I’ve probably never given a health club a chance before now. Even when I belonged to the exclusive East Bank Club in Chicago, it was all about the massages and the manicures and meeting friends for dinner. Before that, I became a charter member of Centre Club of Libertyville because it was inexpensive. However, it too had a great restaurant, so you can see what my primary criterion for health club membership was.
The South Shore Health and Racquet Club (SSHRC) of St. Joseph hardly competes with my two former clubs. It’s small by comparison and old and there isn’t a waitress or waiter in sight. There isn’t a snack bar or a cafй either. And, for the most part, the towels have seen their better days. So have the showers.
At the same time, I have obtained greater results from my exercise effort at the SSHRC than I ever did before. Do you think it’s because I don’t eat after my workout? Yeah, that could be part of it; but maybe the other part is that, for the first time in my life, I actually have the time to devote to an exercise regime. When I joined clubs before, it was in my child-rearing period or my corporate-job-with-set-hours period. Neither was conducive to spending three hours in a gym working on your abs or your heart rate.
The downside is that regardless of how hard I work or how buff I get, I am beyond the age of turning heads when I walk down a street. In fact, I’m more apt to appear invisible. Yet, the benefits I’ve derived from this time around the track outweigh any illusions I have of attracting public attention.
I can walk anywhere without my inner thighs slapping each other. Now they wave instead. I can pick up any object from the floor without thinking twice. My clothes fit better (read, looser) and I stand straighter. I can open a heavy door without pushing against it with both hands. I sleep less, but when I sleep it’s a better one. My stomach is starting to resemble a washboard instead of a basketball. I don’t have a stiff neck anymore. My time for a mile of walking on the treadmill continues to decline.
It is definitely a time commitment — for me, about ten hours a week — and I don’t like exercising any better than I did at the East Bank or Centre Clubs. But I have finally recognized the benefits. They come a la carte, rather than with dinner.
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