I join Planet Fitness the day before Thanksgiving | Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

The day before Thanksgiving, I joined Planet Fitness. It was cool that they were open Thanksgiving Day. I spent yesterday morning getting familiar with the equipment and the routines. It feels good to be back in a gym. I can’t pretend I’ll stay strong if I don’t work on it, I’m 50 freaken 9. I do daily yoga but I can at least walk the treadmill each day, too. Like you, I’ve belonged to several gyms off and on through the years. I like something real close. I don’t like commiting to a contract. I’ve got friends who have never been in a gym and say they wouldn’t know what to do when they got there. Well, that’s it, you ask and they tell you. You tell them what your goals are and they tell you which muscles that involves and show you which machines work those muscles. They suggest which muscle groups to work together on the same day, which muscle groups to work on other days and how long to rest in between.

Ashley, the personal trainer at the Malabar and Minton location, gave me a quick walk through. She explains in real short sentences exactly what you need to know. “If you see this dial on this machine, that means when you put your hip joint at the dial, you are in the proper position. You also know you’re in the right position because each machine has a diagram of someone sitting in the proper position, like here, knees bent, hip joint aligned with the little round dial, elbow joint aligned with the other round dial, arms extended, exhale upon exertion. ” She gives a thorough and concise briefing. I like that. She gave me a suggested workout sheet which is easy to follow. It’s easy to find and identify the machines. Pics on the machines show you what muscle groups are being worked. I’m figuring out the best weight setting to use for each machine. I kept the treadmill at an easy 2.6 while I scoped out the room in the giant mirror, to see where everything was. I’ll scope out the other people after I’m familiar with the room. It feels good to be back in a gym. If they were east of me, I’d like it better since I go to the post office at Interchange Square every day. But it’s also good to be pushed into a new routine. Thanks to my friend Brad Bradley for motivating me with his Facebook posts in the Motiv8 2 B Healthier open group (join us, it’s fun.) He’s also got me back drinking morning protein smoothies. If I’m lucky, we’ll meet up and get to work out together. It’s always nice to have a brother on the path. Come check it out. Let me know if you belong to the Minton and Malabar location. Oh, it was like $20 to join, $10 per month, no contract. You can’t beat that. But you can join it.