Yesterday was the last day I existed as a person who had never had a gym membership. That's right, until this week I had never had one. I'm 40. The last time I'd gone to a gym was my first year at Uni when it was free, and even then I think I went twice. I remember super vaguely using the rowing machines and the bikes. I remember kinda liking it but just not having the motivation to go anymore. I was 19 and much fitter than I am now.
This morning I went to the gym for the first time in 21 years. It was my plan to use the treadmill and watch a TV show I had downloaded so that I could avoid the $10 extra per week the plan with WiFi would cost me. Before work I parked my car right outside the main entrance of the gym, noting the sign that informed me I needed a bumper sticker to use the carpark. I went inside and asked for one, and subsequently became one of those people who has a gym sticker on their back window.
I sheepishly made my way to the treadmills, and chose the one closest to the counter. I mainly took that one because it neighboured one being used by a woman not much older than me, who looked approachable and unthreatening. Yes, I had a hell of a lot of anxiety tied up in this whole event. I was terrified and yet I knew I needed to do this for myself.
I noted what the others had done with their stuff, found the water holder and the two places my phone could go. I planted my bag housing my new “sweat towel” on the floor next to the machine. I turned on the treadmill. I decided music would be the best way to start while I figured this thing out; TV could come later. I scanned the screen and all of the buttons. I had no fucking clue what any of it meant.
I felt a gaze on me, and I allowed one of my eyes to investigate - it was a friendly looking staff member. I did not make eye contact with him. I was going to figure this out all by myself. I found a “dial” and I incrementally turned it up until I was walking very slowly and unnaturally, gripping the handles. I looked around me and noticed nobody else was holding onto the bars, and little by little I turned it up until I was doing my best impression of a normal person walking on a moving belt. I was doing it! Look Mum, no hands!
Eventually I had a good rhythm going and switched my music for TV. I started having fun. A fast song came on the show, and I opened the throttle to meet the challenge; now I was jogging! I switched between jogging and walking a few times and then wound down after 25 minutes. I had to leave soon to go to work. I didn't want to though! I had begun to feel a burn and I definitely had some good chemicals coarsing through me.
I slowed to a stop, and turned the machine off. That was fucking weird. Not being on a rolling belt suddenly felt very unnatural and I had to hold on to avoid careening off the not-moving-at-all machine. It was like being on a boat! I quietly congratulated myself for not succumbing to the cartoonish cliché of going too fast too soon and flying off, and for not getting straight off the machine as soon as it had stopped. I was overjoyed that I hadn't made any major mistakes, other than looking like a penguin for about five minutes at the start.
After my short workout I sprayed and cleaned the areas of the treadmill I had touched, as I had observed the woman next to me do before she'd left. I then slunk out of there as quickly as I could because that place is not my natural habitat. But I liked it. I really liked it. I kinda can't wait to go back!
This is the last time I use a treadmill for the first time!