All through the past year, I had vowed that when I got back into my own place, I’d start working out again, because I’d have my weights again. And I decided that I was going to have to follow through on that. I also decided that I’d include my progress in pressing on… because it would help me to have a physical record and it’d keep me accountable. Today, I took the first step.

I had decided a while back that I was going to follow some of the aspects of the Body-for-life program that I had followed a couple of years ago. It’s a very good program, but there were parts of it that I didn’t feel that I would need or that would be feasible for me to try to do, like eating six small meals a day.

However, the upper-body workout was something that I was intent upon keeping. It’s a good workout; it only takes 45-50 minutes, and you only do it three times every two weeks. I figured that was something that I could keep up with. I knew that I was going to start riding my bike around town and the campus, so that’d take care of the aerobic and lower-body workouts. My legs don’t need to be any bigger than they are. 🙂

So this morning I had my first workout. It took some effort to roll out of bed and do it. The last time that I had started a workout, I had no idea of what I could do, and ended up overestimating my strength by a long shot. I figured that this time I’d have a closer idea of where I needed to start.

I was pretty close. I pushed myself to the limit on a bunch of the exercises. My workout was a challenging one, but not impossible. Look at Day 1’s results. It’s not very pretty, but it’s there for right now, and that’s fine. I’ll spruce it up later.

At the end, I was spent. I felt like I’d gone through a two-a-day, with my body reacting like you’d expect it to. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Look at this recent ESPN article, skipping down to the paragraph beginning “The first thing you need to know about NFL training camp…” and you’ll get my drift.) So I cooled off for a while until I felt more like myself. It was tough to take a shower, mainly because it was difficult to get my hands over my head to wash my hair. 🙂

After that, I got the bike out and decided to see what a ride to campus was like. I was pleasantly surprised. The entire trip is a little over a mile and a half, and encompasses about 25 blocks. Since I got my bike tuned up, it’s a lot easier to ride now. I did it pretty easily, and I think that I should be able to get in some good workouts with my bike just by riding to and around campus.

So, overall my day fitness-wise was good. My next upper-body workout will be on Friday, and the one after that on next Wednesday. After that, I’ll repeat the Monday-Friday-Wednesday pattern. Body-for-life gave me pretty good results in roughly ten weeks; here’s hoping that I’ll stick to it and be looking good come November. 🙂

Coming soon: my overall fitness goals.