A training gym opened up in the strip mall near my place about a month ago. All the factory boys were buzzing about it- a real-live Major League Baseball physical trainer had decided to grace our neighborhood with his debut gym. The US has a few Japanese players, and this guy is famous for working with them. I don’t pay much attention to baseball. But, that didn’t prevent me from seeing the value in being able to walk 2 minutes to a gym. So for the first time in my life, I finally managed to sign up at one.
OK OK, not the first time. When I was still rockin’ the hawk (please don’t mind my nostalgic burp), I had a membership at a Muay Thai gym. I went for yoga and at THAT time, I was able to touch my toes. But one day a new instructor came in, plugged herself up to a speaker system in a small room and effectively got me to spend $50 a month for the next 6 months on a gym I never saw again.
And come to think of it, I admit I did have a membership at another gym in Sugarhouse, but never worked out. I only did sauna and pool. My skin never looked nicer!
But now, I got my work out buddy (marriage has its perks!) and easy access to a gym that’s well staffed with a few English-speaking physical trainers, 2 of them fluent, one of them female! They do a diagnostic, ask what you want to accomplish and take photos as a starting reference point. Japanese and their cameras… I asked for posture correction, general getting-of-exercise, and hinted toward eventually building stamina on some kind of machine, just not the treadmill. Picky, aren’t I? There are no punching bags! Maybe I’ll ask for one, but this place kinda focuses on baseball, so I might learn to swing a bat with good aim. Could be useful, right?
Anyway now I got a customized program, doing lots of stuff to correct my snowboarding posture. I have never been snowboarding even once in my life, but somehow I got the stance down! I think it started with holding my baby brothers a lot through my early teens. More recently, I avoid touching anything on the trains even while I stand. Trains are NASTY. The few people out here who have the decency to cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough in a crowded train tend to use the very same hand they are hanging on with. And unfailingly return it to the bar or handle immediately. Anyway, to keep my balance, I keep my feet shoulder-width apart on a diagonal with the train, knees bent and hips forward. Actually, I am not sure if it’s really “the snowboarding posture”, but it looks the same to me. Anyway apparently this is overall doing weird things to my spine all the way up to my neck.
Of course I stretch to warm up. And I can’t get anywhere close to my toes. I can’t even sit at a right angle. I’m going to have to ask them to add that to the list of stuff I’d like to be able to do with myself at some point.
When I go home to the US, I’m gonna go swimming, and ride horses, and roll around on my Aunt’s front lawn (after considering the park, I though better of it. Tetanus, ya know.)