blogshares

let’s join the holy bandwagon. i have no interest in actually trading, i just enjoy watching the value of my blog based on highly selective links. i have to display this image so that they know this blog is mine. ok, see? it’s mine!

as if you needed another reason

to justify inordinate amounts of sex…

sex keeps you calm

achy muscles

i joined nysc (new york sports club) for the duration of my 6-mnth sojourn in ny. it’s pretty expensive (not so bad for ny, but considering austin’s prices…) but its totally justified by the fact that the gym is directly across the street from my office. office = store front; gym = store front across street. my co-workers could watch me on the treadmill, that’s the proximity we’re talking. perks are pretty good – nice gym w/ clean showers, shampoo/soap/conditioner, sauna/steamroom, free weights and machines, as well as aerobics rooms for yoga and pilates. it would be great to have a pool and jacuzzi as well as raquetball, but what it has is pretty good. the gym itself also tends to cater toward residential clients, so its not inundated w/ people like me looking for a workout before going home. nice. i also get to use the gym near my parents house (where i’m living these months) during off-peak hours, basically weekends. good.

so enough about the gym – i had my free personal training this past monday. keeping in mind that i haven’t worked out seriously since i moved to austin 3.5 yrs ago, and haven’t really had any serious exercise regimen at all since then either, i tried to make this training rather cautious. i explained my goals and my recent history, and the trainer proceeded to make me do crunches. i could barely to 14 leg throwdowns. by the second set i could barely raise my legs. that was his cue to push me and work out my legs, something i’ve never really done.

now, my hamstrings have been super tight for the last year. i sit at a desk all day and night, and in that position your hamstrings are not stretched. so my hamstrings have contracted and tightened in a bad way. i did not stretch before this workout. we worked my hamstrings, quads, and calves – my muscles were spasming by the end and i had to hold the rail to ascend the stairs. the other exercises were inconsequential – i’m kind of sore from them, but nothing i can’t handle. my hamstrings are now positively rigid and in constant pain. i had difficulty literally rising from bed this morning, couldn’t bend down to tie my shoes, and took 4 times longer to walk from the LIRR train to the subway. i shuffle like an old man. now i’m sitting at my desk and my hamstrings are in prime position to contract (sitting). every time i get up i feel like i’m breaking free from a sheet of ice covering my entire lower body. ice bondage. in about 30 minutes i’m going back across the street to sit in the steam room and hope to god that it loosens me up.