This fitness campaign is proving to be about as enjoyable as I thought it was going to be (i.e. not enjoyable at all).
Going to the gym is not too bad, other than the first forty five minutes on the exercise bike.
OK, thirty minutes.
OK, twenty minutes.
But even twenty minutes is a mixture of sweat, boredom and exertion for no obvious benefit than to “warm up the muscles”. What muscles?
Anyway, with that out of the way I am free to range across the various exercise machines, reducing the weights to wimp level and then straining my way through the sets. I actually rather enjoy this part, although I am advised that it will about 6 weeks before anything starts to happen in the way of noticeable muscle growth.
Trawling my way through the wide wide world of web, I have discovered recommendations that you can help muscle growth and the acquisition of bulk by drinking a protein drink after exercising. I can do that, so I head for a stall next to the noisy and aggressively marketed California Wow gym and peruse the bewildering range of products available. I have no idea what I am looking for, and the assistant does not speak any English and probably knows nothing anyway; so I decide to just choose something with strawberry flavouring, at least it will taste acceptable.
“You don’t want to be choosing that” says a voice behind me, and it turns out to be a nice chap called Kevin who knows about these things. One of things he knows is that the Vanilla flavour contains L-Camitine, which could be a poison as far as I am concerned; but Kevin assures me that it is a good thing. Mysteriously, the potentially yummy chocolate and strawberry options are L-Camitine free.
So I leave the stall with 700 grammes of Pro-Flex Whey ++, Vanilla Flavour and am soon mixing up my first shake. Hard to describe what it smells like, but it certainly triggers the gag reflex. Tastes even worse. I try mixing it with chocolate milk but that somehow compounds the awfulness. Must be the L-Camitine. Once I have vomited my way through this pack, I am moving to the Strawberry flavour.
The wide wide world of web also tells me that I should not go to the gym every day, so I alternate days with swimming. This should be a pleasant enough activity, except the water is fucking freezing. The north east monsoon whips across our condo pool and keeps the temperature at freezing point.
OK, 5 degrees
OK, 15 degrees
But it still feels bloody cold. There is that moment where the water climbs above your waist and everything below the waist shrivels and dies. Then you have to brace yourself before submerging the rest of the body. Once you get swimming it is OK, but those first few seconds suck.
Of course, I am a wimp; not at all like this mad man with an axe:
Photo: REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko
Comments 🔗
2009-01-13| Pete, FrogBlogger saysGood luck with the training - there’s a California Wow in a Chiang Mai shopping complex, hated the place with its hundreds of bikes all lined up in front of a massive window so shoppers could stare in at you. Opted for a quiet ‘proper’ gym instead. As for protein drink, after a few days of trying various flavours and ending up being so ill for a couple of days I couldn’t go to the gym, I decided it defeated the object.
Hate the cold in Thailand - it’s so damp at the same time, it reminds me of England (gag). I’m back in the Alps for a few months, and zero humidity and sub-zero temps are much more comfortable that the early part of December I spent in Chiang Mai, somehow…
2009-01-17| Spike saysActually, when it is cold in Pattaya, it is also dry and sunny. We don’t get any rain from December through February. Chang Mai was -2 this week and the national TV had coverage of “the frost”!
2009-01-17| Pete, FrogBlogger saysUnderstood - it’s dry in Chiang Mai too - but sunshine and dry weather doesn’t mean there isn’t a high humidity count? The few times I’ve been there it’s always felt humid to me, despite the proximity to the sea…
2009-01-17| Pete, FrogBlogger says(Sorry, ’there’ in the above comment meaning Pattaya, of course)
2009-01-17| Spike saysMy camera dry cabinet tells me humidity is currently 40 percent. Is that good?
2009-01-19| Pete, FrogBlogger saysNot sure, but probably better than 100% in the Amazonian jungle, and not as good as the 0% on top of a French Alp in -15 C the other week…
Who knows, I’m no humidity expert. I just go by whether it makes me sweat or not…
2009-01-20| Spike says“I just go by whether it makes me sweat or not…”
A fine mantra by which to live your life I think.