A new beginning
Well, hello there! It's been a while!
I've had a busy time changing gyms, going on holiday, changing jobs, going to car shows, trying to see more of my friends (what little is left of them), and trying to chill and relax in the middle...
It turns out there aren't enough hours in a day to accommodate all that so I've had to cut back on the chill and relax factor.
The first thing on my mind that's related to "a new beginning" is the fact that we changed gyms, not once, not twice, but three times. Third time's a charm, eh?
The reason we changed gyms the first time was because some raisin-face bitch went to complain about our training. Apparently when you go to the gym, you shouldn't train, you should sit your ass down on some equipment, read magazines, talk on your mobile, chat with your friend about how many calories you've got to burn and how you just couldn't help but put that oh-so-fattening-bun in your mouth and swallow...
As you may detect, I'm a little bitter about that, but because I believe everything happens for a reason, I also believe this was the best wake-up call in our gym-career thus far. We had exhausted our resources in muscle gains at that first gym, mainly because we were really two of the VERY very few that really trained to gain muscle. We tried to find a gym that was better equipped, was reasonably priced, didn't have too many trendy people in it, had reasonable parking and would be near home and the grocery store... Well, we found what we were looking for and it was oh-so-great! The only thing is that it was going bankrupt and no one bothered telling us about it before we had to pay the bill... And now I can't get my money back because of their misinformation (or the lack of any information whatsoever)...
A little about the second gym, well, it was fantastic compared to the first gym! It had EVERYTHING one could wish for in a gym for bodybuilding and powerlifting! Not only were the equipment great, the location was sensational! It was a man-made cave inside a huge rock hill that also served the purpose of being a bomb shelter of some sort. So the walls were superb for taking photos like this one:
Other than the walls and equipment, the people who came to train there were serious about training, they didn't sit around occupying equipment and reading magazines while twirling their hair... NO! They came to train and they trained hard! It was so refreshing to see! And the reason it was so great was because it created competition. For us, when there's competition, there's gains.
Unfortunately, a couple of weeks into training, the place went bankrupt ... so we had to change gyms again.
The third gym was small, terrible parking possibilities, some good equipment, but mostly not, and a very unstable owner who shouted at us and a lot of other customers for giving very simple, polite and unprovoking feedback, like "do you happen to have a small platform I could put under me so I could adjust the height on the Smith-machine?" Because it was a new gym for us, we didn't know where things were and the best way to find out was to ask... we never expected we'd get shouted at that "ALL YOU WANT IS SOMETHING SPECIAL! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST USE THE THINGS THAT ARE AROUND YOU?! ALL YOU GUYS THAT HAVE COME FROM THAT GYM (the one that went bankrupt) HAVE ALL SORTS OF DEMANDS!" and so on and so on ...
We were so bewildered that we really didn't know what to say ... after the the incident many of the people who had heard this so-called conversation came up to us and told us their stories of how and when they were shouted at in a similar situation...
Ridiculous!
We knew we had to change gyms because we were clearly not going to get any gains there...
There was one gym we did not want to set foot in.. It is the trendiest gym here and it was just out of the question that we would go there to look at people being all trendy and annoying ... we wear rags and sweat during workouts compared to what we thought they did at that gym :)
The other reason we didn't want to go to this trendy gym was because the owner of this gym had bought the facilities of the second gym we had gone to ... had he not bought that second gym it wouldn't have gone bankrupt and we'd still be training there.
Eventually after looking around and not finding anything that would suit our needs, we swallowed our pride and went to the trendiest gym in town, literally...
The music sucks there, they play radio music which I hate, and it so totally inappropriate for training hard... it's better for ...say ... nothing. I just don't like the music the popular radio stations have on and I have nothing good to say about it. So I won't.
The people can be very frustrating there, a bunch of them look like they own the world and another bunch look like they're there to kiss and hump, another bunch probably just go there for the sake of being seen at the most popular gym in town with pro bodybuilders... BUT! And here's the big but, the bunch of people who train there, they REALLY train! They sweat, they shout, they sweat some more and they don't stop just because they're sweaty or tired, THEY TRAIN! And what's more, they look like they train!
Those are the bunch of people that create competition in the atmosphere and that competition is what drives us to train harder!
And I suspect that in a month or so, we'll be changing gyms again, to the new one that they put up in the place of the one that went bankrupt. The trendy gym we're at now is overcrowded and that's why they bought the other location. And the other location is more convenient for us in terms of parking, closer to home and the grocery store. If only it has similarly good equipment, we'll go there.
We'll see how that turns out..
