Me and my fiancé Katie decided to join a gym together after our last fitness escapade, joining the Bodyline Swimming Membership the end of last summer, gradually fizzled away as it just didn’t have that pulling appeal to keep us motivated and interested in regular swimming.
So, in mid February 2019, we decided to just go for it and we joined The Gym at the Headrow Core Shopping Centre in Leeds and although we are only in our second week, we are both loving it.
We both have different goals in many ways. Katie’s main goal is to lose some weight and get into holiday shape, whilst my goal is to challenge myself physically at 34 years old and try to rekindle some of my previous superb fitness and body conditioning level that I had reached in my late 20s.
The night before we joined the gym together by signing up online, I had played football with the lads on the Monday, which I do every week and I came away from it frustrated with my body.
I pulled my hamstring (for the first time ever) about three to four weeks before and had given it a rest but it kept twinging in the game and I knew I couldn’t run or sprint 100 percent or it would have probably pulled again or worse, torn. Also during the game, although I was running all over the pitch as I usually do, full of energy I did feel much more lathargic than usual and I became frustrated when my right calf muscle felt like it twinged and almost pulled, from a long range lunging floated pass, I just thought ‘bloody hell, is my body starting to break down now I’m in my mid 30s’?
When Katie suggested joining the gym, I jumped at the chance and before we knew it we had both joined the gym. I am excited to get myself in decent condition again. Don’t get me wrong, I was already generally fit and could still run around a football pitch like a 20 odd year old but it felt like I could only do my best moments and my dribbles in glimpses rather than relenless or at will like I used to. Maybe this is due to age or maybe it’s because I’m not in great condition like I once was around four years ago.
MY AMBITION: Get into decent shape for my 2 week holiday to Greece in the summer with Katie and to challenge myself in sport and fitness the first half of this year.
BELOW PICTURE:
Me after my second session at the gym, it was a great workout and I felt amazing after!
The gym itself really is a great gym, I must say. I have trained in there several times in the past back in 2013, 2014 time when I had day passes and trained with my mates Jonny and Samir, so I know it’s a top gym.
There are loads of cardio equipment and it is a good job there is because during peak times there are so many gym goers in there, it can be hard to get on certain machines which is frustrating. There are two free weights sections which is good but I have struggled to do what I would like to in that section if the gym. I feel that the weeks that I work later shifts and I go to the gym at quieter times I can work more on strength and free weights then.
The gym overall is great though, it’s huge, it has cardio sections, resistance weight sections, core strength area, plyometrics, cables and then the free weights, it really is a gym for everyone, oh and it also has a class room for fitness classes.
What I love most about the gym is the positivity of it and the energy of the gym. It is bright with dance music playing and has huge windows at the front letting the light through, just the type of gym that breeds positivity and energy and that’s great for motivation.
It’s only the early stages but I really want lose a lot of the body fat that is over my already existing decent level of muscle, and for me it’s not necessarily the muscle that needs initial working on but my all round conditioning that will help me burn fat and lose some of the two stone that I have put on since my London Marathon 2015 and 2016, which was my last sub 3 hour and ‘Good For Age’ marathon season. I now fluctuate between 10.9 stone and 11.4. In 2015 I was 9 stone, infact I was 9 stone bang on for pretty much five or six years, that’s when I was at my peak. To be fair, some of this will most likely be my age and a slowing down of my motabolism and as we get older, we generally grow into our bodies and naturally gain more body fat but I want to get back to great condition again and gradually I will do.
Rowing Machine,
Running Machine,
Cross-Trainer Machine,
Bike,
Core Strength,
Plyometric Box Jumps,
Resistance Weights,
Free weights (when available)
I can’t lie that so far I have found it hard to get into a proper routine but for me, the Rowing Machine is what will get me really fit and begin that journey to try and get back to a great condition again. I am loving the Rowing Machine again, it’s a basic fitness machine but is so effective.
INDOOR ROWING MEMRORIES:
The benefits of the Rowing Machine is that it works all your muscle groups, it’s not only an intense cardio workout but also provides a strength and resistance workout for your whole body. It’s works the legs, the abs, the core, the chest, upper body and back. It is an unbelievable workout and brings back good memories of when I was 22 years old and I actually enter the Concept II Indoor Rowing World Rankings for the Lightweight Category for 2,000 metres. At my best I was officially ranked 1,416th in the world out of around 3,000. Pretty average but not bad to say I’m only a little guy.
The Rowing Machine is tough workout and this will be the main workout to get me past the starting mark to start hitting some decent conditioning.
CORE STRENGTH & PLYOMETRIC JUMPS:
As everyone who knows my fitness routines, core strength is one workout that I have never stopped, even after I quit the gym and I am happy to now have that extra space and motivation to work even harder on my core.
With having to resort to sporadic home workouts and skipping, it’s hard to have that space to work with to do all my variety of core workouts and especially with there being extra equipment and better core balls and medicine balls in the gym. I can already feel my abs getting stronger. My problem has been over the last year is that my abs and core has been strong but there has been too much body fat over my stomach area.
My joining of the gym has really motivated me to challenge my body over the first half of this year and this has begun already.
I have entered the 25 Mile Running Challenge for March and also plan to do this in April and May. On top of completing this, I also have the Sheffield Half Marathon on April 14th and Leeds Half Marathon on May 12th. I am seeing the half marathons as more of fun runs and a chance to aim towards more milestones rather than racing them.
I ran a 15 miles training run the other day, which is mainly based around the Leeds Half Marathon route. It was the first time I have ran 13 miles or a half marathon distance since I ran the Running Grand Prix Half Marathon with an ankle sprain in October 2018, so this was pretty much off the cuff. Recently I have only ran a few 3 mile (5k) runs so not had the best preparation but this is what it’s about. I love making training hard and by throwing myself in the deep end, it will only benefit me when the going gets tough at the real half marathon races. I didn’t take any water with me so it was tough the last few miles but I had some money in my wrist band and bought a Lucozade and bottle of water from a shop after and it tasted amazing haha.
So, watch this space, plenty of medals coming my way the first half of this year!
I’m not going to lie and say I’m one of these modern clean eaters who concentrates on nutrition but I am now starting to ensure I am eating much more protein for recovery and less snacks foods that I got into a habit of. A treat now and then won’t harm but as you get older, nutrition does become far far more influential in reaching body goals, especially in regards to asthetic looks.
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