31st December 2010
Pat and I went to the Y today to see what equipment I might be able to use in addition to exercises in the pool. As a former personal trainer, Pat is interested in both herself and me getting in better physical condition. She walks miles and miles around Gloucester, while I row miles and miles on my machine, so she is not worried about our cardiovascular health, but our strength, especially my left side.
At the Y, we ventured upstairs to the fitness room, which we had not visited on our first tour, as focused as we were to see whether I could make my way to the locker room and get into the pool. Today we went up to the third floor, where there's a gymnasium on the left and fitness room to the right, women's locker room with sauna in between.
The fitness room contained a bank of cardio equipment on the left and a Nautilus circuit on the right. I eyed the leg curl machine as we entered, but we tried out a recumbent bike instead, to see how that went. Fortunately, there was a foot strap to hold my left foot in place, and I could even pedal with my right foot on the floor because Pat wanted to see if my left leg was just "going along for the ride" or whether it could actually pedal. I didn't do it long, but it was tiring. All of the Stairmasters, which Pat wanted me to try, were occupied, so that was out.
We looked around for something else I could try. She relented and said I could try the three leg machines by the door we'd entered: they were labeled leg curl, leg extension, and abductor/adductor. I think that's to strengthen hamstring (back of thigh), quad (front of thigh), abductors(outside of thigh) and adductors (inside of thigh), respectively, although I might have the abductor/adductor locations reversed. I'll have to check.
