The Sub-7 Experiment

Tag: gym training

  • Choosing to Turn Up

    Choices. It’s all about the choices.

    Choose to be happy. Choose to be sad. Choose to feel sorry for yourself. Choose to eat your own bodyweight in cheese and crisps and crackers. Choose to turn up. Choose to be a good dad. Choose to go to the gym and come out feeling brilliant, like I did today.

    Today was the first time I’ve chosen to go to the gym in a long time. I haven’t been at all this year.

    Instead, I’ve been blaming other people. Blaming the New Year’s resolution crowd for “clogging up” the gym. Why am I so anti-them? They’re trying to make a change. I’ve been in their shoes, and not that long ago either. Twelve months ago, twenty-four months ago, I was them.

    If anything, I should be in there alongside them. As someone who has been where they are, I could help if they needed it. Instead, I chose to use them as my excuse not to go.

    I also chose to decide to be sad because of the time of year. It’s winter, Christmas is gone, the sun barely shows up, so I leaned into it. Chose the slump. Chose to sit on my hands.

    What a choice, when there’s only one go at this life.

    At some point you have to choose to live it. Choose to get off your arse and do something about it.

    Today, I chose to go to the gym.

    I’ve been rowing in the shed on my new rower, and I’m still delighted I’ve got it. But I’ve missed the contact with people. I’ve missed being in a place that’s full of like-minded folk, all there to put some effort in and feel better for it. The buzz. The energy.

    So today I choose differently.

    I choose to live. I choose to be the best version of me that I can be. And I choose to start doing that again today.

    This is The Sub-7 Experiment.

  • Finding Patience in Recovery

    It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these. The last big thing was the 150km cycle — a brilliant day out. But not long after, I came down with a cold. Headachy, wiped out, all the usual. And just as that started to ease, I went straight into leg surgery two Mondays ago.

    Today was my first time back in the gym in weeks. Literally weeks. I’m nowhere near full power. I did some rowing (even though I’m not really supposed to) and a few light weights — nothing heavy, just enough to move, to feel like I’m doing something again.

    And I do feel weak. Underpowered. Off. But I know this isn’t a new baseline. This is a blip. A temporary stop on a longer road. I’m grateful more than anything — grateful that I’m on the mend, that I have a gym to go to, and that I can move at all.

    I’ve got another surgery in two weeks, so I know I’m not fully back yet. The sub-7 experiment is still very much alive, but realistically, it’s not going to happen this yar. And that’s okay.

    What I need to hold onto now is patience — something I’ve never been great at, especially with myself. But recovery takes time. Push too hard, too soon, and I’ll just end up further back. So this is where I am: moving, mending, grateful, and trying to let time do its job.

    This is The Sub-7 Experiment. Slow for now, but still moving.