How to Quit the Gym

My husband and I are officially gym quitters!

(photo credit)

We marched into gym services this weekend and asked to speak to a representative in order to cancel our memberships.  We were ready for a fight, a hard sell, some battle back and forth.  We are both lawyers so trust me, we were ready for it.

Surprisingly, we were in and out of the gym in about 5 minutes -- the amount of time it took to find out membership information and print the paperwork.

It feels liberating.  We are no longer slaves to automatic monthly credit card charges of over $140 for the two of us.  What could you do with an extra $140 a month?  You could buy every video that interests you, a set of kettlebells and free weights, even save up for your own spin bike or treadmill.  You can work out on your own time without worrying about finding a babysitter.  If you only have a free 30 minutes, that doesn't leave enough time to get to the gym, do anything productive, and come home -- yet you can squeeze in a HIIT workout, some Pilates core moves, and anything else you desire at home.

How to do Sprint Workouts on Suburban Streets

Just a short training tip for your Friday!

I don't live in suburbia, but I have spent summers there, and therefore I developed a way to measure sprints without having to worry about calculating distance.  If you are running outside, and want to incorporate sprints (a/k/a interval training) into your routine, you might get frustrated as to determining when to sprint and how long the sprint should be.  You might wind up not sprinting as long as you think you are and as a result, shortchange yourself inadvertently.

I assume your suburbia has telephone poles, right?  Telephone poles are generally evenly spaced from one another.  Use these poles as landmarks!  Decide in advance how many telephone poles you will pass as you walk or jog, and then how many poles you will pass as you sprint.  You can keep it even, such as "jog three poles, sprint one pole," or mix it up, such as "walk one pole, jog one pole, sprint one pole" and then "walk one pole, jog two poles, sprint one pole."  If you have a watch, you can time your sprints from pole to pole and make a game of beating your prior sprint times.

Counting telephone poles does something else important -- it prevents boredom, and my guess is that boredom stops many people from completing a work out and giving 100%.  You are always counting poles and pushing yourself, often in short bursts.  Before you know it, 30 minutes will have passed and you will have completed a successful interval training!