Fitness

For about the past six months, I've really focused on exercise.  Why?  Because exercise is the fountain of youth.  I joined a club and I've been going faithfully.  I have worked out six or seven times a week for the past six months.  I've lost ten or twelve pounds.  My upper arms don't waggle like bat wings anymore.  I'm starting to develop ankles.  Things are good.  I've been alternating between an hour in the lap pool with a half hour on the elliptical followed by a half hour on the weight machines.  In the pool I swim the crawl.  I totally look silly in my blue bathing cap, black headband (to keep my ear plugs in place) and blue swim goggles.  If my shoulder is bothering me, I'll crawl for 15 minutes and then do a couple laps on a kick board just to rest the shoulder.  On the elliptical, I surge every 3 minutes.  The machine has a heart rate monitor.  I usually keep my heart rate around 125 or 130.  But every three minutes I'll work as hard as I can for 30 seconds and get my heart rate up to 155.  I aim to get it up above 150 but less than 158.  At 158 beats per minute and above, my exercise induced asthma kicks in and I get this annoying cough. By the time I am done with that machine, I feel depleted and sweaty.  Then I walk over to the weight machines and strengthen my legs, shoulders, back, arms and abs.  I always wipe down the machines with the wipes the club provides so it is clean for the next person.  I've noticed not everyone does that.  I've also noticed that the people who don't clean the machine are also the people who grunt as they lift and/or bring the weights back into position with a loud clang.  The grunting clangers don't wipe as often as the quiet people.  I've increased the amount of weight I can press.  There is a machine that strengthens the upper torso. You kneel on this seat and twist your waist to the right and to the left.  My club has two of these machines side by side.  For the longest time I could not figure out how to use these machines.  I thought one machine twisted right and the other twisted left.  One day the machine would twist to the right and the next day it would twist to the left.  I thought I was loosing my mind.  I finally talked to a friend about it and she explained that I can change the direction of the twist by lifting a bar and moving the seat position.  That makes a lot more sense. I hesitated to join the club because of the cost and because I thought I didn't have the self-discipline to go often enough.  In my case, my tendency toward thriftiness helps me.  The more times a month I go to the club, the less it costs every time I go.  I worried I would slack off but so far that hasn't happened.  What has happened, though, is that if I don't physically deplete myself every day, I don't feel right.  And that is a good thing.