ExRx.net

I started walking for fitness last summer, 2006, and then earlier this year I joined a gym to start doing strength training. I have really begun to enjoy lifting weights and got myself into a good habit/routine of days doing it.

But now the gym that I was using has closed. It was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week which is great for convenience and reliability. It's a small town so my only other option is the YMCA. The hours are much shorter, only 1-5 on the weekends, no holidays. It's also always packed full of people. The weight room itself is tiny, has TOO much stuff in it, yet not enough of the stuff you need, like non-racked barbells and plates, lots of cabled machines.

So I'm going through a period of adjustment, I've had several nights now where I've just had to blow off working out because the gym was simply too full at the time that I had to use it. I suppose I could try working out in the mornings, but as I'm not at all a morning person I don't think that would last.

Any suggestions for adjusting my attitude? What about getting some heavier dumbells, etc to keep around the house to use in those cases? I know I can't get enough weights at home, and my motivation to do at the house goes away as soon as my butt hits the couch.

Help please! I don't want to retrograde!!

Do you have room for a barbell at home?
http://stronglifts.com/strength-trainin ... e-barbell/

Stu

Thanks stu. That's a cool link and looks workable for me if I have to go that route.

It's a great site, one of my favorites.

Stu

What time do you wake up in the morning?

What you can maybe try and do (to see how you perform in the mornings) is eat breakfast first, get your clothes on and then go for a run to warm your body up or you can foam roll to get rid of any scar tissues/tension/knotts in your muscles you may have (foam rolling gets the blood flowing in your muscles even if you have no knotts in any of your muscles), and then go to the gym and workout. After your done with your workout, then you can come home and take a shower. This would be a good start for the day because your workout would already be done and you have the rest of the day to rest and do whatever you have to do.

There's just no way I could work out in the morning. My internal clock doesn't really start until 10:00am or so, I couldn't consistently motivate myself to get up at 5:30am to hit the gym.

But, it's become a non-issue for me. My old gym has re-opened under new ownership, still with 24 hour access, so I'm back to the routine I was comfortable with, and glad to be so.