If you know me, you know I’m into martial arts. Unfortunately, I’ve been out of martial arts for some time now. The problem is one of schedule. I had to stop studying with Ray Parra because his class times and my schedule just weren’t working out. I’ve been dying to start studying with Leslie Buck, and while the schedule Leslie now offers is a lot more conducive, he’s almost on the other side of town from me and so couple the drive time in and I could be looking at circa three hours per class. With my day job, my own company, some other side work, Wife, Kiddos, and numerous other things, every minute matters these days and I just can’t afford that time for Leslie. 😦

Unfortunately the lack of exercise is really catching up with me. Sure I was trying to lose weight, and that “up day down day” stuff was working quite well! But then some months ago I got a new job assignment at the day job, it’s been a lot of stress, I’ve eaten more and dropped off the wagon as a reaction to that stress… plus just the lack of physical activity is sad because well… I find myself getting a lot more winded at the simplest of things. That’s lame! 😦

I’m not sure why this is this way about me, but I’m coming to realize in some activities I do better when there are external forces in play. For instance, sure I could work on martial arts skills at home, but it’s a vacuum. I need an instructor to watch me, to correct me, to teach me things because that’s so much of what it’s about. Or at least, after a while you want a partner to work with, to spar with, to throw around, because fighting “air man” or the heavy bag all day long isn’t the same.

Oddly, a few weeks ago I started thinking about lifting weights again. I did that a lot in high school, and on and off throughout my adult life. But most of that was always done me, by myself, at home somehow. But in recent years if I thought about it I always said no I couldn’t do it because it cost money. I said if I could work out at home, have the discipline to do it at home, and then do things like push-ups, squats and lunges, etc. and show I could stick with that? Then I could see about spending money on it.

Trouble is?

I hate push ups. 🙂  Bodyweight exercises I think are very cool, and stuff like Beast Skills are VERY cool.

But get this. There’s a little mom&pop-style gym that opened up near my house. On a whim I stopped in there to check it out. I figured being in its location and the store-front looking small, it’d be unimpressive, it’d be something like a “Curves” with just machines. But actually, I was quite impressed. Full suite of things, yes there are machines but most of those then use free plates. Lots of free-standing benches, full rack of dumbbells. I was actually pretty impressed with the depth and breadth of the offering housewives could have their “toning” workouts, but a serious athlete or bodybuilder could do just fine there too. Plus the terms were very reasonable: no contract, no bullshit, no nothing. Just a simple monthly fee and you can stop any time by just sending a registered letter. I like that. The owner looks to be in his 30’s, very nice, seems to want to run a no-bs sort of place. I dug it.

I signed up.

I need some sort of physical exercise. For whatever reason, working at home doesn’t do it for me. I’ve never been a member of a gym like this, so this will be new for me, but I’m hoping the motivation of the monthly fee and having equipment access like I will motivate me. Plus the time sink is minimal. It’s very close to the house, close enough I could walk/jog to the place. Jog there, quick workout, jog home… could make for a good workout.

Of course, I need to start WAY slow. I haven’t dedicatedly lifted in a long time so I have no idea where my weight maxes are. I’m also somewhat out of shape so I need to slowly ease my body back into things… my doctor keeps reminding me I’m not 18 any more. I’m thinking my first few workouts might be very light, really underestimate the weights, and might be full-body compounds. For instance, jog there as a warm up, get in, 3×10 squats, 3×10 bench press, 3×10 rows, some crunches, then jog home. Uber light, uber simple, compound-only exercises, I have to ease myself back into it. If I can hit the gym 3x-week and do that for at least a week, then I can start to add a few more things in but still keep it a basic “whole body” workout until things are feeling a bit more up to it. And then after another week or two of that, depending how the body is adjusting, go on a split such as upper body minus abs one day and lower body plus abs the other day and try that perhaps 4x week.

We’ll see how it goes. I may stick with it, I may not. One fear is that lifting won’t be mentally stimulating enough for me, because that’s been one reason I haven’t stuck with it in my adult years. It’s one reason I like martial arts because it provided both physical and mental stimulation. But just being physical? will that be motivation enough for me? But on the flip side, my life’s been so mentally overstimulating lately that maybe something like this, where it’s just me and the iron — no wife, no kids, no work, no business, no stress — might actually be just what I need. Again, we’ll see. It’s just part of life’s journey. 🙂

I will say this tho… I won’t be starting until next week. First, I need to figure out a daily/weekly schedule and routine. Second tho… I’ll be helping out at KR Training in 2 days and if I worked out today, in 2 days I would be sooooo sore. 🙂