Training Day!

 Leading up to my first day of training I had no set plan except for just getting started. I had no schedule, no training program none of that. I wasn’t thinking about losing weight so no, I wasn’t counting calories or dieting either. I was trying to drink more water that's about it. As I have mentioned and will mention many many more times throughout this blog my desire was to adopt a healthier lifestyle. I didn’t have any expectations I kept it really simple, get into the gym and doing something, anything.

 They say forming a new habit can take anywhere from 18 days to 254 days depending on the person and circumstance. But I didn’t just want to form a new habit I wanted more to adopt an entire new lifestyle. Adopting a foster child can take 6 to 18 months. Adopting a newborn can take 2 to 7 years. International adoptions can take six or more years. Being flexible in your requirements for a child can decrease the time required. With these facts stated as an example I had some serious work to put in so of course I was going to ease into it and not set myself up for failure by trying to take on to much to quickly.

 In my lifetime I have had some boxing training this was in my late teens into my early twenties. I also had some martial arts training in my early thirties. I took Isshinryu Karate for a a couple of years and this is also why I like heavy bag training aside from the fact it's just excellent cardio.

  My first morning out which was in late October of 2018 I got up early, had a cup of coffee and felt ready to go. I had no idea just how out of shape I was though till I started hitting that 88 lbs bag. First of all that thing felt like I was punching a brick wall. I could barely hit it hard enough to make it swing but I went all in on it. I bobbed and weaved and threw punches till I was nearly out of gas. I would have guessed I was going at it for 10 to 15 minutes straight. I looked over at my phone which I had activated the stop watch on and sadly it read about a minute and a half. I was like wait a minute is that thing still running or what? It was. Granted I was a smoker for years but at the time I was smoke free for nearing two years but it did not feel like it at all. After 90 measly seconds I had to sit for about 10 minutes to catch my breath. Instead of attempting a second round I decided to give the jumprope a go. That didn’t go to much better. I think I got about a minute in before I nearly collapsed. I sat there thinking damn I used to be able to jump rope for nearly an hour back in the day. Before I talked myself out of the whole getting fit idea I turned to the dumbbells. Now that went much better. I did some curls and some presses. I was sure glad that I had went in with zero expectations. My goal to just get in there and do something, anything was accomplished.

 I do admit that I was a bit disappointed but I wasn’t discouraged. I had gotten through my first day and I had a really good idea of where I was at which was just below ground zero. Again I didn’t set any unrealistic goals and didn’t look to follow any workout routines. I basically set out to get in there everyday without fail. Of course the next morning I immediately started coming up with loads excuses in my head to not go in but I shut it down. I looked at myself in the mirror and said get your ass out there and I sure enough did. Each day of my first week I pushed myself to go into that garage and just do something. I believe on day two I did Calisthenics. I did jumping jacks, pushups, dips on a chair and I tried to do some pull ups. I had this steel bar that’s used for digging. I hung it up over the stairway opening that leads to the garage loft. I think I managed to get like 3 or 4 which was heart breaking as I used to be able to knock out 5 or 6 sets of 12 easily not long ago. None the less I made it through my first week. six straight days and believe me I was in excruciating pain every single day. I took day seven off to heal up a bit as I was sore all over and just beat up.

 Going into week two, my wife came across an old pec deck that was for sale on Finn which is Norway’s equivalence to Craig’s List. It looked awesome and the guy only wanted $60 for it. I didn’t have $60 at the moment but I asked the guy if he would be willing to hold it for me for a few days and luckily he agreed to do it. I scraped up the $60 and asked a friend to help me pick it up. I was amped up as my friend helped me set it up. Now the garage was really starting to look like a little gym. My wife also dug up an old exercise ball she had. Week two went a bit a better than week one especially with the new additions but the pain level was still excruciating. My adrenaline was pumping from seeing things come together though. I continued to keep it simple, just get in there early and for no less than 20 minutes. I managed another 6 straight days and took off the seventh.

 After completing my second week it felt funny taking a day off. I saw this as a sign, like a good habit was beginning to take form. I really like training early in the morning for a number of reasons. Starting each day with a sense of accomplishment is a good thing. It don’t matter how the rest of the day goes once you got your workout in nothing could take that accomplishment away. Everyday getting up and going into that gym was an accomplishment by itself and it felt pretty damn good after years of doing nothing but just sitting around deteriorating.

 By week three and four I definitely felt some progress. If you put in the work even as minimal as I was doing you without a doubt get results. By the end of week four I was doing three three minutes rounds with a minute rest in between on the heavy bag. That is the equivalence of an amateur boxing match. I was doing about the same with the jumprope. On the pull up bar I went up to doing 3 sets of between 4 and 6 reps. Being I was still some 30 plus pounds over weight I was very proud of myself. I felt like I was on my way as the first step was taken. Anywhere you want to get in life starts out with just that, taking the first step.