy some dumbbells for home use and go run for free outside. I told Diana how I got worked at the gym by the boyfriend tonight. “Good!” she said.
Maybe Mr. W’s new enthusiasm for gymming will get me back on track. He got me to the gym early for lunch yesterday, too, and I’m totally sore from that workout. Maybe this gym membership I bought for him is not just giving him the gift of health, it’s giving me the gift as well, as a sort of 2-for-1 thing. “What I like about going to the gym is that it’s something we can do together,” he said earlier in the car. So maybe it’s a 3-for-1 thing. I hope he doesn’t let me slack, cuz I know this is good for me and if I can’t motivate myself, he can either motivate me or club me over the head and let me regain consciousness on a hip adductor machine.
P.S. The time now is 12:39, 30 minutes after I started writing this post. Music from “Guitar Hero 2” is wafting in from the living room. Mr. W’s playing. WHERE is all this new energy coming from?!