As you may have gathered from the title, I am now on the
run. You may or may not be surprised to learn that this is not from
some law breaking shenanigans, but instead part of my goal to get fitter this
year.
I recently (as of writing, today) joined and went to a gym for the
first time in 12 years by my reckoning. Even during my keto diet, the only exercise I did was
running outside and lifting some dumbbells. The reasons for joining a
gym now are as follows:
Previously I gave myself a knee injury from pavement running during
the COVID-19 pandemic 1, as the pavement was at a slant and
it caused uneven wear whilst still bearing a considerable weight. The
result was that I had to stop running to recover for a few months. I
then started up again, got a COVID-19 vaccine jab and got myocarditis to
some degree, which worried me enough to again stop running 2.
The local area is pretty rough compared to where I used to live, and
I don’t trust I won’t get stabbed or worse. Not so long ago a staff
member from seriously injured in a hit-and-run just transporting between
work. And that was ‘just’ un-targeted violence, targeted violence is
just as much of a threat.
It’s winter here in the UK and it’s bloody cold. It could soon snow
again too, and that is severely demotivating and difficult for
exercising. Today (at the time of writing) it is snowing, which makes
for an awful running experience.
It’s relatively cheap at some £30 per month. With some luck I will
make a friend of sorts there and get some free advice.
Are there downsides? Yes.
It’s not free, it will cost me between £300 to £400 a year. The way
I see it, if it only costs that money to significantly improve my
quality of life and extend my expected life span, it seems like a good
investment. It’s not as if keeping the British monopoly money in the
bank currently is a better investment anyway.
The gym is filled to the brim with people a lot younger than me and
a lot fitter than I am. It is a little demotivating to be at such a
lower level. On the other hand, my leg muscle strength means I can lift
at a pretty decent rate already. The more muscle you have, the less you
need to do to burn the same number of calories.
That all said, my experience so far was not negative. I walked at an
incline and pace that allowed me to sustain a heart rate above 150 for
45 minutes, which I think is a good start. By the machine’s estimates I
burned 500 calories doing so, which added with other exercises should
put me into neg negative calories. That’s not to mention that I should
theoretically also be in ketosis now too.
Update: I went again later the same day and did an
extra 650 calories on the treadmill, which I was quite happy with. I
also may have convinced a good friend to join me for once a week
training which should be good for us both. Maybe I could look to
convince some colleagues to join me too.
The most important thing is to simply make it past the first
month and not give up like so many do. It will be tough, but I am
particularly stubborn in this regard. I just need to ensure I don’t end
up injuring myself, something that should be much less likely. On the
plus side, they do have sports injury recovery on-site!
Stretch and reach goals:
Get myself down to a reasonable size for a suit before I attend a
wedding of a good friend, approximately end of Q1.
Get myself down to a good size for travelling, approximately end of
Q1.
Get myself down to a good size for travelling (again), approximately
end of Q2.
Get myself down to a good weight to see my family and friends next
Christmas.
Learn something about the nature of movement. Whilst I’m exercising,
particularly running, I want to understand how movements are formed, and
how I could replicated this in an AI. I think movement is maybe one of
the most important yet to be solved problems in robotics, and will
likely have massive implications for all areas of AI.
Maybe there will be another part to this later down the line, maybe
there won’t. I continue to actively track my weight via a custom app and
may look to share the data some time down the line.
Coffee Space 
