2 posts tagged “gym”

Today, I did the unthinkable.  I joined a new gym. 

I love where I currently workout.  But I don't go downtown for work anymore.  And I just pay too much. 

I will admit, I kind of wanted to cry when touring my new gym.  It's not as nice as Equinox for sure.  I mean, the SF Equinox is the old Pacific Stock Exchange.  The locker rooms are in the old vault (with the giant vault door as the entryway).  Equinox has a pool (which I never use) and a spa.  I think they have double the cardio over Golds', and probably half the crowd.  And let's not begin to compare the Castro crowd to my old businesspersons' downtown gym.  I worked out at Equinox for three years, and it always felt like all the staff and a big chunk of the regular members recognized me. 

So, why did I drop Equinox?  One word.  Money.  Just on membership fees alone, I'm paying more than 80% off of what I paid before (I went from over $115 a month to $23 a month).  And the training is nearly 45% off the price.  I literally will save thousands per year.  And it's in walking distance.  When Jim was playing computer games on Saturday night, I kept thinking to myself that if I went to a gym I could walk to, I would probably exercise when he's engrossed in World of Warcraft.

Anyway, wish me luck in my new gym.  I start with a trainer at the end of the month.  I know he could never be as great as Arlene or Jeff where at Equinox, but I'm looking foward to spending time with Daniel when my back gets better.

Back in July, I signed up to have a metabolic analysis and determine a exercise routine that would help me best reach my goals.  The program was 8 weeks, but given my crazy life I managed to stretch it to 12 weeks.

While I go in tomorrow for the final testing (and I'll post later more about my experience on the metabolic evaluation), I did get some preliminary results today:

Weight:  July, 156 lbs; Today, 148 lbs.  A loss of 8 lbs, which was more than my goal.

Percentage Body Fat:  July, 19.4%; Today 15.9%.  A loss of 3.5% body fat.

It will be interesting to see if my anabolic threshold and VO2 Max has changed... I'll learn that in the next few days.