When I first began my blog, I was concerned about where I would get all the information that I believed I needed to learn in order to know enough about weight lifting. What do I know about weight lifting? Nothing. What do I know about how to find this information? Nothing. I was so stupid to not realize that I had a very good resource available to me that I never thought to look at.
How did I find this out? Well...I was looking at one of my classmates blogs about Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). He was lamenting about being a poor college student. I can relate. He was complaining that he wanted to join a Mixed Martial Arts gym but it was too expensive for him to afford. Not only would he have to join this specialized gym if he wanted to start MMA fighting, but he would also have to pay for a regular gym. The first thing I thought when I read his post was,"Doesn't he know that as a student, he can use the campus gym for FREE?"
My next thought was that my boyfriend in my freshmen year had mentioned trying MMA while in college. I then took it upon myself to search my school's "campus recreation" website. Although I did not find anything for my classmate, I found a few things that could have really helped me out when I began this project.
First, my campus gym offers a "Free! Fitness Orientation." Free? Sounds right up my alley. In this orientation, you get a "customized experience to meet your specific interests" around the gym with a staff member. They teach you all about the gym and how to use the machines. They also supply you with a " very helpful informational packet to take with you for future reference." This all would have been a tremendous help to me when I began this blog. Even though this project is coming to an end, I will definitely have to check out this orientation later on this summer.
I also found out that, through this website, I could print out workout logs that kept a record of how much weight I was lifting, the number of reps, the tempo, and how much time I spent resting between sets. This stuff is great! If only I had found all of this earlier...
Next step: Saving up to afford the discounted personal fitness trainers at the campus gym.
Free is a great thing, an orientation will help get you started. I can't think of the name of the book, but it uses a 5X5 system of exercise. Five reps five times. It had two workout sets that you'd do 3x a week and every other week switch the program. It always had squats and an abdominal work out plus three other things in each set. I used that work out last year. With that and healthy eating my fiance and I both lost 40 lbs.
ReplyDeleteI agree, free is a wonderful thing. I think that I am going to go check out that orientation when this class is over and I have a bit more free time. That workout sounds pretty interesting. The problem with exercise is that there are so many different combinations of workouts to choose from! But I'm glad to hear that you and your man found something that worked for you. Congratulations on loosing all that weight! It's quite an accomplishment and something to be truly proud of.
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