Rowing

My fitness routine is staying pretty constant and I’ve been to the gym at least six days a week for seven weeks as of today. A couple weeks ago I finally had my personal trainer session that comes free with my membership. I already know enough about the cardio side of things so wanted to add in a strength routine to balance out my program a bit more.

So far weight loss has been fairly low, which is frustrating at times. Essentially I’ve lost about 1.5 kgs in seven weeks. It’s nothing to be upset about but I was hoping I’d be down at least 3-4 kgs by now. On the plus side I am mostly losing centimeters around the waist and hips, except for last weekend when I seem to have gained a bit on both. Maybe it’s not correct but I am attributing it in part to my period starting as I usually do gain weight. Just didn’t know it might affect my waistline as it did. Happily my spot check yesterday showed it’s gone back down again and I just have to be patient and persistent. Seems to sound a lot like what my surgeon told me about my knee. :D

This week the gym finally finished the Fitness on Request room and the Scientist and I tried out the spin class. Actually, the class we tried turned out to be a tutorial for using the spin bike that ran for 20 minutes and could have been done in five. By that time, the Scientist had had enough of the uncomfortable seat and moved on to other equipment. I stayed and tried out the proper class and got quite a workout in twenty minutes. My biggest difficulty in the class is having to stand up while pedalling as my knee isn’t strong enough to lift me yet. But I have found I can do it by using my right leg and going slowly. I think that’s better than not trying it and it seemed to do no harm. I went back yesterday and tried again and was much better at the standing parts and maybe will figure out all moves properly in a few more tries. I have given up the treadmill for the time being as I think I was getting bored with that so will add that back in when I need to take a break from another machine.

The real surprise in the past couple of months is my love of the rowing machine. I never knew I would ever make progress on that. We have an air rower at home and I never managed to get past a few minutes on it. So imagine my surprise when regular use of the gym machine has me a bit obsessed. I have discovered interval rowing and that seems to suit me the best so far. I can now row for 30 minutes, taking one minute breaks every few minutes for rest. I can see how my endurance has increased on that. But I think my technique needs some improvement so I’ve been looking at the website of the machine to see what I should be doing and will take that on board when I do my cardio workout tomorrow.

Overall, I am feeling a lot better with my body and have yet to injure myself. I think changing equipment is helping a lot so I don’t overuse anything for too long. I’m still optimistic that the weight will start falling off as I go but can always feel pleased with the improvements in my cardio health, which is of utmost important thanks to my family history of heart disease.