Back to the mat

After laying off anything that looked like it was even close to looking like exercise for a wee while (based on the fact that eating or sitting on my couch do not count as exercise) I have decided to make an effort and start back on a programme that would hopefully improve my fitness and health somewhat. Now knowing that I tend to be a person of extremes I have tried to take a more measured approach in the hope that this would mean that what ever I pick is more attainable and manageable. In order to try and achieve what I was looking for I decided to try and approach this in the most practical manner that I could think of. So here is my plan

Step 1: Membership is not a requirement
The first step for me is to find somewhere that does not require a membership fee. A lot of the time I find that there is pressure to go as often as possible in order to get value for money - and while you can keep this up for a wee while it is not something that can be sustained when you have to balance everything up. The local leisure centre in the next village up has a good set of facilities and you can pay for classes or training sessions on a session by session basis so this may well be an option

Step 2: It is not a grott hole
A lot of the time when you actually look in the changing rooms etc of a gym no matter how clean and nice they look on the outside the changing rooms/showers etc are often grotty or smelly and if this is the case then you are never going to attend the sessions when you are feeling a bit demotivated. So I went up to the centre and took a few minutes to have a good look around. With it being the local centre they were happy for me to look around by myself rather than having someone show me what they thought I might like to see. This actually made a big difference as it meant that I was actually able to have a look around and think about whether I wanted to use the facilities.

Step 3: Understand what they provide
Having looked around I asked for some material to take away with me about costs, opening hours etc. Now because membership was not a requirement they provided me with timetables and costs and although they took the time to explain the costs they did not place pressure to take a membership. What was refreshing is that they actually said to go home a look over what I would want to do before I came in to discuss whether or not I would like to take membership. This lack of pressure was really refreshing and meant that I knew I would have time to consider my options and see if this was for me. A note to any other gym's -if you don't pressure people then you may keep them on your books for a bit longer

Step 4: Work out what you want to do
I have a tendency to be an all or nothing person. When I am working on something I tend to want to do that to the exclusion of all other things and I wanted to try and avoid this being the case again so I took the time to read all of the blurb provided and picked only one thing that I would start with to see whether I liked heading up there to work out.

While there is a lot of choice from classes through to different sports you can book in for I figure that if I only pick one thing and try that then I can focus on it and then change it if it does not work. Initially the classes appealed but I don't always know when I am going to get in let alone get up to the centre so I probably going to go for the gym

This being the case I need to work out what I want to get out of it. If they say to me that I should have a gym program which means I have to run on a treadmill then I may as well just not bother going. I hate doing that and while I am happy with a brisk walk the idea of jogging on the spot for 20 minutes is not so much.

Step 5: Meet the people that work there
Having made a decision on what I will do I have decided that I need to go up to the gym to meet the folks that run it. As a bonus I can also do an induction which means that I will be able to use the gym freely after this session. I know it does not sound that exciting but I find you get a real feel for how you will be treated when you go to these things and see whether or not they listen to you when you give them your goals.

So there it is - my 5 step plan. Of course there is a step 6 where I actually have to go along and work out. I am prepared for the fact that I will find it hard going at the start and for the fact that I will likely get annoyed when I cannot do things, so hopefully I will make it out the other side a little healthier and largely in one piece