Here's the first picture at the new gym after having trained there for about a month:
So that's basically that about our gym changing adventure.
On the horizon for this year is to learn how to pose properly. I'm not going to compete any time soon, but when I do compete, I want the poses to come as naturally as possible so I won't undermine my muscles by bad posing which is seen all too often in competitions. And I believe than my muscle gains will be maximized in an environment where there's adequate competition (because too much would be very depressing and counter-productive).
I'm glad that we changed gyms when we did and now earlier, because in the course of the time I've been training, I've always first exhausted my resources before going to the next level. This has worked well for me and I can see the gains and I like it. There may be better ways of doing things, but for now this is the path I've gone along and it seems to be working for me. If we had changed gyms, say, a year earlier, I'd have been much smaller (muscle-wise) and I would have maybe found it more intimidating to train in a place where there are muscular athletes all around me.
So, all's well that ends well!
I also changed jobs. I now enjoy going to work. I have a one-hour drive to work and an hour back, I have to wake up very early in the morning and the hours in the day just seem to go faster and faster leaving less time to get everything done.. but as one of my friends said when I was in the military: "Hunger is the best spice and death will make up for sleep deprivation" ("Nälkä on paras mauste ja kuolema kuittaa univelat")
I love my drives to work and back. I have a comfy car, a Mercedez-Benz with automatic transmission and cruise control, good stereos that I connect to my USB sticks or iPod, in the morning almost empty roads and beautiful scenery and I can just chill and relax with my thermos mug of coffee, freshly brewed and made in the morning, 5 minutes before going out the door... How could it get any better than that under the circumstances?
Because the road I take to get to work and back is by the forest and fields, there are many wild animals that come to feed there. In the late-fall, winter and early spring months it's rather dangerous because of deer and moose crossings and the slippery roads while driving in the dark in hailstorms or snowy weather, but generally speaking, I've loved it so much. There are so many times I wished I had the time to stop somewhere and take photos of the cows in pasture, horses munching on grass, flocks of birds flying overhead, migratory birds resting, swan families chilling out, rabbits and hedgehogs and cats and all sorts of other animals roaming around ... apart from the animals, the variety of beautiful scenery my route provides is amazing. I drive by lakes and fields and forests and they are like ever-changing paintings. I simply love it!
Here are just some of the many pictures I've attempted to take while driving.. I know it's not safe, but I do it anyway.
That's it for now, I hope to be taking more pictures at the gym and elsewhere. Here are a few of my favorites that my hubby and I have taken this summer:
See ya later! :) I'll try to take some videos and more photos for the next post...
I've had a busy time changing gyms, going on holiday, changing jobs, going to car shows, trying to see more of my friends (what little is left of them), and trying to chill and relax in the middle...
It turns out there aren't enough hours in a day to accommodate all that so I've had to cut back on the chill and relax factor.
The first thing on my mind that's related to "a new beginning" is the fact that we changed gyms, not once, not twice, but three times. Third time's a charm, eh?
The reason we changed gyms the first time was because some raisin-face bitch went to complain about our training. Apparently when you go to the gym, you shouldn't train, you should sit your ass down on some equipment, read magazines, talk on your mobile, chat with your friend about how many calories you've got to burn and how you just couldn't help but put that oh-so-fattening-bun in your mouth and swallow...
As you may detect, I'm a little bitter about that, but because I believe everything happens for a reason, I also believe this was the best wake-up call in our gym-career thus far. We had exhausted our resources in muscle gains at that first gym, mainly because we were really two of the VERY very few that really trained to gain muscle. We tried to find a gym that was better equipped, was reasonably priced, didn't have too many trendy people in it, had reasonable parking and would be near home and the grocery store... Well, we found what we were looking for and it was oh-so-great! The only thing is that it was going bankrupt and no one bothered telling us about it before we had to pay the bill... And now I can't get my money back because of their misinformation (or the lack of any information whatsoever)...
A little about the second gym, well, it was fantastic compared to the first gym! It had EVERYTHING one could wish for in a gym for bodybuilding and powerlifting! Not only were the equipment great, the location was sensational! It was a man-made cave inside a huge rock hill that also served the purpose of being a bomb shelter of some sort. So the walls were superb for taking photos like this one:
Unfortunately, a couple of weeks into training, the place went bankrupt ... so we had to change gyms again.
