Crunch: Back in the Gym

I’m back in the gym after much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  

And actually, yeah, it’s been really great.

Lat pull-downs at Crunch Fitness in Stratford, CT.

I was a college swimmer.  Graduated in 1995 and threw my goggles into the trash after the finals of my last race, the 200 butterfly at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) championships.  I’m proud of my swimming career, but that particular campaign saw me suffer through an -- admittedly mild -- case of mononucleosis before slowly working my way back into shape and eventually into the finals of that last 200 butterfly.  But I finished dead last on that particular night, and the whole thing left me feeling sour.  

I wanted nothing more to do with swimming after that race.  So I got with my buddies, and we worked out with weights and ran  pretty much every day right up through graduation.  Over the course of those last four months, I went from 162 lbs to 175, and after decades of feeling decidedly skinny, I actually started to like the way that I looked.  I kept lifting weights and running right up through my Army service, so that by the time I got out at 27, I weighed 195 lbs.  Friends who’d known me for years were amazed by the transformation in my appearance.

That was all good.

But then my dad died in 2007, and grief sent me back into the pool, looking for a way to process my feelings and cope.  I took up triathlon, raced a few years, and even qualified for nationals a couple of times.  It’s easy to stay focused in the pool when grief is otherwise overwhelming.  But it’s gotten tougher as I’ve slowly come to terms with what happened, especially as my own kids have gotten older and begun to develop their own personalities and their own unique interests.  I find that I no longer have the time to spend half a day out on the bike, and more to the point, I’ve been skipping workouts in the pool because I just don’t want to be there.

My wife talked me into going back to the gym.  Let me tell you, those first few workouts were tough.  Even using light, easy weights with moderate reps has left me feeling stiff and sore -- and sometimes even shaky afterwards!  But I feel good.  Excited by the challenge of doing something different, and honestly, a little relieved thatCrunch has football on their TVs during Sunday afternoon workouts.  The music and the energy of the place help me work, relieving some of the emotional strain of just getting out of the house and getting into the gym.  Sometimes the hardest part is just showing up.

Between you and me, I think my wife likes me a bigger, too.  That doesn’t suck.  

I’ll let you know how it goes.

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This little project is being done in conjunction with Crunch Fitness Stratford.  I’m writing about the process of getting back into the gym as a middle aged professional with a wife, two kids, and a mortgage.  Hopefully that’ll inspire some folks to get into the gym themselves.