“It’s already been a year since I’ve gotten any exercise in… I’ve gained more than 5kg over the past year…” I thought to myself during December break of grade 11. I really needed a way to get some exercise in my life. So I felt joining an activity that forces me to do physical work would be perfect (so I signed up for this activity! :D). I can’t explain why, but I was super nervous when I was changing into my training gear (which I hadn’t worn for about a year). Just the sheer thought of going to a gym was nervous. In particular, I feel it was the fear of embarrassment from me being oblivious on how to use the equipment properly; I was scared of making a fool out of myself which was significant challenge I had to overcome. I was there to improve, not to impress anyone.
A huge challenge was getting my mind ready for gymming: I had to have the discipline to constantly go to the gym while ignoring what others might think of me in there. Constantly, I tried to get myself into this mindset before going to the gym which I eventually got over after a while. I feel as though I can take this mindset to whatever we do in our daily lives in the future. So many of us are scared about what others might think of us or that we might embarrass ourselves while doing anything. Especially as teens, our decisions get easily influenced by what others might think even if it is towards something we might not enjoy at all. Why not ignore what others might think so that we can work towards something we want? We can all be embarrassed for temporarily for now so that we can feel so a much larger sense of accomplishment in the future! This was a valuable learning moment from me; I took the first step to not being too caught up with what others might think of me.
Another challenge was trying to know what to do when I go to the gym. Thankfully, the activity gave different sets of intense exercises to do that would work the majority of muscles of the body. However my focus was building my general fitness and after some research, I found out that I would some sort of running while doing gym work. So I took action by using this research to make my own training plan for a month (May) which would include 4 days of exercise per week. I decided on running twice a week and doing circuit training once a week.
Taking action on my planning was a valuable learning experience for me. I taught me how to plan efficiently and actually following through with the plan. In particular, I had to thorough research to learn that for most efficient use of my time in running, I should do speed intervals or hill sprints during running with equal time work and recovery on one day to improve speed and explosive power and a long steady run on another day to build endurance. Also, the activity partly forced me to follow through with the plan. I wish to take this experience to the future where planning is needed, more specifically, project week and building study habits for exams.
