It is my birthday month, another year older, and time to begin taking my health a little less for granted. I take very little exercise, a couple of walks a week of maybe a couple of miles and running up and down the many stairs in my house, that is about it. I spend about twenty five hours a week sitting at my desk working. I hardly take a break and my husband commented that my posture isn’t as good as it used to be. I have noticed a couple of my friends are losing muscle mass and looking a little frailer as well. I desperately need to do some exercise. There are numerous work out videos available on YouTube but I don’t have a clue about what I am doing and feel I am quite likely to injure myself without some proper instruction. I am going to have to join a gym and actually turn up. The thought fills me with dread.

Where I live there are several gyms to choose from. There is the fancy one ten minutes down the road but I am not prepared to pay £150 a month for membership. Then there is the other swanky gym in the country club where lots of my friends go. Membership here is £119 per month, this is still far more than I want to pay and the place is a twenty five minute drive from my home, I just know I won’t be bothered to go, especially in the winter. In the end I decide to go for the easy option, the local leisure centre. The place where I have taken my children for endless swimming lessons and birthday parties. Membership here starts at £39.50 a month, it is a eight minute drive from my house and parking is easy and free.

I have a drawer full of nice gym outfits that I never actually wear so I put on a T shirt and some Marks and Spencer leggings, trying to ignore the fact that they feel a bit snug, that’s just the compression panel right? I then drive to the leisure centre to sign up. The young woman greeting me sells me the slightly more expensive membership which includes a personal training session every quarter and the ability to book classes a fortnight in advance. She then takes me on a tour. The gym equipment looks both mystifying and terrifying. I don’t really see myself swimming but I would like to take some exercise classes. The last time I took my daughter swimming at the leisure centre someone tried to break into my locker and, on another occasion many years ago, a very respectable looking woman tried to make off with my Mulberry handbag while I was helping my son who was having an asthma attack. “Mummy” my boy wheezed and I grabbed it back. The women scarpered. Anyway, I digress, the staff member asks me if I would like to take a class right then and there. Now??? I pretend there is somewhere else I urgently have to be but arrange an induction session at the gym for the following week. I also sign up for a Core Fitness class but not for a fortnight.

Before I even get home the leisure centre email me cancelling my induction session which is not a promising start. They ask if I can come the same evening instead. I have a stonking migraine, I really just want to take some co-codamol and crawl into bed. Nevertheless I pull on my leggings and drive back to the gym, I am surprised at how nervous I feel. Am I going to look a complete, uncoordinated idiot? When I arrive I am met by Kyle, who is going to carry out my induction A muscular, tattooed chap of about thirty who has such a professional and unpatronising manner that I begin to wonder what I was apprehensive about. He asks what my goals are and I say I want to get stronger and fitter. I do not want to lose weight but that is probably obvious from looking at me. Kyle shows me around, demonstrating how the various pieces of equipment work and then I have a try with him supervising, he explains how my legs shouldn’t be too straight as I don’t want my knees to lock and that the downward movement is more important than the upward movement when using the weight machines. He adds a 5kg weight and I just about manage. I am pleased to see the other gym-users are just minding their own business and not in the least bit interested in what I am doing. After about forty five minutes I am ready to go home. Kyle suggests I book a complementary personal training session. He says it won’t take much time for me to get fitter and suggests an exercise class that he thinks will suit me . He said that, once I have gained a little confidence, it will be beneficial for me to learn how to use the free weights. I leave the gym feeling pleased that I made the effort to go. I can do this! I go home and lie down with an ice-pack pressed to my temple.

Thank you for reading

Samantha

Cover Image by Nhi Nguyễn Tường from Pixabay