Cross Trainer
Swimming and walking are what I like best, especially swimming before breakfast – it makes you feel great for the rest of the day.
Sadly I haven’t got a swimming pool. Sometimes I manage a walk before our office opens, but not always. And sometimes it’s tipping it down and although that would not deter me from walking in somewhere with lots of scenery, it tends to put me off going to the park.
And my right leg, which had a deep-vein-thrombosis in 1984, needs to walk a lot or it hurts a lot. The other leg has no say in the matter.
So, a few weeks ago I bought a machine called a cross trainer and now, rather sheepishly, I am telling you about it.
Here’s a picture of it. See that really skinny woman on the left with the ever-so-shiny white teeth? Well, that’s not me.
It’s very easy to use – you stand on it, hold its handles, and walk. Playing fast music helps. In the first weeks of owning it I went through a whole tape of Celtic Jigs and Reels - it’s possible I may never want to hear another one. I tried classical music, but sadly The Lark Ascending may be sublime listening and one of my favourites but as walking-fast music it’s rubbish.
But the good thing about the machine is that it requires nothing except getting on it and walking. You don’t have to dress from head to toe in Lycra and you don’t need very expensive trainers and you don’t have to get changed in smelly changing rooms.
I’ve been walking on it several times a day, though never very far – about a kilometre and a half every time, as fast as I can. It has made me feel fitter, and, ironically, that has made me go for more “real” walks and also swimming, and eat more healthily too (though my diet wasn’t bad before; as a Type 2 diabetic I have to pay it serious attention anyway).
Lots of people said I wouldn’t use the machine, or not for very long, but I do seem to be using it on a daily basis and I plan to keep on doing so. So, having been one of those people who have always mocked gym addicts along the lines of “what’s wrong with walking or swimming?” I am now eating my words a bit.
I’ll let you know how I get on, unless I stop using the cross trainer in the next week and stick it in the garage, never to be seen again, in which case you will hear no more.
Sadly I haven’t got a swimming pool. Sometimes I manage a walk before our office opens, but not always. And sometimes it’s tipping it down and although that would not deter me from walking in somewhere with lots of scenery, it tends to put me off going to the park.
And my right leg, which had a deep-vein-thrombosis in 1984, needs to walk a lot or it hurts a lot. The other leg has no say in the matter.
So, a few weeks ago I bought a machine called a cross trainer and now, rather sheepishly, I am telling you about it.
Here’s a picture of it. See that really skinny woman on the left with the ever-so-shiny white teeth? Well, that’s not me.
It’s very easy to use – you stand on it, hold its handles, and walk. Playing fast music helps. In the first weeks of owning it I went through a whole tape of Celtic Jigs and Reels - it’s possible I may never want to hear another one. I tried classical music, but sadly The Lark Ascending may be sublime listening and one of my favourites but as walking-fast music it’s rubbish.
But the good thing about the machine is that it requires nothing except getting on it and walking. You don’t have to dress from head to toe in Lycra and you don’t need very expensive trainers and you don’t have to get changed in smelly changing rooms.
I’ve been walking on it several times a day, though never very far – about a kilometre and a half every time, as fast as I can. It has made me feel fitter, and, ironically, that has made me go for more “real” walks and also swimming, and eat more healthily too (though my diet wasn’t bad before; as a Type 2 diabetic I have to pay it serious attention anyway).
Lots of people said I wouldn’t use the machine, or not for very long, but I do seem to be using it on a daily basis and I plan to keep on doing so. So, having been one of those people who have always mocked gym addicts along the lines of “what’s wrong with walking or swimming?” I am now eating my words a bit.
I’ll let you know how I get on, unless I stop using the cross trainer in the next week and stick it in the garage, never to be seen again, in which case you will hear no more.
posted by Daphne at 10:19 pm
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