I have had a fitness membership for many years. It initiated as a Christmas present from my wife for quitting smoking. My last cigarette was 9:30 p.m. New Years Eve 1998. My membership started that next month. Over the years I have been regular in attendance off and on doing various routines that included weight resistance and cardio, but have never been part of a class. Then I would go through periods where I did not go at all.

When I moved to my current location I joined Anytime Fitness and decided to invest in a Personal Trainer. My trainer was very good and altered several exercises to adapt to a bad right knee (high school football injury) and weak left elbow (bicycle accident after I quit smoking). I learned a lot from her during those two years. When she went on maternity leave I decided to take what she taught me to the YMCA. From her suggestions, I developed two separate routines that include warmup, resistance and cardio, and stretching. From locker closing after getting ready to start the workout to locker closing getting ready to go home is about an hour and half. I have found both routines make me feel good, actually make my knee less painful, and it makes me feel I have accomplished something.

I do not care so much for early morning workouts or late afternoon workouts. My ideal time is about 10:00 in the morning. The issue I have with maintaining a regular schedule is there were other things I like to do. In summer especially, I usually have a list of projects I want to work on. These are things that also address my needs to learn something new. I am not a carpenter or mechanic, but You-tube, lots of running things through my mind, and trial and error are exciting for me now as I tackle things I have never done before. When I am working on those projects, I find it is easy to not go to the Y for the actual workout. Yet I need to do that because I also like to read, which is a physically sedentary activity.

I am still trying to figure this out so I can do something that works for me, meets the goals and objectives that both myself and the program require, and allows me to do that other things I like to do.

Still a work in progress.