Back in the Saddle Again

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 by Stephen

Last April, I purchased an annual membership to the gym. A few weeks later, I fell off the fitness horse after spraining my ankle while playing soccer and did not go to the gym at all for an entire year. Oops. Despite that experience, Rachel and I decided to sign up for a family membership. I will give her a tour tomorrow.

This gym is huge. Here are the facilities, off the top of my head:

• Olympic sized swimming pool with diving area
• Two floors of workout equipment, including Olympic lifting platforms
• Gymnastics room with rings, springboard floor, pommel horse, trampolines, ropes course
  
• A bazillion basketball courts
• Ice skating rink
• Indoor and outdoor tracks
• Indoor and outdoor tennis courts
• Squash courts
• Indoor soccer court
• Wrestling room (I use it for the climbing ropes)
• Sailing and crew boathouses on the river
  

Last time I worked out, I followed CrossFit. There are two main ideas with CrossFit:

1. Fitness is a well-rounded thing, involving speed, endurance, agility, power, balance, accuracy, etc.
2. Shorter, higher intensity activity is better for you than longer, lower intensity activity.
   

Those are obviously a matter of definition and opinion, but I think they're sound ideas with a lot of weight behind them.

I hope exercise and stretching will help get rid of my RSI. My RSI surfaced not too long after I stopped going to the gym last year.

Labels: fitness