Stress is a little friend that we all have. As a college student, I find myself stressing about going to class and having to pretend that I like group work. Thinking about the retail hours I have coming up or thinking about how cold it’s going to be when I open the door. There’s a lot of other factors but you get the point. To deal with the stress I go to the gym. The goal was to not lose weight or gain muscle, but to distract myself by doing something that needed my attention other than the rest of the world.
I go to the gym once a week after or before my one class of the day. I would go more, but this cold makes it difficult to motivate myself to walk up the hill or stay a few extra hours after class. When I do go to the gym, I make sure to stick to my routine, which consists of:
* 10 minutes on the Stairmaster
* 10-15 minutes on the treadmill (I mostly speed walk)
* 10 minute Ball workouts (there’s probably a term for that but I don’t know it, I just exercise with a 12 lb. ball)
* 3 minutes of staring at myself in the gyms bathroom mirror wondering how people look good sweaty
And that’s it. I stick within my comfort zone, I do workouts that make myself look good while doing it and knowing I’ll look good after (ayye). Just recently though, I decided that I want to do more. I want more of a goal to achieve. I initially was going to go to the gym and try every machine that the gym offered. However, when I went on Instagram to watch fitness influencers workout, I realized that it would be a waste of my time to do that and my body would be in pain. So instead I decided that I would go to the gym with a friend and stick to something that was more my speed.
Working out is hard to do, especially when there is no motivation. However, me and my friend have decided that we are going to take a challenge on bettering ourselves. We are participating in the 30 days workout challenge. This challenge consists of
* Sit-ups
* Crunches
* Squatting
So, this may not seem like a lot, however, if you are a newcomer to the gym such as my dear friend, then these exercises were a lot. We did 10 reps for sit-ups 10 reps for crunches and 25 squats. After that, we realized we did less than 2 minutes, so we decided that we needed to do more, so we ventured into doing a little bit of the machines. Now, when we first met at the gym we tried the machines. We tried to do the stairmaster together but one was out of order. We moved onto this rowing machine BUT they were both out of order. So when we went back the second time to try the machines we stuck to something that we knew would work, the ellipticals. When I was a freshman in college I would use the elliptical a lot and let me tell you, my thighs burned, and I lost some weight. As my friend and I were on the elliptical we were talking making jokes, having random commentary on things, just basically chilling. However, that was the wrong thing to do on a machine that requires you to maintain your breath. After probably 8 minutes we decided to call it a day and go get Chipotle (we made sure not to splurge on other foods after). Even though we didn’t spend 30 minutes to an hour at the gym I still feel like we accomplished something. Being able to try something different and doing it with someone is a fun journey to begin. Working out is a difficult activity to start and for some to end.
We’re planning on keeping up with journey of 30 days and maybe adding a few more workouts to the list, but we also have to see what else this 30 day workout program has for us.