The third gym was small, terrible parking possibilities, some good equipment, but mostly not, and a very unstable owner who shouted at us and a lot of other customers for giving very simple, polite and unprovoking feedback, like "do you happen to have a small platform I could put under me so I could adjust the height on the Smith-machine?" Because it was a new gym for us, we didn't know where things were and the best way to find out was to ask... we never expected we'd get shouted at that "ALL YOU WANT IS SOMETHING SPECIAL! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST USE THE THINGS THAT ARE AROUND YOU?! ALL YOU GUYS THAT HAVE COME FROM THAT GYM (the one that went bankrupt) HAVE ALL SORTS OF DEMANDS!" and so on and so on ...
We were so bewildered that we really didn't know what to say ... after the the incident many of the people who had heard this so-called conversation came up to us and told us their stories of how and when they were shouted at in a similar situation...
Ridiculous!
We knew we had to change gyms because we were clearly not going to get any gains there...
There was one gym we did not want to set foot in.. It is the trendiest gym here and it was just out of the question that we would go there to look at people being all trendy and annoying ... we wear rags and sweat during workouts compared to what we thought they did at that gym :)
The other reason we didn't want to go to this trendy gym was because the owner of this gym had bought the facilities of the second gym we had gone to ... had he not bought that second gym it wouldn't have gone bankrupt and we'd still be training there.
Eventually after looking around and not finding anything that would suit our needs, we swallowed our pride and went to the trendiest gym in town, literally...
The music sucks there, they play radio music which I hate, and it so totally inappropriate for training hard... it's better for ...say ... nothing. I just don't like the music the popular radio stations have on and I have nothing good to say about it. So I won't.
The people can be very frustrating there, a bunch of them look like they own the world and another bunch look like they're there to kiss and hump, another bunch probably just go there for the sake of being seen at the most popular gym in town with pro bodybuilders... BUT! And here's the big but, the bunch of people who train there, they REALLY train! They sweat, they shout, they sweat some more and they don't stop just because they're sweaty or tired, THEY TRAIN! And what's more, they look like they train!
Those are the bunch of people that create competition in the atmosphere and that competition is what drives us to train harder!
And I suspect that in a month or so, we'll be changing gyms again, to the new one that they put up in the place of the one that went bankrupt. The trendy gym we're at now is overcrowded and that's why they bought the other location. And the other location is more convenient for us in terms of parking, closer to home and the grocery store. If only it has similarly good equipment, we'll go there.
We'll see how that turns out..
Here's the first picture at the new gym after having trained there for about a month:
On the horizon for this year is to learn how to pose properly. I'm not going to compete any time soon, but when I do compete, I want the poses to come as naturally as possible so I won't undermine my muscles by bad posing which is seen all too often in competitions. And I believe than my muscle gains will be maximized in an environment where there's adequate competition (because too much would be very depressing and counter-productive).
I'm glad that we changed gyms when we did and now earlier, because in the course of the time I've been training, I've always first exhausted my resources before going to the next level. This has worked well for me and I can see the gains and I like it. There may be better ways of doing things, but for now this is the path I've gone along and it seems to be working for me. If we had changed gyms, say, a year earlier, I'd have been much smaller (muscle-wise) and I would have maybe found it more intimidating to train in a place where there are muscular athletes all around me.
So, all's well that ends well!
I also changed jobs. I now enjoy going to work. I have a one-hour drive to work and an hour back, I have to wake up very early in the morning and the hours in the day just seem to go faster and faster leaving less time to get everything done.. but as one of my friends said when I was in the military: "Hunger is the best spice and death will make up for sleep deprivation" ("Nälkä on paras mauste ja kuolema kuittaa univelat")
I love my drives to work and back. I have a comfy car, a Mercedez-Benz with automatic transmission and cruise control, good stereos that I connect to my USB sticks or iPod, in the morning almost empty roads and beautiful scenery and I can just chill and relax with my thermos mug of coffee, freshly brewed and made in the morning, 5 minutes before going out the door... How could it get any better than that under the circumstances?
Because the road I take to get to work and back is by the forest and fields, there are many wild animals that come to feed there. In the late-fall, winter and early spring months it's rather dangerous because of deer and moose crossings and the slippery roads while driving in the dark in hailstorms or snowy weather, but generally speaking, I've loved it so much. There are so many times I wished I had the time to stop somewhere and take photos of the cows in pasture, horses munching on grass, flocks of birds flying overhead, migratory birds resting, swan families chilling out, rabbits and hedgehogs and cats and all sorts of other animals roaming around ... apart from the animals, the variety of beautiful scenery my route provides is amazing. I drive by lakes and fields and forests and they are like ever-changing paintings. I simply love it!
Here are just some of the many pictures I've attempted to take while driving.. I know it's not safe, but I do it anyway.
See ya later! :) I'll try to take some videos and more photos for the next post...
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