With the arctic freeze still having a death grip on DC and the gym in my building still closed due to that pipe bursting several weeks ago, I bit the bullet and picked up a membership at the gym down the street.


Back when the fitness center was open

I was sick of not being able to do a good workout, and the gym offered me a pretty decent deal on membership. This is my first real gym membership (if you don't count CrossFit) in six years.

I've never paid to belong to a gym since I moved back to the DC-area because the places I lived always offered a free fitness center as a perk.

Last night I hit the weight room at my new gym to keep up with my online personal training plan. It's been a struggle to stick with it while the fitness center in my building has been closed, but I'm so glad to have access to the equipment I need again.

Last night's workout included some squats, deadlifts and push presses -- a move I haven't done since my CrossFit days. (On a totally random side note, I do hope to go back to CrossFit some day when all my foot problems eventually clear up for good).



I love push presses, for some unexplained reason I think they are the most fun thing ever -- maybe it's because I can lift so much more weight in a push press than in a regular overhead press.

Anyway, I surprised myself last night by how much weight I was able to press. It was definitely more than I expected.

I just so happened to finish up my lifting as a spin class was starting, and since I haven't taken a spin class in ages, I decided to join in.

Unfortunately, the class was only so-so. Definitely not the best I've taken, but not the worst either. I like my spin classes to have good music that I can jam out too, and the song selection last night was definitely meh.

I also thought the drills we did in class were kind of boring. Maybe I'm just a spin brat -- I haven't found an instructor I've really loved since I left the gym in York, Pa., six years ago.

Anyway, I'm glad to have a gym back in my life -- especially since there's no sign of an end to this cold weather.