Pump those muscles

[caddyman]

I have proven to my own satisfaction what really I already knew to be true: to whit, I am quite astoundingly unfit.

Last night I had my first go on the treadmill exercise bike. Admittedly I had my inaugural pedal after everyone had gone home following the game session and was therefore full of pizza. This is not, of course ideal preparation for exercise and just before going to bed is probably not the best time either, but it would have been easy to put it off and that risks the entire health fascism lifestyle folding before it’s started.

Anyway. Ten minutes. Ten minutes, that’s all and not at a very high resistance setting, to boot. I was fekking knackered and my heart was going nineteen to the dozen for some minutes afterward. Rarely has such a short period of time managed to be so boring and hard work all at the same time. My only consolation is that the first hurdle has been jumped and that Furtle tells me that when you are starting off from a very low base such as I am, there is rapid initial improvement if you stick to it. Of course, then, once you have reached the half hour for no effort, what do you do to reward yourself? Cream cakes, juicy steak? No, you make it harder.

In an earlier post bibliovixen suggested that enjoyable ways of exercising might be cycling (proper cycling) or walking to the pub. In reverse order, I think the walk to the pub might be OK, though any calories burnt off by the walk would be more than compensated for by any refreshments imbibed once there. As to the bike well, when I was in my teens (and earlier) I travelled miles on my bike and it was no effort at all, most of the time. Thirty-odd years on, however, the man is rather more than twice the boy that was and the ten minutes on the exercise bike proved that a fair amount has to be done before even considering a real bike. And of course, there is the deep suspicion that cycling in (even outer) London in the noughties is a rather different proposition to cycling in semi-rural Telford and rural Shropshire back in the seventies. I don’t like the thought of driving a car in London, much less belting around the roads without all that metal encasing me!

Still, we shall see. I can’t really make any objective assessment after one ten-minute attempt directly after pizza. Maybe in a fortnight’s time I shall revisit the subject.

If I’m not in the middle of surgery on my cardio-vascular system.

Comments

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

It does get better - although exervise bikes are rather dull. I'd like a real one, but where to put it is the issue, and there are hills where we are - I'd end up going up and down the park only! I think we put episodes of things on the laptop in front of it! I shall start with willo the wisp - all 5 mins of it!

Important thing is not to try and do too much too fast or you'll get too knackered and that's not good for you and you'll also get discouraged.

Now. just to get my ar*e out the door for a run....

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Wow, love, you do enjoy a challenge don't you? Full of pizza and then exercising!

Well I did say that I knew it wasn't ideal prep! The thing is, that this all really goes against the grain, which is why I ended up all lardy in the first place, so unless I make a determined effort I'll be able to find ways of postponing it until Doomsday!

[fen-wolfchile.livejournal.com]

Ehm, I don't suppose I should point out that quite a high percentage of heart attacks in, shall we say, men of a certain age occur during physically strenous exercise shortly after a heavy meal.

Anyway, as you're still alive just try a quick five minutes when you get in from work.

Personally I dislike exercise equipment as it's one of the dullest things in the world.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I don't like exercise equipment either, but I dislike running even more. Not to mention that I doubt my knees could cope with the strain of me pounding the pavement, even if my heart can!

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

See, I have found exercise I enjoy more than other exercise, but not yet one I prefer to not exercising at all.... :D

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

there is rapid initial improvement if you stick to it

Don't you believe it! They tell you that to sucker you in but I've been walking the same two hill/streets every weekday for the past year and they still kill me every day!

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I have found (and don't take this to be proseletizing) that since giving up on the gaspers, my local hill only tortures me, rather than pushing me directly to an early grave each day!

[keresaspa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've stil, a few years of them left in me ;)

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

I gave up on the local gym after only two or three visits as I couldn't see the point of paying money to do something I despise, knacker myself and be bored to bits! Still, I was pleased that I managed twenty five mins at a time on the exercise bike, whose difficulty I surprisingly had to increase quite a bit to feel like I was getting a decent workout.

Having 'cycled in central London a lot twenty years ago, I can say it is only for the suicidal. I'm surprised I'm still here to tell about it.

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

Not being a fan of exercise bikes, I went the cross trainer route (which takes up even more space, I really don't advise it unless you really dislike exercise bikes!)

You definitely build up from not being able to do any to being able to do the time OK, then it's a case of upping the resistance. The big thing is being able to guilt yourself in to exercising when you don't want to (which if you're anything like me is all the time). The laptop idea is a good one, I have the cross trainer in front of the TV, so it dominates the living room and shouts 'if I'm going to be this disruptive you'd better use me!' every time I walk past it. Watching even a semi-decent TV program can make the time easier, I won't lie and say it flies by, but it is definitely easier. It's also quite a nice way to force yourself to do that extra 10 minutes when you really don't want to, just to the end of the program...

But, ignoring all of that, if you don't watch the calories side of things as well then it really is utterly pointless. Sorry.