My road back to fitness...keeping track of it all

Whilst the App based workout was a great start for me, it got me into a routine and started to build some low level core fitness, it was never going to be enough to get me back where I am aiming. To be honest throughout my life I've always preferred participation sports to solitary training, which is why I probably, like many, have spent large amounts of money on gym memberships that I have rarely used.

Some 5 years ago I first discovered boot camp training, and back then spent a great year training with a bunch of people outside in parks until my then trainer went travelling. So roll on to this year my first thought was to find the same again. At this point I have to say that living in Brighton makes this quite easy as there is a strong ground base for all sports in this city, with a lot of opportunities to join all sorts of groups. However, from talking to friends around the country there are people running bootcamps all over now, so do a search and I'm sure you'll find someone running a group or a British Military Fitness class near you. For me, I prefer to find a local run group, which I did easily, surfing the net and reading recommendations. And so it was that I found myself heading along to a complimentary class with Stridefit in Brighton. They had some great feedback and they ran classes in multiple locations both morning and evening so I new I could fit them in around my often hectic work and social life.

So there I was, on a Saturday morning, in the park, ready to exhibit my new found fitness from my home workouts over the last three months. Now, even though I have enough experience to know that you have to hold back a bit on that first workout session, with the adrenalin flowing, the sun shinning in the cold crisp air and a gaggle of people around to impress, I of course went full on in that first session. Firstly, I was nowhere near as fit as I'd thought I'd be, and that first session highlighted the fact that having a trainer and others around you to compete against raises the intensity level of your routines, way above anything you achieve working solo. Secondly, the variety of muscles and tendons I worked in that first session were a lot more varied and deeper than I had been doing. Still, I left that first session on a high, bouncing down the road. Not so much the next day, of course, when I tried to get out of bed and found I was as stiff as a piece of 4 by 2.

It took me 3 days to recover from that first session, it seems we never learn, or maybe that's just me. However, I was back at training on the Tuesday followed by the Thursday and so on. So, without doubt the initial habit building had helped to move me on to my next phase of fitness, even if my body had not been quite as ready as I thought it might.

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