finally! a gym!

I want to say it's taken me a while. However, I need to give myself some credit, here. I just arrived on Thursday and finally signed up for the local gym today (Monday). I'm now officially a member at Fitness First in SM North Edsa. It cost more than I had hoped for. However, I guess the amenities are worth it. I had to weigh my options and decided that it's an investment considering I really don't know what else I would do to exercise here. My problem is that I like a really hard exercise, so the occasional jump rope at home just doesn't do it.

It's funny trying to haggle an appropriate rate and stuff. After some discussion, I finally got the deal that I thought made most sense. It is a nice club, something along the lines of Club Sport in Fremont. Major difference is that it's smaller and in the mall.

Anyway, as with most clubs, it includes a fitness assessment and 2 personal training sessions. I did my fitness assessment and session today, which put me at the club for about 3 hours. I refused to have them weigh me and the poor trainer Albert was a little irked. To his credit, he was very nice about it.

Here's my schtick on fitness assessments... I THINK THEY'RE BULLSHIT! My friend Alex says that according to the BMI chart, Tom Cruise is overweight. That's how bullshit that whole thing is. If I'm paying good money to go to a gym, then I should be able to retain my dignity. Albert was a little shocked that I didn't mark "weight loss" as a goal. Again, it was a political choice I made. He asked why I didn't mark that (can you believe the fuckin' nerve?!) and I said, "I'm happy with my body. As I wrote, I'm here to maintain my health and that's it." I'm pretty sure he wanted to poke me in the eye. I wish I actually cared.

Anyway, he ran me through some of the machines and stuff. Plus, he did a 6 minute interval run and did the standard tests, letting me know what heart rate I need and such. All the tests were normal. I thank him for his patience because I don't know Tagalog. That's happened to me a lot and people tend to apologize for their bad English. I always respond by saying that their English is WAY BETTER than my Tagalog. They don't usually get it.

His workout was okay. Again, I like to be worked so it was just okay. I think he assumed that I was totally out of shape. (Ahem. I admit that I look out of shape, but I'm quite healthy.) The weights he chose were mostly way too light - especially my lower body weights. I wish he turned it up a bit. My favorite part was the stretch because it really helps to have someone stretch you. Again, he looked surprised because yes, believe it or not, this fat girl is more flexible than most people assume. I'm pretty sure there were points where he didn't know what to do. I just had to laugh.

While I'm here, I'm going to focus on running (on the machines), spinning and yoga.

Here is fierce runner life in the Philippines. I'm at a gym now. It's not CrossFit. But it'll do until I get back. I can't wait to take the new CrossFit fundamentals classes. I'm so gonna need it when I get back!