I’m about to go home in the next couple of days and I can’t wait. It’s been a great tour, I’ve learned some much about myself and my own abilities and it’s been great to work with people of the same mind set and attitude towards work.
As for my fitness it has been a rocky journey but I have made progress. There have been times when I could have quite happily have thrown the towel in. I didn’t and I’m so pleased I stuck at it. The pain in my body has subsided and I really do feel good. At the time, the pain I was feeling in my muscles was all I could think about but I can’t remember it going away. Why is that, it kills you one day and gone the next or that’s how I remember it. There are certain exercises that we do that I like better than others. That doesn’t mean I do them any better or there any easier. I find them enjoyable and to a certain degree relaxing. I know that sounds daft and doesn’t sound right, relaxing when at work in the gym. For some strange reason the harder I worked the better I felt and it puts things into perspective.
I’ve discovered that exercise is great for stress release, if you do a stressful job it is vital that you do some kind of exercise to release that stress. I’ve been told this before and until now I have never experienced it. There have been times when the stress of work has got to me, it really has. I love my 45 minutes in the gym. I never thought I would ever say that but it’s true. In the past my association with the gym has been pain, no gain just pain. Very boring and if I could have found a way to skive I did. 30 minutes in the gym doing circuits that just hurt you. Doing the exercise wrong and then suffering for the next 4 days. No wonder I hated the gym and avoided it as best I could. The bad old days are behind me and those 45 minutes are mine, I don’t think about anything else other than my next exercise. It’s great and a totally new experience.
It’s been a tour of firsts and looking back, great fun in the process. Yoga or yogurt as I like to call it is for “women or TV personalities who need to make a bit more cash”. A statement I made to coach when he said we would be doing Yoga. There’s a TV in the gym and a DVD player, its ideal for the Yoga and well placed so we can see it. Well most of time, it depends on what position I’m trying for, or should I say failing for. How can the sweat poor out of you and you haven’t moved off the same spot. At one point I thought I was in an earth quake, I wasn’t it was just me and my muscles complaining about the load I was placing on them.
There were times in our Yoga sessions that I thought I wasn’t going to make it through. I crash landed to the mat a few times and discovered I can actually touch my toes. If I’d have done all the reps I probably wouldn’t have made it to the end. Each time I do a session it gets better, my flexibility has improved and I’m very nearly completing all the exercises. So to all the women out there, I apologise for the outburst and I take it all back. Our Yoga sessions last for about 90 minutes, it’s 90 minutes of hard work and not for the faint hearted. Actually I think I’m doing the most extreme Yoga there is but there’s no way I’m saying anything to coach or it’ll just harder.
Me and the Kettle Bell are good friends now, it’s a bit of a one sided friendship. He’s always there and he loves to hurt me as often as possible. A bit like the coach really!! Before I could exercise with the Kettle Bell I had to pass the Viking Kettle Bell Test. Well I couldn’t, so I was put on a routine that would build up my strength, stamina, cardiovascular system and my grip strength with the Kettle Bell.
As I’ve stated before, the Kettle Bell is an amazing piece of kit. It gives you an all over work out and really works the cardio. There’s not a muscle in your body that isn’t working, and there working over time. When we started with the black cannonball I thought it was just the one exercise you could do with it. Yet again I was very wrong as I was to find out. My very first shoulder press was a disgrace and reduced coach to fits of laughter and claims that his daughter was much stronger than me. I’m sure I’ve heard that before but I’m not saying anything on the grounds it might hurt me. If it wasn’t bad enough trying to manhandle a cannonball with a handle on it around he attached a resistance band to it for dead lifts. If you don’t have much room in your abode and you want to keep your budget to a minimum, the Kettle Bell is the answer. It doesn’t boil water and it doesn’t ring, but it makes you work bloody hard. It’s a must have piece of equipment and who else has a canon ball in their house?
Coach probably.
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