An Unintentional New Gym

Since I moved house, I've been regularly going to the gym. I am approaching forty years of age, and with that, some biological clocks start to tick more rapidly. Pain is felt more keenly, flexibility and strength can decay, and you're gonna have a generally bad time.

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Therefore, in the spirit of "use it or you lose it", I decided to join the gym, about eight kilometres from my house. Its a small gym, and it can get very busy at peak times. I've been going there since November / December, and I've been following a strict program of 5x5, from an app called strong lifts.

My work out routine consists of a day on, day off, and on day one, I do a routine of the following:

• Squats
• Overhead Press
• Deadlift.

Then I rest. Then the day after, I go back and I do...

• Low Row
• Squats
• Bench Press.

Then I repeat the first lot of exercises all over again.

My progress is not documented through photographs, because the gym barely has any mirrors. My progress is instead measured by many metrics. My mental health, self confidence, and general strength has increased at a staggering rate.

After about six months, I'm just 2.5KG away from 1:1 body weight squats. I'm dead lifting about 75% of my weight, and overhead press (with a barbell) is about 30% of my weight. I've definitely hit a plateau on that one.

Just like, a few sundays ago, how I hit a car when I was travelling toward my normal gym. I was indicating to turn left at a roundabout, I checked all the entrances / exits for other traffic, and I entered the roundabout.

I didn't see a white Mazda 3, which clashed with my car, on my driver's side door (in Australia, we drive on the left) - which damaged my front bumper, wheel, driver's door, and possibly some components under there.

The aftermath

As a responsible adult, I'm comprehensively insured and had an amicable discussion with the other party, fulfilling all my obligations and explaining that I didn't see them. It's now sitting with my insurance, and while my car (and the other party's car) is drivable, no one was injured - life must go on. That's all I will say on that topic.

My car will be in for repairs late July, but I'm not sure for how long.

The last thing I want to do is to have my gym progress be halted by not having access to the "local" gym, which isn't actually the closest one to my house, but it certainly was the cheapest one.

So instead, I now have a membership to two gyms, at once. Since i paid for the other one a year in advance, I'll still have access to it until December next year (provided they stay in business) - but the new one I joined is about 3KM away, and definitely walkable.

I know its walkable because I've done that walk three times now, and the gym is very accessible. The only downsides to the new one is that it does have mirrors, and I see my physique quite critically and with great clarity, in particular, when performing squats.

While I have built a considerable strength base, the truth is that I've not lost any weight (or mass, to be scientific) since I joined the other gym. I have for sure become leaner, with my belt going from the last available notch to the fourth from the end (a good ten centimetres!) I know that visceral fat is the last to go.

But its there, and that is uncomfortable, particularly in the context of exercise being a means to an end - I don't want to wake up in five years and think, "oh shit, how am I meant to get out of bed", or "I need help to get the dryer off the top of the washing machine to replace it".

This hits home stronger, because the last time I worked out at the old gym, I met a bloke who was 61, looked about 45, and lifted way more weight than his physique gave him any right to.

He told me he had won national body building contests as a young man back in his homeland of Ireland (or perhaps Scotland, I forget) - (and I know those are two things that are very bad to get confused) - but I was, to be frank, struggling to absorb enough oxygen at the time of the conversation.

It was an inspirational conversation, none the less, he complimented me on my progress, my strength; and encouraged me to not stop. I told him, I hope that by the time I'm his age I can be at least 90% of the monster he currently was.

We laughed. It was a positive experience.

The new gym, mirrors and all, is a more commercial gym, with less weight plates at every squat rack. I'm a large bloke, with even smaller muscles, but my only frustration (other than the mirrors, which flatter not) is having to hunt around the various plate loaded machines near the squat racks to get enough weight to do my own squats and dead lifts.

One thing is for certain, though - there's a fantastic community at the new gym, and I've already spoken to a few of the members which I am sure I will see more of in the future.

Then, there's the added benefit of the strides (literally) I have to take to get to the new gym. 3KM on the way, 3KM on the way back. It s a good warm up. I miss the butcher next door to my (other) gym, but once the car is repaired, and I have the freedom of an automobile bestowed upon me once more, I'll be able to partake of its glorious joys.

In the interim... I have plenty of chicken breast and vegetables in the freezer, and enough cans of tuna in the pantry. Thank goodness home delivery of groceries is an available endeavour.

I also panic purchased some dumb bells to use at home, using some of my credit card reward points. They arrived, but they're woefully bad - concrete filled plastic extrusions, with a plasticy, nylon, rubberised "bar" that weighs next to nothing - that smell not that great.

In the time that I am vehicle less, I will use those to do bench / shrugs at home to help build up my arms a bit more - but after that, I think they will end up in the refuse, or on the local buy nothing page.

Then maybe, one day, down the track, when I am more comfortable with my car being constantly exposed to the elements, I'll get a squat rack, barbell, a bench, and shove it in my garage.

But I probably won't, because a 6km walk every second day certainly never hurt anyone.