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Journal Week 1

I ended the first week sore, tired and sick. Not a brilliant start. The weightlifting is much harder than I was expecting, but the food is easier.

Gym: I started with an upper body workout on the Monday. First, I had to join a gym. I had narrowed the choice down to two, the nearest and most attractive to me being a California Gym franchise. I had walked in on the Friday earlier to get membership rates, but they wouldn't give this information to me: first, I had to see a "counsellor". This evil was unavoidable on the Monday, but it was a holiday, so I had allowed the time. The "counsellor", a young guy who had never heard of EAS, Muscle Media or Body For Life, was of course aiming mainly for his commission. He had been the California Gym equivalent to Hamburger University, and I got a fixed spiel. The first thing we had to do was tour the gym, where I was supposed to be awed by their amazing range of equipment, the spinning aerobics class (whatever that is, but if using an exercise bike to loud music is the latest trend, then I'm more cutting edge than I thought). I put up with all of this with admirable equanimity, considering that I had pointed out to him that I wanted to join for only three months and would really only be interested in the free weights. I managed to talk him out of the locker room tour, and we went back to his desk. There were a number of special offers, particularly for me since I had walked in on a certain day etc etc. I let him finish telling me about what a great deal I got if I paid a year in advance, and how much the joining fee is if I wanted to join for less than a year. Finally, he was ready to listen. I said I would initially join for only three months, did not want to pay a joining fee, and what I thought a reasonable amount of money would be. He went to talk to his manager, and they agreed. He was desperate to get my signature on the contract, but first I went to see the other candidate gym. Then I came back to California, signed up and started my first upper-body workout almost immediately.

The advice about leaving my ego outside the gym hadn't reached me yet. I tried very hard, and was amazingly sore two days later. By Thursday I could hardly dress for work. Misery. I was a bit smarter with the lower body workout on Wednesday, but still, I was very sore two days later. Also I came down with a sore throat and cough which plagued me for more than a week, waking me up in the middle of the night. Despite it, I continued the aerobic sessions first thing after waking up, and found the cough and sore throat to make no difference. This was a pleasant surprise; in the past I thought it wiser to skip exercise if I had a cold or cough.

Thursday evening my arms and chest were still very sore, and I was planning a Friday morning workout. I consulted with a friend of mine who is quite experienced with weights. He recommended that I postpone the planned Friday morning workout. Friday afternoon I flew to Jakarta for the weekend, so on Saturday I did my cycling, had breakfast and then did my second upper body workout. The advantages of free weights were immediately apparent: free weights exercises are the same where ever normal gravity is found. However, I was disappointed with the weights I was lifting. The gym workouts are going to be more difficult than I thought.

As far as the travel went: because I made sure we stayed somewhere with a decent gym, the training was easy. I also packed Myoplex and some protein supplement, so the food was ok. I did my second lower body workout in the morning. It was quite good, although their fancy leg press was easier than the more basic non-cam machine at my Singapore gym. On Monday Tris and I had lunch with the Country Manager of Philips Indonesia, at a hotel buffet; We were both on diets, so it was easy to eat properly.

Lessons for the week:

The food side is easy, with only some basic planning and good shopping. Some protein supplement is very handy, as it turns servings of carbohydrate into an authorised meal (an apple for instance). I bought a blender for the office. I am having a Myoplex Deluxe for the mid morning meal and for the mid-afternoon meal. Strawberries and raspberries are great in the strawberry cream and vanilla cream flavour. Chocolate is harder for me to enjoy.
I'm rarely hungry, which leads me to wonder if I'm eating too much. On Sunday, the free day, I enjoyed a Mars Bar and some traditional Indonesian Idul Fitri biscuits, and I didn't have any Myoplex.

The gym is harder than I was expecting. I am anxious about getting the intensity right and getting the form right. Yet to do a morning workout, will try this next week. I must concentrate on form first, and realise that 12 weeks is a long time: I have enough time to build up slowly, to build a solid foundation of skill and to slowly get my upper body used to the stresses of weight training. This is hard to remember, because I want very much to succeed at this program, to make these 12 weeks one the most exciting periods of my last few years.

Comments. Page modified: August 11, 2003

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