I awoke Tuesday morning with a groan. The wife was about to leave for work, and as she does every day, she came in to say so long.

When I made the noise, she expressed her hope that I would be able to fall back to sleep, despite what sounded like a thousand lawnmowers going to work outside
our apartment window.

What I tried to tell her was that my groan wasn’t over the noise, but rather the fact it felt like my arms had been encased in cement. Whether I was able to relay this, I don’t know, but either way, she chuckled, kissed my head and went off to work.

I laid in bed, halfasleep, wondering why I couldn’t push myself up, or lift my arms over my head. Then I remembered the workout I tried to do Monday and let out another groan.

In need of something quick to do, I had decided to dive into the issue of Men’s Health I had purchased last weekend. Inside, I find an exercise called the “Body Fat Boiler,” a workout that consists of five exercises done in three circuits and claimed to take just 18 minutes.

The five exercises – pushups, mountain climbers, crunches, jumping jacks and body-weight squats – were to be done 50 times, broken up into different increments, like 15 pushups, then 20 mountain climbers, then 15 crunches, and so on until each one was done 50 times.

And that would be the end of one circuit. After a 1-2 minute rest, it was time to repeat, two more times.

Alarms should have gone ringing through my head when I read the workout, or at the very least, a little voice saying ‘Hey, dummy, maybe you scale this back a bit.’

The workout I’ve been doing at Hampshire Hills consists of 20 pushups. Total.

Why I thought I could all of a sudden do 150 pushups, along with 150 of each of the other exercises, I don’t know.

But I tried. I made it through the first half of the first circuit OK. By the time I hit 50 pushups and 50 crunches, my arms were exhausted and I felt a little nauseous.

I took a little longer than a two-minute break, chugged some water, and told myself to at least try a second circuit.

I made it halfway through before I realized I needed to shut it down.

It took me a while to recover, but eventually I felt stable enough to continue my day, thankful that I stopped when I did.

As for my arms, they were beyond sore for the next two days, completely wiping out any other workouts I might have done.

Was the workout bad? No, it’s just that I was a little irresponsible doing it.

You need to be honest with yourself about what your body is capable of doing. Otherwise, it could be bad news for you. When in doubt, ask for help. You have other reasons you can’t get out of bed in the morning.

Joe Marchilena writes a weekly fitness
column for Hampshire Hills. To find out more information about the “90 Day
Commit to Get Fit” program, call 603-673-7123 or email hhinfo@hampshirehills.com.

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