My Relationship To Gyms
Well. There is none. As an outdoorsy person I don’t see much of a point to run on a treadmill in a place where there is an subtle pressure to compete with each other. I prefer running in my next door park in fresh air (if you don’t think about the high-traffic main road that’s running right next to the park) under blue sky, and if I have to even in rain. There is also the benefit that it’s free although the Stoke Gifford Parish Council is thinking about charging park runners 1£ to use the park (What?!).
And there are even some apps out there that help you in your training, motivate you, push you and boss you around. (Thank God, mine is a female trainer, otherwise the app could have jumped in the lake).
Station 4
Big Plans
Now, I’ve got big plans for this year and hopefully finish it with climbing Kilimanjaro. And admittedly, a bit of additional training wouldn’t be too bad. Just running won’t help me to climb that tiny volcano of 5,895 m. How handy that Virgin Active has a #MyWorkoutFor Adventure class that I attended last Saturday. It’s a workout particularily for trekking, with various stations to mirror lugging around a heavy bag to working on those leg muscles.
The Workout
Station 1:
Curve run: It’s like running on a treadmill but it only moves when you move.
Purpose: Leg endurance for walking all day.
Station 2:
TRX row: Lean back and hang in there.
Purpose: Upper body/back strengthen for carrying backpack all day.
Station 3:
Walking lunges with Bulgarian Bag: The additional weight of the bag over your shoulders puts good stress on your upper legs.
Purpose: Leg endurance for walking all day.
Station 3
Station 4:
Squat to shoulder press with ViPR/Barbell.
Purpose: Leg strengthening for trekking / shoulder strengthening for manoeuvring bags.
Station 5:
Step ups/jumps across 3 boxes of different heights.
Purpose: Leg endurance and walking over different/uneven terrains.
Station 6:
Farmer’s walk with TiYR: Get into the 40kg tyre, lift it and walk with it.
Purpose: Walking while carrying heavy bags.
Station 6
Format:
6 exercises – 30 seconds on the stations/10 seconds rest after each station – 3 rounds – 3 ‘tough minutes’ after each round (60 secs of tough bodyweight exercise) – 30 secs rest between rounds.
What Does The Gym Grouch Say?
I wish I could say that I stayed longer after the session, tried every equipment in the gym and got home completely fullfilled and exhausted. But I didn’t. –> Gym grouch.
But it was fun. I haven’t done curcuit training for ages and I definitely trained different parts of my body than usually. I could have done 1 or 2 rounds more as I had the feeling I just started sweating when everything was already over again. Although, I had sore muscles basically immediately until 4 days later. So maybe it was good that there weren’t any extra rounds :-). It’s good that someone is there to push you and it’s much more motivating to workout in a group.
I might even make signing up to the gym my next New Year’s resolution ;-)…
Hiking Madness - Hiking in UK and elsewhere 
It all depends what you do in the gym. Since I have started going to body pump and doing there a lot of squats (full ones, bottom-halfs, top-halfs…) and lunges, I actually see a big improvement in hiking quality. I can walk longer and I am not tired at the end of day as I used to be. Simply stronger thighs take the pressure off the feet and do all the hard work. So squat, squat, squat! 🙂
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