How I became a gym guy
I never really got into weight training. I spent some time lifting while playing sports in high school and then during my hitch with the Marines. My weight room discipline was so poor that some of the more dedicated jarheads would refer to my work out as “the Corder shuffle,” which was basically me wandering around the gym without any plan to get or any chance of getting any real work done. I spent about 5 years training heavily in the martial arts, but these often eschew weight lifting under the auspice that it slows a fighter down. As a result, the gym never became a part of my culture and I didn’t learn the appeal of lifting weights. Additionally, I am cursed with a terrible disability known as laziness: although I am a casual mountain bike rider, surf and sea kayaker, martial artist, skier, and rock climber, I often don’t have a plan to get or a chance of getting any real work done.
As many of those who have reached midlife attest, this is when you really start to notice getting older and the physical impacts of aging become more profound. Regular and progressive exercise is the most important factor in maintaining a high quality of life. Resistance training specifically helps to slow and even reverse many of the declines in physical condition associated with aging. As I have noticed feeling weaker over the last several years, I resolved to go to the gym and lift weights regularly. My only regret is not having started sooner! After 6 months of consistent training I feel stronger, healthier, and more confident in movement than I ever thought possible. I am now a firm believer in weight lifting and I intend to keep it as the backbone of my health and wellness plan going forward.
I had a small fat spiral notebook that I had been packing around for years after having purchased it for some historical and obviously never really started project. I committed myself to lift regularly, and to record all physical exercise of any kind in that notebook in order to see how long it took to fill it up. I am about 2/3 through it now. I currently train three times a week, but when I started the gym that I have access to was open only 4 days a week. This helped me focus on a slow start, working out twice a week for the first couple of months while I really savored the movements. At first I concentrated on form of movement, and as I felt stronger in included explosiveness, but very slowly. I would occasionally feel something tweak or pop and I would stop immediately. Although it was never an injury, I would immediately perform range of motion and stretching exercises to mitigate any possible damage. I am in no hurry. This is not a race.
I have been thus far successful because I set goals that I could reach and I gave myself something tangible in which I could record my progress. I have found that after months of regular lifting I look forward to gym days and the way they make me feel. I am physically and emotionally worse when I miss days, and instead of dreading the exertion as I did in the past I now crave it. The Corder shuffle is no longer a part of the session. I am getting to the point where I feel my conditioning will allow me to add work out days with less risk of injury, and it is that which I fully intend to do. I will continue my struggle with my lazybones affliction, and I hope you join me so that we can live our best lives.
