No Pain,No Gain?

“I am going to get fit if it kills me” was the thought that occurred to me last night as I “jog-walked” - going a little faster than walking but not quite jogging - around the sports fields of Westerford High School.  The jogging-walking was interspersed by step-ups, push-ups and crunches, and other mean things involving weights and stretchy bands. This morning the muscles underneath my muscles are complaining.

I know I have just finished the yoga challenge, but the truth is that I need to up the cardiac exercise, being of a certain age now. I hate the gym – the thought of exercising indoors is a foreign concept to me. I don’t even like the smell of the gym, the fluorescent lighting, the noise of weights knocking on weights, and the smell of chlorine wafting up from the indoor pool.

Yet over the years I have tried to overcome my aversion numerous times, but never lasting very long. In fact the longest I did stay was at the Sports Science Centre and that was about five years ago. It didn’t seem quite so “gym-y” and there were few designer-leotard-clad people about. It seemed more serious. Like business was happening there. One of the reasons I did stay, was that we went on a run through the leafy streets of Newlands and along the canal once a week.

This time I have been seduced by the promises of sessions in Newlands Forest, Silvermine Nature Reserve and Lion’s Head, and, apart from assessments, we don’t have to set foot inside the gym. I did balk at the thought of “Boot Camp”, picturing a sergeant-major-type screaming instructions at me while I dragged my body from one torture site to the next, but it’s not quite like that – or not yet anyway. In any case, I am the boss of my body and I know how far it can go.  So bring it on!

 Visit the Sports Science Institute - http://www.ssisa.com/