James Mok’s Soliloquy

I wasn’t going to write about exercising until I shred 30lbs but what I saw last night at the gym prompted me to write this now.

Some 5 years ago I managed to lose 24lbs in 3 months following the trainer’s suggestion at the gym in a local recreation club. Unfortunately after a disruption of a 21 day vacation and Alec’s heavier school work which stopped me from continuing my exercise, I gain them all back and more.

This summer, I decided it was time to start all over again. With older age, a weaker heart condition, and continuing high blood pressure, I am unable to go at the same rate as I did 5 years ago so naturally, the rate of losing weight is much slower this time around than before. However, by proper training, I am able to follow through the program progressively without any less willingness.

It has been 3 weeks since I started the program. Although I have only losed 5lbs in weight and still a belly, I can see that I have losed some fat in the stomach area and in my neck area. My will comes from steady but low heart rate (65-70%max) treadmill walking plus a little toning weight exercise which is nothing intense and absolutely no aching muscles the day after. I think this is very important for long term training as most people lose interests and will by exercising too heavily the first day and get muscle pain and gain a bigger appetite for food as a result and lose the will thereafter.

More about my training in a future blog.

Last night at the gym, a girl about 14 years of age, abnormally short and fat, came into the gym shortly before her father came in. She did very little (close to none) stretching and starting riding the bike machine without warming up. Her father came in and told the trainer to increase the friction to a certain level against the trainer’s warning. He insisted his daughter to ride at that setting for over 1/2 an hour. While the length of the exercise is correct, the girl felt the pressure and indicated that it was too heavy after just 10 minutes. The dad asked her to continue and would not let her readjust to a lower friction setting. The girl stopped 5 minutes later and started crying, for the machine seemed to have reset the timer or something somehow. The dad gave her a tissue and asked her to continue again despite the trainer’s warning. She continued for another 5 minutes and stopped 10 minute short of the target.

The problem is, a 20 minute work out with 2 stops in between is completely useless. With a heavy friction, the girl had burned some sugar for fuel but little fat if any at all. The dad then brought her to a rowing machine and started her rowing. Rowing machines are heavier exercise than biking machines which is again one that burn more sugar than fat for fuel. To burn fat, one must exercise lightly over a much longer period of time. The girl did that for 5 more minutes and without any cooling down the dad put her on a sit-up rack which is way too big for the little girl. IMO, they have not only wasted the whole evening, the girl may have an even tougher time getting herself to go exercise again after a few days of muscle pain. It looked more like a torture than an exercise.

Many times during my current program and the one I did 5 years ago, many non-execerising people laughed at how less I do for a man’s exercise, and that how swimming is a much better exercise and therefore I should be swimming instead (somehow they all say that), bla bla bla. Yet they don’t do any exercise whatsoever themselves.

I am training to get myself in better health, not to be a Village People’s Macho Macho Man or a swimming jock. I mean hey, if you think swimming is all that better, go do your swimming yourselves and leave me alone. My light exercise loses me fat, gain no pain, no bigger appetite for food, and best of all no injuries. Others can keep talking their talks while I’ll keep walking my walks, thank you.