So lemme blog about yesterday's gym session instead.
I changed into my gym clothes at home (thought I'd save time by not having to change at the gym later), laced up my sport shoes (which has taken a beating over the years...from hiking to rafting, etc) and walked to the gym to meet the trainer (which turned out to be a she :< ....I was hoping it would be a cute guy coz Mi Amor said there's a cute trainer ). Anyway, she doesn't speak a word of English and I still can't speak/understand a word of French so when she showed me the changing room, she was saying something to me which i didn't understand but had a feeling it had something to do with my shoes (well she kept pointing at em'). Luckily for me, there was a woman in the changing room who could kinda speak English (she's Brazilian and she can speak French also so she translated for me and told me that I can't wear my shoes to the gym (I was thinking "What? Are u guys THAT snooty that my ugly shoes aren't good enough for the gym?!?"). Turns out what she meant was that I have to change into my sport shoes at the gym itself ( i.e you're not allowed to use shoes that you've used outside at the gym...it's not hygienic). Ok, I admit I don't have much gym experience but from the few times I've been to the gym in Malaysia, no one told me that was part of the gym etiquette.
After apologizing and saying next time I won't wear my shoes straight from home, I was ready for my workout. After writing down my name (I have no idea if she understood that my name is Azareena and not Yahya :P) she asked me something in French and started using her fingers to emphasize, showing me 1 finger, 2 fingers, 3 fingers, 4 fingers, etc (I think she went all the way up to 20)... I thought she was asking me my age so I showed her 2 fingers (which she nodded) followed by 9 (which she gasped). Okayyyyyy....so she wasn't asking my age then :P My next guess was that maybe she was asking me how many times do I exercise or plan to exercise in a week so I held up 3-4 fingers, which was greeted with a Oui!
So she took a clipboard which had a piece of paper with the word programme on it and some tables to fill in (my guess is that was prolly suppose to be like a fitness chart/review or something) and brought me to the machines. She asked me what kind of exercise would I prefer (I said cardio) and which machine would I prefer to use so I chose the eleptical. She switched on the machine, keyed in my weight, set it for 10 minutes at level 4 (so maybe that's what she was asking me, my preferred intensity level ?!?) and left me to it. After 12 minutes (10 mins workout + 2 minutes of cooling down), the programme stopped. I didn't know what to do....was I suppose to just continue coz that was just a demonstration on how to set the machine? or am I suppose to wait for her to come back and get me?WHAT?!? So after waiting idle for about 2 minutes, I decided to turn the machine on again and started a new programme. 10 minutes into the new programme, she came over to check on me and was suprised that I had started a new programme. I sheepishly smiled and stopped the programme and we moved on to another machine. She asked me if I preferred to jog or walk and I said walk (baby steps ok?) so she showed me to a machine that looked like a treadmill but is used specifically for walking. Then she went ahead and set the programme and Voila! Let the walking begin!
I thought that maybe she had set the programme duration like how she set the eliptical, which is for 10 minutes but 10 minutes came and went and I thought ok, maybe not...maybe 20 minutes then. After 20 minutes came and went, I thought hmmm.....30 minutes? (all I can tell you is I saw 30 minutes come and go and I waved to 40 minutes as it passed by). I started to wonder if the trainer was gonna come back for me or whether I was really left to my own devices this time (not to mention when the hell is this programme suppose to end?!?). I didn't want to stop incase she came back for me and thought that I had given up and God forbid, am so unfit that I can't even complete the programme that she had set for me. Then I realized that there's this bar graph thingy on the machine that lights up as time goes by so I thought that perhaps once it lights up all the way, that means the programme has been completed.
Anyhow, after 1 hour and 12 minutes of being on the freaking machine I thought, Ok, this is just ridiculous, screw the programme, she's not coming to check on me is she? and turned the machine off. On the way to the changing room I bumped into the trainer who was busy talking to some other woman and she was all "Tres bien!" while patting my back and saying something else in French which I thought could either mean "I'm not done with you, I'll be with you in a moment" or "OK, that's the end of our session". I took it as the latter so I changed into my clothes, thanked her and waved goodbye.
Oh well, 1 hour and 22 minutes for my gym debut isn't too bad I guess. Hmmm... now to make myself a gym schedule :D
Azareena has been slacking ni
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