Now exercising for Life.
Just got out of a hot shower after returning home from the gym. It's my second hot shower in an hour (had one before leaving the gym), but I do feel a lot better, especially as my body's aching all over.
My arms are strained from my initial session on Saturday - I woke up on Sunday morning all stiff, which both arms and chest in pain from over straining my flabby muscles. I couldn't even raise my hands to comb my hair!
Today's session saw me beg off much of the upper body work, as I want a few more days to recover from the initial session, but I did hit the running machine (again). Where on Saturday, I ran 20 minutes, covering what the machine claimed to be about 2.5 km, this time I ran 2.8 km in 25 minutes. Then went to find my trainer to learn about lower body and abdominal work.
Half way through, the sadist put me on an exercise bike for 5 minutes at my maximum pace to bring up my heart rate. That it did, but on top of my jog, it lead to massive cramps on both my thighs while I was doing crunches. After stretching out, I worked through the cramps, and did a total of 100 crunches... bleh.
Why am I subjecting myself to all this pain?
Well, I reckon my personal trainer may be asking a bit too much of me too early, but there is reason behind my apparent masochistic madness.
You see, it's World Cup year. This brings back rather bitter memories of the last World Cup in Japan in 2002.
While most people around the world were watching the final match between Brazil and Germany, my family and I were rushing my father to the Tan Tock Seng A&E.
He died the next day while in intensive care.
What killed my father was not the sudden pneumonia brought about by general organ failure, as written on his death certificate.
What killed my father was not a mild stroke brought about by a reduction of his blood thinner medication, so that he could heal properly from a routine urinary tract operation (something for me to look forwards to in 20 years)
What killed my father was a very weak physical constitution. Compounded by a litany of health problems, heavy stress due to financial issues and overwork (we couldn't stop him working 7 days a week).
He refused to exercise. He didn't have time to take a 30 minute walk every other day. he was too tired from work. He hadn't exercised even mildly in 30 years.
I will always miss my father.
And I will always believe that if he'd been a bit more careful about his health, and took care to get regular cardiovascular exercise, he'd be alive and well today.
You see, my dad's body simply gave up. He did not have the physical reserves to recover from what's considered minor medical problems.
His URT put him in hospital for a couple of weeks.
His stroke was considered minor - some loss of facial nerves and slurring, plus a bit of stiffness in the limbs - nothing a few months of physio-threaphy couldn't improve upon.
But he couldn't cope with what happened to him, and in the following 3 months, lost 15 kg.
That's when his body... just gave up.
I had a recent health scare when I went for my army FFI, thinking that I had a diabetic problem (which my dad had). I haven't had another blood test yet, but from a simple retest done by my GP, most likely the readings were due to an expired urine test kit.
But, what my GP informed me is that my blood pressure has been high on the normal side for the past 4 years. My cholesterol level's probably high, and I have hyper-tension, as well as being moderately obese.
Like father like son.
When my dad died, I swore to myself that I'd take care of my physical health. For years, I thought I'm in generally reasonable health, but not fit.
What I am is borderline healthy. All I need is a small health problem, like initial diabetes, to put me into the red zone.
Hence the reason why I joined the gym (and to pass IPPT as well!)
As I mentioned, it's also the 'pay money must use' factor. There's a perfectly good park near my house, for example, with a circular path that runs approximately 600 metres (paced it out). But I want to force myself to work out regularly, not only to run. I'm not interested in building a buff body like a photographer friend of mine I bumped into while at the gym tonight.
What I want is to lose at least 10 kilos in 9 months - a modest and achievable objective.
What I want is to be fit again, like I was when I was 20 (ok, that was 15 years and 20 kilos ago, so quite impractical).
Can I order up a reasonably toned body please, and hold the bulging pectoral muscles?
But getting fit is part of the objective.
I hope that getting fit will also give me more energy and less lethargic each day, as well as making me feel good about myself (get the adrenalin pumping more often).
