I’ve been cleared for all exercise for a few weeks now. Actually I’ve been cleared for walking since about week 2 post-op. As much as I ate terribly before surgery, exercise was non-existent. When you weigh 500+ pounds, just existing is exercise. Before I started losing just walking 30 feet from my desk to my car at work, was a chore. Coupling that with a 50 year old body with severe arthritis in my knees and some in my back (and probably elsewhere), and all of the common “old man” aches and pains, I did as little physically as I could.
But here I am nearly 100 pounds down before exercise, and feeling better already, I knew it was time to get back in on exercise. I do have muscles to an extent, underneath all this fat. You have to, to haul around a body of this size…but I also know that rapid weight loss also causes loss of muscle…and exercise is going to help me from having so much excess skin when I lose a lot (it wont “fix” it but it will help)…and it would be nice to just have some semblance of “guns” for once, instead of flabby meat arms. 🙂
So I signed up for Planet Fitness and headed out. I have no allegiance to PF but chose it because it is by far the closet gym to me. My neighborhood is pretty hilly and with my knee issues that kind of walking isn’t yet doable. Planet Fitness has lots of machines, is fairly nice and clean, and people are generally helpful. I didn’t understand something about a machine, asked the person who was also on one, and they happily gave me info.
In my first outing to the gym in 5 or 6 years, I did a pretty minimal workout. I did 10 minutes on the treadmill (less than 1/4 mile), 5 minutes on the recumbent bike (about 1/2 of a mile) and I tried out a couple of different strength machines.
It would be easy to look at that workout and wonder why I even bothered. But I promise you it was a significant workout for someone who is still 400+ pounds at this point. A couple of hours later and I’m definitely feeling it.
And I also know this is just the beginning. There is an old proverb that says “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Well the journey to a solid exercise routine begins with a 30 minute light workout that made me sweat and woke my muscles up.
It’s a great starting place and I’m happy to have taken this next step. I don’t see myself as a gym rat or anything like that, but I do hope to at least (for now) get in there on the weekends. And who knows maybe I do turn into “that guy”. 🙂