No More Excuses

Fitness used to be a big part of my life...I grew up doing sports, ran varsity cross country and track in college, and even after my spinal cord injury I continued to find ways to stay in shape (rowing, occasional weight training, ellipticals, etc.).  Sadly, however, my health is currently in the toilet.  Between a professional career, 2 kids, a wife, friends, and a seemingly endless list of projects, my exercise routine has been sidelined.  In truth, I'm probably in the worst shape of my life right now.  Sad...considering my line of work.  In truth, I have been rationalizing my neglect of regular exercise by telling myself I would start working out regularly once I got the fitness loft completed.  Well, the rubber has met the road...the loft is finished and there are no more excuses.

With the tung oil having had a full 2 weeks to cure, it was time to dust off the rowing machine (literally) and move the equipment up to the loft.  My ergometer has been sitting with all the boxes in my shop and was literally covered with a good 1/4" of saw dust.  Once cleaned, I found a home for the rowing machine near the cantilevered portion of the loft.

I also picked up a nice mat for floor exercises and for michelle to use when she does her zoomba videos.

Swiss balls were stowed out of the way with wall mounts and I found some cool hooks for hanging miscellaneous exercise gear.

Climbing men hooks...a metaphor for clawing your way back into shape

The last task was to purchase and install the Bowflex.  I actually found a sweet deal on Craig's list a few months ago...I got a $1,400 Bowflex for $400.  This thing was in near mint condition and the best part was that it was already assembled!  Of course, I had to partially disassemble it to move it, but it sure beats starting from scratch.   Like the ergometer, the Bowflex too had accumulated its fair share of dust over the past few months.  Michelle and CC were kind enough to come out and help me dust it off  and move it up stairs.

Finally, I also added an oscillating floor fan and hung some decor:

Over all, it turned out exactly as I had hoped.  Here's a few more wide shots of the whole space:

 

I found a place for a few of my framed posters that didn't make the cut when we moved into our home

The siren points the way upstairs to the rowing machine

The following morning I pulled my fat butt out of bed at 5am and got a solid work out in before work

I'd like to tell you it felt good, but truth be told, I was impressively out of shape and it was a brutal return to the world of exercise.  But just like this project, getting in shape doesn't happen over night. It has been a week now since getting back into a routine and things are slowly getting easier...but I certainly have a long way to go.