alive and healthy... and poorer

[juldea]

Well, I did it. I went to tour the fitness center with Beth (who turned out to be the general manager) at 5. By 6 I was signing paperwork. :)

The place is SO AWESOME. It's two story. When you first enter you actually go upstairs to the front desk. Right next to the front desk is a little cafe area that looks to have an amazing selection... and probably half of their foods are vegetarian. I have a coupon for 20% anything (for joining the club) so I will try it out soon. Also, you can set up a pre-pay account with the cafe so you don't have to carry cash with you.

After you check in at the front desk with your ID card, you head into the locker room. Which is nothing like a high-school locker room. It's softly carpeted, well-lit, spacious... There are tons of lockers, small ones you can rent monthly and large tall ones that you use by the day, just put your stuff in and take the key with you. There's a full shower area and a huge vanity table with room for about 20 people, and free cotton balls, q-tips, and even hair dryers to use. Off to the side is also the whirlpool, sauna, and steam room. Being a female-only club, there were a few naked chicks hanging out. Whee!

For the rest of the upstairs there is the boxing room, the spinning room (more on that in a bit), a large workout room for aerobics/step/yoga/etc, and a small cardio room overlooking Commonwealth Ave. There are several TVs in the cardio room, and each piece of equipment has a headphone jack. There are even TVs in the large workout room for when there are big classes and it is hard to see the instructor!!

Downstairs, there's another larger workout room. There's the rock-climbing wall, and a big area of strength training machines and free weights. There's a "fitness desk" where people answer your questions. Then there's the "Cardio Theater" - another room with treadmills, stair-steppers, etc. in front of 4 large flat-screen TVs that play 2 TV stations and different newly-released movies all day long. Once again, you plug in your headphones and watch a movie! Today A.I. and A Perfect Storm were on the movie screens.

There's a small "stretch" room off to the side as well, with a weird apparatus against the wall that looked like a metal spider's web. It had a user's guide near it, and I need to check it out. Beth said it was a stretching tool.

What else... free towels, a massage parlour (NOT free... and by appointment only), and all sorts of cool intro stuff...

I got the student membership. 'Til August 15th for $172. That's a little over $2 per day. I can DEFINITELY make it worth it. A normal prime-time membership would be $370, so I got quite a deal. And it was definitely worth it even with the Pilates class requiring a $6 upgrade, because it's only on Mondays and I'll only be a part of the club for 10 Mondays.

I get all sorts of cool introductory classes and orientations for free. Tomorrow at noon is my Jump Start orientation, where I get a "personalized introduction to three of the components of fitness: cardiovascular fitness, strength training, and flexibility" from a Fitness Specialist, as well as a review of my goals and a generalized exercise program to get there.

After that, I make an appointment for my Health/Fitness Assessment, where I'll get all measured. BMI, waist to hip ratio, flexibility measurements, muscle strength and endurance, etc. More stuff to help me find out where I am and want to be.

Then there are 6 other orientations for equipment that I can attend. Cardiovascular equip, free weights, Technogym, Nautilus (the two brands/types of exercise machines), stretching equip, and the rock wall.

All that for the cost of membership!

I joined at 6, and technically with my student membership I can't enter the club until 7:15. So I walked down the street and bought a sweat towel and a big water bottle at a sporting goods store. Then I came back and attended a spinning class.

Spinning is just bike riding... it's a classroom with about 30 stationary bikes, made to feel like professional racing bikes, with adjustable tension. The big thing with spinning is that you visualize racing up and down hills with these people... the lights are dim, and there's "mood music" playing to help the ambiance. The instructor talks you through playing with your bike's resistance to simulate going up hills and making jumps. It was actually a lot harder than I thought, and I couldn't do all that she asked, especially things that invovled rising off of the seat while still pedaling. I found this weird because I can do such things on my bike all the time... somehow it was different. Anyway, I kept pedaling the entire time, and afterwards she confirmed that was the best thing to do (I had introduced myself as a first-timer before the class started, so she came up afterwards to ask me what I thought).

So, can you tell I'm excited? I'd better be, I spent $300 today. ;)

Beth urged me to think about a personal trainer since I have specific goals and a short time to do them in, but those sessions are expensive. $60 for 1, $150 for 3, and they're an hour long. There are express ones for half an hour at $36 for 1 and $89 for 3... Maybe I could think about that, depending on how much I start getting from Adriana. I need to really pay things off, dammit!! :)

So yeah, I'm all excited tonight. And even though I was literally dripping sweat drops and had a hard time walking after that spinning class, I'm energetic now. Can't wait for noon tomorrow.

Oooh, and then I can try the Urban Rebounding class at 1:00... "A safe and effective style of aerobic conditioning, performed on mini trampolines, that challenges your cardiovascular ability without excess stress on the heart, muscles, and joints. Excellent for all fitness levels!"

There are 32 classes offered, and only 4 that I'm not at all interested in - the 3 levels of boxing, and "Healthy Moms". :)

Comments

[ex-dervish821.livejournal.com]

wow, i'm excited for you! that's awesome!

Re:

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I know I'd get a positive response from you :) Thanks!!!

[altair.livejournal.com]

Isn't it though? She was teling me about it, and now I'm lamenting that it's in the city and women-only. ;)

Re:

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Well let's see... we could get you a wig, shave REAL close (not your electric razor for sure), wear fake boobies and padded pants to give you a butt (they have padded pants at the sporting goods store, they're for bike riding without hurting your butt), shave your legs... and either shave your armpits or always wear a t-shirt.

Whattya think?

[altair.livejournal.com]

I think I'll sit on my ass and pay DAoC for now. ;)

Re:

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Bah. By the end of the summer, I'll be able to ride a bike up a hill with BOTH of us on the back. ;)
And you'll just be level 50. *grin*

[mongonoodle.livejournal.com]

does that mean i would have to shave my legs and pits to go in there? or are my 100% authentic, genuine boobies qualification enough?

Re:

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Your unshaven legs and armpits look like genuine female unshaven legs. Jason's look obviously male. Actually, I don't know about your armpits, but I can say for sure that if someone showed me your legs not attached to any body, I'd say they were female, whereas with Jason's, definitely male. If Jason shaved, there would be a slightly better chance of him looking female. Still not a convincing chance, but... :)

Re:

[juldea.livejournal.com]

oh... and certainly my legs aren't shaven.