Men's Group

Last edited Thu Jan 24, 2013, 12:08 PM - Edit history (1)

I love a good rant. I'm great at posting them myself, so it's all good.

I completely agree with your assessment of high school/junior high school PE classes. It was something I dreaded every day from the first of it to the last of it. In Michigan, we only had to take one year in both junior high and high school. Knowing then what I now know, I would have at least tried to get something out of it. As it was, I did nothing useful for those two years. The one thing I can say for certain, it rewarded nothing but showing up, I got straight A's in both junior high and high school just by showing up, changing my clothes every day, and trying not to attract attention. Which was the only bright spot, because I was a straight A student and would have been devastated to have had my gpa messed up by that class. The other thing I remember, now that I think about it, was spending at least a few weeks, probably 3 or 4, of the first month of my high school PE class in the library "studying" because of Dr's orders that I not participate in any strenuous activities -- among the other joys in life I've been through, at 12 1/2 I had a testicular torsion and removal of the left testicle, and it left me with "phantom pain" for about 3-4 years, severe enough that I spent a good deal of time down for the count and sick to my stomach. That left me pretty self-conscious too, especially about having to take showers, even though the condition isn't outwardly visible, they, of course, used a silicon prosthesis. Sorry to be graphic about it, probably TMI. Of course, that definitely left me questioning my masculinity on some level at times. I guess it was all part of the package deal of my health situation. Little wonder I'm messed up.

I absolutely LOVE my gym, ok, health club - it's a complete facility, other than lack of in indoor track. But, to be honest with you, I AM having a do-over of my high school experience, the right way, how it should have been but wasn't. They offer a lot of things, including some team sports, that I'm not doing now, but would like to check out. That's just me, my life as a kid was really messed up all around, my father was very abusive and didn't allow me or my family much interaction with the outside world, so for me, this is paradise. Just what I needed at this time in my life. God knows, having gone through what I did last summer, if I were just sitting home nights and weekends, I would be in a much worse position both physically and mentally.

And, hey, I did my 10 laps again this morning. I'm still slow, and I still get winded. And there was a woman in there about 60-65 "power walking" and she was almost as fast as I was at a slow jog. But, damn it, I kept catching my reflection in the glass of the windows as I went past them, and I felt like a million bucks doing it.

No way in Hell I could do a full hour on the elliptical, unless maybe I did it at an extremely slow pace. So, hey, I'm really impressed with you, too. And thanks for the vote of confidence in me. I also added another 10 lbs of weight this morning when I was bench pressing, up to 75. It was NOT easy, I only did about 28-30 of the 40 reps I wanted to do, but it's still progress.

Have a great one!