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On February 1 I sat in my recliner bored out of my mind. I had my brand new X-Box One control next to me but the system launch had unfortunately not come with many good games and I needed something to do. That is when I turned to X-Box Fitness. I had recently finally healed from a torn rotator cuff but had also quit my membership to LA Boxing which was now UFC Gym. I wasn't used to seeing a fat out of shape me in the mirror and it had to end. So I figured the X-Box Fitness was free. I started out alternating between a longer workout on one day and a short ten minute one on the next and then I progressed to two or even three workouts a day.

The biggest thing I did though was I didn't stop. My ankle, knee, shoulder, and wrists all took turns hurting but I didn't back off the workouts. I was careful with the areas that were in pain but I knew if I let my body stop me I'd never get back to where I needed to be. Fast forward a few months and I started walking down to the community gym every other morning to use the dumbbells and cardio equipment. I mixed that in with the X-Box Fitness and started to see even better results.



As I mentioned in my previous post I've been working mainly on doing push-ups and in order to do as many as I can I've been giving my body more rest, but recently something happened that may change all that. I still want to do 100 push-ups and keep going past that, but while I've been working out at home I've inspired people I know to get back into the gym. My one friend joined LifeTime Fitness in Centreville and has been lifting weights there. Last week I went with him and something amazing happened.

Eight years ago I went to Gold's Gym in Fairfax every other day and worked out for at least an hour. Bench press was part of my regular workout program as it had been all through high school and college. I started out at 17 barely able to lift the bar and graduated able to bench 225. As I progressed I got as high as 295, but never crested 300. So eight years after working out regularly with bench press and five years since I've even done the exercise I walked into LifeTime Fitness and put up 300.

While 300 is great and all and is a nice round number the real number to get is 315 or three big plates on each side of the bar. That is a weight that looks impressive. Having done 300 and felt like I had more in me I had to join a gym. I had heard rumors that Olympus Gym in Burke, a gym I worked out in in the summers in high school, was $10 a month, and when I told this to my wife she told me that World Gym in Fairfax, where the Gold's I worked out in was, was also $10 a month.

I was still undecided until a salesperson from LifeTime gave me a call and tired to push the atmosphere of their glitz and glamour gym down my throat. They have a pull and a steam room and a few other amenities not offered at World of Olympus Gym, but none of those amenities make them ten times better. I can pay $10 a month for a gym and then whatever it is for month at a community rec center for a pool and still be under $100 a month, and I don't care about the classes. If I want to do a class all I have to do is say, "X-Box on."

So with all this I was pushed over the edge to join World Gym. $10 a month is the lowest I've ever paid for a gym and a price I struggle to believe exists at all especially with no contracts. When I joined Gold's Gym I forked over $250+ to get the monthly payment down to $40 a month on a two year contract. I don't know where the pressure is coming from for the traditional gym, because LifeTime Fitness certainly isn't feeling it, but I'll take it.

This may mess up my push-up goals, but I'm still going to try and accomplish them, but now the main goal is to get back to basics. To do some bench, squat, and deadlift and to throw around as much weight as possible.