That's my primary goal.
To feel good about being me.
Good night.
My arms are strained from my initial session on Saturday - I woke up on Sunday morning all stiff, which both arms and chest in pain from over straining my flabby muscles. I couldn't even raise my hands to comb my hair!
Today's session saw me beg off much of the upper body work, as I want a few more days to recover from the initial session, but I did hit the running machine (again). Where on Saturday, I ran 20 minutes, covering what the machine claimed to be about 2.5 km, this time I ran 2.8 km in 25 minutes. Then went to find my trainer to learn about lower body and abdominal work.
Half way through, the sadist put me on an exercise bike for 5 minutes at my maximum pace to bring up my heart rate. That it did, but on top of my jog, it lead to massive cramps on both my thighs while I was doing crunches. After stretching out, I worked through the cramps, and did a total of 100 crunches... bleh.
Why am I subjecting myself to all this pain?
Well, I reckon my personal trainer may be asking a bit too much of me too early, but there is reason behind my apparent masochistic madness.
You see, it's World Cup year. This brings back rather bitter memories of the last World Cup in Japan in 2002.
While most people around the world were watching the final match between Brazil and Germany, my family and I were rushing my father to the Tan Tock Seng A&E.
He died the next day while in intensive care.
What killed my father was not the sudden pneumonia brought about by general organ failure, as written on his death certificate.
What killed my father was not a mild stroke brought about by a reduction of his blood thinner medication, so that he could heal properly from a routine urinary tract operation (something for me to look forwards to in 20 years)
What killed my father was a very weak physical constitution. Compounded by a litany of health problems, heavy stress due to financial issues and overwork (we couldn't stop him working 7 days a week).
He refused to exercise. He didn't have time to take a 30 minute walk every other day. he was too tired from work. He hadn't exercised even mildly in 30 years.
I will always miss my father.
And I will always believe that if he'd been a bit more careful about his health, and took care to get regular cardiovascular exercise, he'd be alive and well today.
You see, my dad's body simply gave up. He did not have the physical reserves to recover from what's considered minor medical problems.
His URT put him in hospital for a couple of weeks.
His stroke was considered minor - some loss of facial nerves and slurring, plus a bit of stiffness in the limbs - nothing a few months of physio-threaphy couldn't improve upon.
But he couldn't cope with what happened to him, and in the following 3 months, lost 15 kg.
That's when his body... just gave up.
I had a recent health scare when I went for my army FFI, thinking that I had a diabetic problem (which my dad had). I haven't had another blood test yet, but from a simple retest done by my GP, most likely the readings were due to an expired urine test kit.
But, what my GP informed me is that my blood pressure has been high on the normal side for the past 4 years. My cholesterol level's probably high, and I have hyper-tension, as well as being moderately obese.
Like father like son.
When my dad died, I swore to myself that I'd take care of my physical health. For years, I thought I'm in generally reasonable health, but not fit.
What I am is borderline healthy. All I need is a small health problem, like initial diabetes, to put me into the red zone.
Hence the reason why I joined the gym (and to pass IPPT as well!)
As I mentioned, it's also the 'pay money must use' factor. There's a perfectly good park near my house, for example, with a circular path that runs approximately 600 metres (paced it out). But I want to force myself to work out regularly, not only to run. I'm not interested in building a buff body like a photographer friend of mine I bumped into while at the gym tonight.
What I want is to lose at least 10 kilos in 9 months - a modest and achievable objective.
What I want is to be fit again, like I was when I was 20 (ok, that was 15 years and 20 kilos ago, so quite impractical).
Can I order up a reasonably toned body please, and hold the bulging pectoral muscles?
But getting fit is part of the objective.
I hope that getting fit will also give me more energy and less lethargic each day, as well as making me feel good about myself (get the adrenalin pumping more often).
That's my primary goal.
To feel good about being me.
Good night.
posted by shawncentric at 1:04 am
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