Flex Friday… Another year, another gym!
Yup. it’s that time again, my yearly Flex Friday post. I know I look a little scruffy, I really should have trimmed the ol’ whiskers before I took this pic but it’s been a crazy year of ups and downs but things seem to be back on track!
So, I’ve been making progress since The Great Covid Deficit of 2020™, but the powers that be did throw a couple of wrenches in there to keep it spicy. I was informed late June that my beloved gym would be closing down permanently. I was totally bummed as the place was pretty awesome, it was huge, lots of free and machine weights, treadmills, ellipticals, rowers, bikes, stairs, an awesome basket/volley ball court, giant locker room with steam room, and lots and lots of space. The thought of switching to another gym was truly frightening.
Thankfully we have two other gyms in town, one that was much smaller and open 24 hours, and another that’s been around forever and a lot more old school when it came to the weights. I bit my cheek and chose the old school gym as it seemed to be more my style. It was nice to see some of the people from the old gym had chose the same, but it was going to be an interesting switch indeed, as everything felt so different at the new place.
I tell you, everyone agreed the change was difficult… even the weights felt heavier as I transitioned to a more free weight workout compared to the lazy machine/free weight workout I had grown accustomed too. I quickly found that I was getting a much better workout then I had at the old place. I guess it’s good to shake it up a bit from time to time in order to see progress.
As I familiarized myself with the area around me, I was still dealing with aches and pains in my knees and ankles that seemed to have started during the Covid break. I was unable to keep up on my legs like I had been, and it wasn’t until recently that I’m finally able to get some more regular exercise out of them and hopefully soon I’ll be back on track like I was before.
Everything else is improving nicely. I’m still not quite up to where I was before the lockdowns but I’m pretty damn close hitting just under my maxes prior to closures. As I get older I’m hoping to be able to keep up. People at the gym don’t believe me when I tell them my age, and it brings a little joy knowing that for the most part I feel much younger than my age. 🙂
So much has changed since I started this journey seven years ago, but I won’t let anything get in my way. I hope to be even stronger and lighter when I’m sixty, so look out all you young whippersnappers, this old man is coming for ya.
