Going To The Gym Is Complicated

Sit parallel with the bars. Your legs should be bent a bit but not too much. Pull the grips down while leaning back a bit. Do not use your shoulders. Try to use your back muscles to pull the pulley. Also, use the muscles under your armpits. Look straight ahead. RELAX your shoulders. Try to focus on your upper back muscles.

In my mind, the thoughts are trying to remember these micro steps at the same time. My mind is wondering,g “Am I doing this right?” It is also trying to relax the shoulders but not sure if it is working. There are pains in certain places as the machine works the body, but I'm not sure if those are the right areas. Throughout this, the trainer is reminding me how to do these things, and my mind is just going all over the place. As he talks, I am also thinking about the past events, the needs of tomorrow, things to write about and a hundred other ideas.

I hate the gym. It is not the pain of doing the activities but the constant thinking that goes on. It is not the first time I have worked with a personal trainer. The last time, I got too frustrated and just stopped going or talked too much, so there was less working out and more talking. The activities they have me do can be too complicated, as my mind wanders. Yes, I have Attention Deficit Disorder and have had it all my life, but in most things, there are ways to get around it. With working out, there are too many things to worry about and to think about, as there are too many concerns, issues, and just random thoughts.

I am not looking to lose weight. The best way to do that is to stop eating fried pork and other nasty stuff; the diet can be a stronger influence on managing weight than working out. Being active has a lot of benefits and too many to list here, but it is one of the best ways to control the ADHD/ADD ways. It helps the monkey in my brain that jumps from topic to topic.

Dr. John J. Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard, wrote in his book Spark, The Revolutionary New Science Of Exercise and the Brain, how “exercise is the single most powerful tool to optimize your brain function.” He talks about the number of studies that show how exercise helps with stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, aging and much more. There are too many benefits to getting more physical than I have been.

Most of the workouts I’ve done are the simple ones: walking, biking, spinning, playing sports and so on. They are easy, as I do whatever comes through. Walking and cycling are the easiest, as I allow my mind and body to wander wherever they want to go. It is relaxing; it clears the mind and puts me in a more meditative state, where the brain and body wander. My Fitbit usually says I walk about 15,000 to 25,000 steps per day and love it.

These do not help my horrible posture, my lack of balance and my low energy levels. I am going back to the gym twice a week and trying to get better. If I lose weight, that would be great, but my focus is more on the ‘other things’ like controlling my thoughts and building a healthier body.