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All Bulked Up
Sunday, August 06, 2006

So a couple of months ago I started working out. Aerobically. With weights. Seriously. Me. Lifting weights.

See, what happened is that I got sick of being a lazy fat ass. I'm too young to get winded walking up a single flight of stairs. Since I work from home, I don't even have the bother of walking to and from the subway on a daily basis. So even though I've never been athletic (due to many deep, elementary-school-gym-related psychological scars) I purchased a few exercise videos and got to it. I don't like aerobics workouts in general, because I'm not very coordinated and most of the aerobics videos or classes I've taken left me wondering what the hell I was supposed to do next. So I opted for a line of non-dance aerobics videos, the Leslie Sansone Walk Away The Pounds series. They're pretty good. I have a 60 minute video that I can only get through 45 minutes of, a weight training video that I like a lot, and a walk and jog video that wrecked my ankle (more on that later).

I work out every week day right after I get up. When I first started doing the weight training video I couldn't even do it with weights. I copied the old lady in the video who did the movements with out weights, all the while feeling like I was a fool. I have a few weights back from when I was getting physical therapy for my Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, but I stupidly didn't buy them all in pairs, so I have a one pound, two pound, and two three pounds. There was no way in hell I was going to be able to do a lunge holding six pounds of anything, so after a couple of day of faking it, I started using two 15 oz. cans of kidney beans. A few days after that I worked my way up to the three pound weights. I've recently felt that the three pound weights weren't cutting it, so Kyle got me some five pound weights from Target. I shouldn't have skipped the fours, because five left me with super aches the next day.

So there I was, working out--with weights--hoping I was getting fit. I felt fit. I could run up stairs, walk fast in thick New York humidity with out wheezing. My legs were hard as rocks. Then I got on the scale and realized I gained two pounds. Sure, it's muscle, I kept telling myself that. Muscle is better than fat. But the scale scared me. I weigh more now that I ever have in my life. I was very discouraged. But I decided to plug away. I wasn't going to give up. I'd just do more aerobics.

That's where the walk and jog video came in handy. Intervals of fast (yet easy) aerobic steps alternate with faster jogging steps. I did this video a few times and then my ankle started to hurt. I suspect my sneakers are the culprit, but now I can barely walk. I can't decide if I should stop exercising until my ankle feels better or just do the work out in a lower-impact fashion.

Two pounds heavier and a gimpy ankle. All this in the quest for a healthier me.

posted at 9:38 PM . link to this post .

. (6) comments

6 Comments:

this is very inspiring. I have been in a fitness rut myself, started walking regularly this year but the summer heat is killing me. I lost some weight and I don't want to gain it back, but the idea of dancing in my living room to the typical aerobics video is kind of scary. maybe I can grab a couple of the videos you've linked to here!

By krystyn, at 8/06/2006 10:30 PM

The three videos I list here are very good. I have another video of Leslie's, which is older (from the '90s) and it's too complex. But the three here are great. There are four basic steps she uses (walk in place, knee lifts, kicks, and sidesteps) so it's pretty hard to get out of step. Sorry for the bad pun. :^)

By Angela, at 8/06/2006 10:38 PM

Muscle burns fat. More muscle tissue means that even when you're resting, your body is burning more calories. Chances are if you're up two you're actually down about 7 or 8. The scale will catch up. Meantime, use a tape measure instead of the scale to record your progress, and go to a site like http://mybodycomp.com to help with the math.

Stick to it - if you want to be fit, you have to put up with a little initial heaviness, even though you are fitter and your clothes fit you better. Give it six more weeks and you'll be amazed. Honest.

By Jen, at 8/07/2006 6:53 AM

Yeah, I hear ya. I'm not gonna stop working out, but it's just so hard, in this world of instant gratification, to keep working at something and not seeing the results you want. I've been trying on my jeans (which I haven't worn since summer started) and they're still too tight. I'm hoping by autumn they'll fit a little bit better.

Thanks for the link and the pep talk! :^)

By Angela, at 8/07/2006 11:56 AM

[[[[[ due to many deep, elementary-school-gym-related psychological scars ]]]]]]

Oh, you know I need to hear about some of these stories!

The Wonder Years had a great segment in one of the episodes about being lined up on the gym floor where people ("captains") picked teams, and it was all about feeling the pressure of not being picked last with the token un-cool kids in the class (the overweight, the nerdy, the clumsy). I thought it was brilliant, because it was all so true, at least for the boys.

Actually, I think I have pretty good raw athletic skills and coordination and can well catch and throw a ball (and enjoy it), but I didn't (and still don't)have that jock "attitude" or "personality," so I think I was sort of underrated in those gym picks, and not among the early "draft picks." Fortunately, I was never picked towards the VERY end, but I usually was picked below the halfway point when the ranks started to get a little thinner. I think I was viewed as "the best choice of what's left" or "the first guy in line when all the good ones have been picked up." And I remember always sweating it and feeling a little looser-ish that no one was gobbling me up for their squad.

Ah, f**k 'em!

But I still want to hear about your elementary school gym nightmares.

By Steve, at 8/09/2006 10:37 PM

Yes, you will get gym stories, but I want to make a real post out of them, which requires me to actually sit down and think. My gym teacher at Captree Elementary, I believe his name was Mr. Reeves, was one of my arch nemeses. I use the plural, because I had more than one nemesis at that school.

By Angela, at 8/10/2006 4:30 PM