To Gym, or not to Gym?

Ok, so I’ve been told that my previous posts have been too rant-orientated (Tom Bayne, if you’re reading this....you’ve been grassed right up), so I thought today I’d blog about a more cheerful topic. 

The weather is finally creeping away from the sub-zero, so-cold-you’d-step-over-your-grandmother-to-get-back-inside temperatures of the last few weeks, and the countdown app on my phone is telling me that it’s a mere 133 days until I get to hit the Egyptian beaches. Which, lovely as it is, has stirred the same panic inside of me that I imagine the majority of girls are also currently feeling: I NEED  to get fit for the summer! 

Those of you who know me will know that, despite eating like a pig and doing next to no exercise, I’m lucky enough to have a relatively skinny frame. What you probably won’t realise is that, whilst there isn’t a whole lot of me, what there is = pure jelly. What’s more I’m horrendously unfit, to the point where walking up a gentle slope will render me short of breath. And this is why, after returning to Uni in October, I decided, for the first time in my life, to join the gym.

I’ll admit the girls had to pretty much drag me to my first session, but once I was there and had managed to suss out how to use the equipment (I only fell off of the treadmill once – impressive, eh?), I actually quite liked it. The second time I went I found it much harder; the adrenaline rush of trying something new for the first time having worn off.

The breakthrough came when I finally got around to compiling myself a gym playlist. I’m sure that ‘Get Ready’ by The Temptations and ‘Disco 2000’ by Pulp aren’t don’t often crop up on work out playlists, but I find that they really help to motivate me, or at least to distract me from the feeling that my heart is about to explode and my legs about to drop off. In the past week I’ve been to the gym three times, and can honestly say that I feel so much healthier for having started to go more regularly. I’ve also started to notice a small improvement in my muscle tone; areas such as abs and legs are gradually starting to appear a tiny bit firmer. Yay! 

The moral of the story is that no matter how anti-exercise you might be, give the gym a go. You’ll feel better for it, and if you’re a stressed out student like me, it’s a productive way to take a break from assignments. Tag along with some friends for the first few times, compile a playlist of songs that you ACTUALLY like as opposed to stock work-out music, and don’t worry if you can’t keep up with everyone else to start with, you’ll notice an improvement in no time. 

Happy blog done - normal service will be resumed shortly...