Sweating It Out

I once had a friend that asked me why I enjoyed going home and showering right after the gym. I have always known part of the reason is because dang I stink after all that working out but I always knew there was something else involved. A different feeling that was more than just cleaning myself or letting my muscles relax in the warm water. Though those are both reasons that I do it as well.

I am currently re-reading my favorite book and it occurred to me that what I love most about showering right after a work out is this, there is a small victory that comes with washing away the sweat. In the book the water is recycled in the space station so the main character talks about everyone else getting a part of his sweat, the sweat of victory, of accomplishing something that no one thought he could do. That is how I feel every time I work out and then take a shower. It is part of victory for me, and everyone else will know I am victorious as the sweat is washed away and I am left clean and healthier.

Climb Every Mountain

Or in this case stair.

Let's talk about StairMasters. It is the newest machine at the gym that I am attempting to work out on. And I do mean attempting in the loosest of terms. When I got on it for the first time last week I started to have an asthma attack. Between the pain from lack of oxygen and the fear I had of falling off the machine I quickly decided that I wouldn't be stepping on that death trap again anytime soon.

Seriously check out this machine

You can't tell me that this doesn't look completely scary. There is at least a foot and a half between the first step and the ground.

However I faced my fear today and got on the death machine again. I made it twice as long as last time without stopping which was a great achievement. But even more than just that, this machine made me sweat like no other machine I have been on in the gym. Not that the other machines don't give me a good workout but literally sweat dripping down my face, it was just so weird.

I liked it very much, it made me feel like I was actually accomplishing something at the gym and in such a short amount of time, which is nice because I have only been dedicating about 30 mins to the gym after work these days. And in all honestly that is a big improvement over the not going at all that was happening before now.

It is my personal goal to work out two important things this summer in the extra time I will have. One, to get a nice tan so I don't look like a ghost in the dark at night, and two, have a fantastic set of gluts. A little vain you may say and perhaps it is but I will be working on other things at the gym as well that will make my body a bit stronger and that is the ultimate goal. Nice gluts are just a side effect ;)