So since I've been out of school I lost access to the gym there. I've walked by this club all the time when I was going to school for the past 3 years but I have never gone in there. Last week, when I decided to go get my G1 again (drivers license, first level of a very long and expensive process) and a woman at the bus terminal was asking me about GoodLife Fitness for Women. I agreed to come in for a meeting and during that time I got a tour of the club and I heard some of the prices. For $22 every 2 weeks (not including taxes, so I round to $25 to be safe) I get complete access to that club and the 24 hour club 20 minutes away, I also get access to a lot of different classes for free! I like that. I also went for the 3 sessions with a trainer deal so I saved about $50 or something. In addition I could spam some of my friends by referring them to GoodLife in exchange for more free stuff. So I scoured my phone list for people who might be interested in going to a gym like this and I got a gym bag and a t-shirt. I don't care much for the t-shirt but the gym bag was needed, otherwise I'd be using a grocery bag... bleh!

I've been to the gym 3 times before today, yesterday one of my friends actually signed up so I have someone to workout with... I also got a little laundry bag too. More free stuff! So I worked out with her for that day and today I had my first training session. She ran me through a couple questions and figured out my resting heart rate so she could determine my different heart rates (one for fat burn and one for cardio, 65% and 80% kind of thing). She put my on the elliptical for a few minutes to get me to work up to each level and I have to say I've never worked out like that before! I have not been doing this right at all! I was dying a little but that was also because she was talking to me and asking me questions so I could breathe that well. I have quite a bit of work ahead of me if I'm going to improve my cardio.

After that we moved to some of the machines so I could strengthen my back muscles and legs (it was only an hour session so we couldn't do everything). Part of what I want is to shape up my mid section and define my waist more and shrink a few areas... I'm not a big person, I've never been like that, but there's been that creeping weight gain ever since high school (I'm only 140lbs and I'm 5'5") Another goal of mine is to strengthen my core because I have had issues with my back and hips, a bit of chronic pain every once in a while when I've done something to strain my body. After with did the back extension thing I felt okay, but my hip pain started to kick in after a bit. We did two more machines, one for my quads and one for my hamstrings. Then she pushed me to do the stairs in the club so I had to see how many times I could go up and down the stairs in 60 seconds. The average for 5 and I managed 4 both times I did it. At the third rep my right leg was like jelly, like it wasn't even there and my left was no better.

So, about 3 hours later after my workout my hip is still terribly sore, Ibuprfen isn't doing too much and the hot water bottle isn't really relieving the pain either. I'm really hoping that it's just a weakness in my hip and if I work at it this kind of pain will never come back. But was it stands, I won't be at the gym again until Monday. Then Tuesday is my second session and Thursday is my last session.