#Fitness - Oh the feels of an Empty Gym!

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Going to the gym is always a special feeling, I especially enjoy it when I get there and it is empty.

The #gym was empty again this morning. It's my favorite type of gym. One where I can #workout with my #music #loud and have some serious peace for my #gainz to develop. #loveanemptygym in the morning. :)

A photo posted by David Simmerson (@zombieboots) on May 24, 2015 at 6:16pm PDT

Its something kind of special being the only one in the gym. I miss this. The cold iron everyday.

Some day I will get to enjoy a nice empty gym like this again.  For now I am stuck with one that always has people in it, dirty people who don't clean the machines when they are done.

It is a terrible feeling getting into the gym and seeing people sweating all over the equipment and not cleaning it up before they leave.  Something I cannot stand.  I'm a larger man, overweight, and the last thing I want to do is have to clean up some fit persons sweat off the equipment before I can use it, its like they see me, an overweight man entering their gym, and they want me to be uncomfortable and leave.

I won't let them win.  I will always work out, even if I have to clean up the equipment first.  But still.. I prefer an empty gym.

And with that said,  it is new years, the resolutioners that normally plague my gym aren't here this year.  Perhaps they are just late bloomers, or perhaps they decided their way to make their goal was to adjust their eating habits instead of their gym time.  Either way it is very odd.  Very odd indeed.

I'm finding it quite abnormal to see an empty gym this late into January. Perhaps my manliness is scaring them away, or maybe they forgot how to get into the gym, but this is a tad bit out of the ordinary.  Maybe it is because it is a leap year, or that it was a full moon on christmas.  But something is extremely off with regards to the gym activity this year.

But I digress.

If you are hitting the gym hard this new year and beyond, whether before new year or after, hit up the comments below and let me know why.

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#Fitness - The joys of #LegDay in the #Gym

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Probably one of the best days in the world, is Leg Day.

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The Change

I make no bones about it, Leg Day is probably one of my favourite days if not my favourite day in the gym.  I always feel great after Leg Day, sore, exhausted, yet energised, it gives me a sense of well being.  I don't know why but it really does change my mood, of all the days to train, whenever I train legs I find myself in almost a state of euphoria even though the metal plate in my ankle aches with each rep of each set, its almost as if it is a challenge to push harder and since I love a good challenge, I always do.

Today I challenged myself in a good way, I kept my squats to a lower weight then usual and focused more on form then on weight.  5 sets of 10 reps, all good and healthy, not really a challenge for my weight, but the challenge was keeping proper form.  Helping to avoid injury with my lower back and knee's by performing each squat carefully and ensuring my posture and form were correct.  That has been my goal.

Like the squats I continued to pursue better form for all my Leg Day exercises, thus avoiding injury.  Hamstring Curls, Leg Extensions, Leg Press, all of them were better than normal.  Maintaining proper body position on the equipment helps keep my joints safe or so I am told and that is my new goal.  To keep myself healthy and improve my overall lifestyle.

In the past I've been reckless with my exercises and lately I've been focusing more and more on avoiding injury because I just had a feeling it was coming if I kept training the way I did.  So I am quite glad I made this decision to improve my training methods by avoiding exercising in ways that could lead to injury.  So lowering the weight and performing my exercises under better control and with proper posture and form I feel has ultimately helped me avoid injury but in the long run will help me be able to go heavier and keep myself healthier.

The Result

The result of the changes above are quite simple, less injury, longer training times, slower improvements, but again, less injury, or chance of injury.  By removing or lowering the chance of injury I feel that I am actually making it easier and faster to train, because if I injure myself I won't be able to train, and if I can't train I won't be able to improve.  So its a better scenario, a winning scenario I feel.

I cannot fathom why it took me so long to adjust to this safer style of training, maybe it was because I was in a hurry to lose weight, or maybe its because I was simply ill informed of what could happen, but the more I look into my health and fitness.

The more I read about training habits and appropriate ways to train and how to train, the more I realize I have been putting myself in a lot of danger and risk of injury.  So after today's exercise being the first with this new training methodology I have to say I will adopt this into the rest of my training.  

I feel better, but I know it will be the right way.  I will continue to research and train based on what I've read and keeping myself healthy first, focused on prevention of injury followed by loss of weight, and third building a nice body and form.  I've got a lifetime to train, so I am going to train properly and take my time and stop rushing for gains and success. I'll get where I want to be!.

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