Gym Rat

 At the very start of my journey to adopting a healthier lifestyle, I shared that joining a gym wasn’t an option. In my post Gym Membership? back in 2019, I was honest about not being able to afford a gym membership. I also reflected on my past experiences when it came to gym memberships. Like a lot of people I had joined gyms a couple of times and ended up not going, and just wasting a lot of money. The only gym in my past that kind of worked out for me, was a 24 hour gym. I wasn’t totally against joining gyms, but I was definitely pro home gym at the time as I saw it as my only option.

 In my more recent post Don't Call it a Comeback, I shared about losing my lease and having to move. It was a turbulent time for me to say the least. I was in survival mode as I looked into every option possible as far as finding a new, suitable place for us to live. I ended up buying a house, which is much different than renting. I had rented all my life so I was definitely in uncharted territory. Moving, getting settled in and making the necessary repairs to the house were time consuming to say the least. I also started a new home business as I needed the extra income in order to maintain this new life of being a homeowner. 

 I was disappointed that the garage at the new house wasn’t in great shape. Setting up the home gym had to be put off. Working on the house, building a new business, and just getting used to a new area was a lot to manage. I have to give credit to my son for keeping motivated, and keeping me present at all times. My son is very athletic. He just loves all sports. When he started showing interest in MMA, it didn’t come as a surprise. He had been hitting the heavy bag since he was three years old. He also loved watching me train when I was doing King Fu workouts. He tried just about every move I was working on. I always loved martial arts, so I figured it was in his DNA. 

 As my sons passion for MMA grew we discovered that there was an MMA gym about 10 minutes from our house. Talk about it. It’s the only MMA gym in all of southern Norway. We immediately checked it out. He loved it so we signed him up. Signing him up for the MMA class, included a gym membership for one adult as well. MMA, Boxing, Muay Thai, and Grappling are downstairs, and a complete fitness gym upstairs with 24 hour access. The adult membership was full access to the entire facility so yea it was a great deal. My son and I took full advantage of the downstairs training area with a full sized octagon cage, multiple heavy bags, speed bag and all kinds of equipment. Over the course of the last nearly two years, we have spent countless hours training together.

 Training with my now 9 year old son at 61 was proving to be difficult. His progress was speeding up and I was struggling to maintain. I definitely stayed pretty fit, but I surely felt somewhat of a decline from when I was training in our garage 6 to 7 days a week. I decided to step it up. I began testing out the upstairs facility. I wasn’t big on the whole gym atmosphere due to past experiences. But this gym was nice. It has a community like atmosphere. My son’s mom even started going. We both went to all our son’s practices, so we just started showing up early, hitting the upstairs gym for a bit before going down to our son’s training session. To better be able to keep up with my son, I started hitting the gym in the mornings. I then train with him in the evenings. I immediately felt the difference.

 After testing the waters for a couple of months, I decided to join the gym myself. The membership fees at this training center are incredibly reasonable. I am much more disciplined than I was in my 20’s and 30’s so yea I go to the gym religiously every morning. I wish to set a good example for my son first and foremost. I also wish to honor my commitment to living a healthier lifestyle. I was just grateful that I was now in a position that I could afford the $30 per month for a gym membership. The training center has a very laid back, welcoming atmosphere that makes it as close to working out at home as you could get. 

 Adapting to sudden changes in your life to me is a sign of growth. Let’s face it, I could have easily just given up all together. I credit committing to adopting a healthier lifestyle as being the reason I was able to adapt the way I have. Not just joining a gym, but also learning a new sport that didn’t even exist when I was coming up. MMA is incredible in so many ways. My son has become such an amazing young man all across the board. It has also changed me in more ways than I can count. I will definitely be writing a post getting into all the benefits of practicing MMA no matter what your age is. It also doesn’t matter what age you are, you can still adopt a healthy lifestyle and start living your best life. I am living proof that even in the later stages of life, you will benefit from becoming a gym rat. Thank you for reading.