When it comes to exercise - starting over can be a good thing

Fitness cannot be bottled and saved for a rainy day. Unfortunately you also lose your level of fitness far faster than you gained it. So what can you do when you are starting out – either as a complete beginner, or coming back from a period of absence? Get the all clear from your medical professional if you need, then choose an activity and have a go.

After a year and a bit of not being able to train “properly” because of a torn shoulder rotator cuff, I decided enough was enough. I was walking regularly, but I had had to give up my gym membership because I just could not lift weights – I was getting out of condition – and I hated it. So I did a thing!

Why would I give up a gym membership?

Let me tell you this – it is absolutely no fun exercising half your body, and when you “forget” and pick up something heavier than a toothbrush – it bloody hurts. So – against my own sanity I had cancelled my gym membership – it was just sensible, even though it didn’t feel like it at the time.

A year and a bit later – that’s now BTW, I’ve gotten to the point where I can put some weight on the arm and shoulder, so I decided it was kill or cure time.

As I had already decided I was not going down the surgery route, I was a little concerned, but me being me – I decided a couple of months ago I would give the girly push ups a go (that’s on the knees for those wondering - as opposed to the fully prone “boy” ones I was used to doing). I was by this time able to spend time grubbing around in the garden, and didn’t have any problem with the household stuff – so I thought the push ups would be easy – I could barely do 5. Turns out I was fit for purpose.

What does fit that even mean?

In simple terms I had rehabilitated myself enough to get through household and gardening chores, but I simply wasn’t fit enough to do much else. Bear in mind I was still walking between 10 and 20 Km’s a week, but I knew I would get out of breath running for a bus. That’s what fit for purpose means. You are fit enough to do what you have to do. Anything else and you’re going to be stuffed.

You may not need to run for a bus or out swim a shark, but what would you do if you had to?

So that’s when I did a thing.

I was online one night – now there’s not a shock!! On my timeline came an advert type post from my health care provider. Free spring exercise training classes coming to a place near you...

• 10 minutes down the road by car – yep that’s pretty close.
• A day that I’m free – awesome
• Rain, hail or shine they run training classes – bugger, but hey OK

And did I mention FREE for members

Tonight was week 2 and a fitness test... Level – surprised – and yes it rained on us during class.

They do the same fitness test in week 7 – so we’ll see how I go when I compare the numbers.

Every size, shape, age, race and ability was there – several hundred of us actually. Tonight’s “beginners” class had 76 people and the other groups were just as big – and as I found out, some had paid to join in. I did the math on the way home and it’s really good value for money at $7.50 a session.

But mine was free and I was taking advantage.

The trainers are encouraging us to have a goal by the end of the 8 weeks – mine is to be able to run 2 km’s without “dying”... and tonight’s fitness test tells me I will get there. The actual goal is to be able to run the City to Surf in August 2017 and the LA Marathon in 2018 which runs during March and the time Mike and I are in LA and surrounds during our annual break...sssh I haven’t told him yet J For those of you who know me, when I am at my “fighting weight I am built more like a sprinter, so long distance is a bit of an issue, even when I could run, but I am nothing if not determined to knock those off the goal list.

I have a long road back to fitness, but I am on that road and if I stumble I know I just have to pick myself up again and just get back to it...

And life is like that, one day you are fit, the next can see you landing on your butt – but one thing I am sure of, you just need to keep plugging away and eventually you’ll get there. Remember it’s not what you do once that makes you who you are, it’s what you do day in day out that makes the biggest difference.