The day before yesterday (on April 1st, and this was no fools day) I finally signed up at the gym again. It’s the same gym I visited over five years ago, and it is less than five hundred yards from our house. I felt it was necessary. When you reach the age of 57 (that’s me), gravity wins over your body and all the fluffiness of your body goes down. To avoid some sort of physical avalanche of downfall, I need to do some strength training. Hence my action.

In addition to signing up (the intention does have to be followed by the ultimate goal), I went straight to the gym yesterday afternoon, after work. I started with some cardio (rowing) and then hit the weights. Not much had changed in those five years of my absence. All the equipment was basically in the same place and the visitors hadn’t changed much either. Still, many people see the gym as a social haven. They stand around the fitness machines talking for minutes, occasionally sipping from their water bottles.

I was done within an hour. After all, you have to build up your fitness routine. Not so much to avoid muscle soreness, because I got that “pleasure” within an hour. Unlike previous years, I won’t let the next visit slack off and have made the commitment to go to the gym on every Tuesday for the first three months, or more.