The Lonely Exercise Machine

As with many things, my parents exposed me to a lot of things and encouraged me to try them, but I was too lazy/stubborn/fearful to do them, and so I ignored all the things they gave me, both educational and entertaining.  And so they would just take up space and collect dust in various corners of the house.  Some things still do, such as the pool table.  Some have been hauled away to the dump, like the foosball table.  (It was a beautiful foosball table.)

And then there are the exercise machines.  It started, I think, with an exercise bike.  I can see it now in, of all places, the dining room, where Mother hangs her wet clothes on the handlebars to dry.  There was also this somewhat rickety cross-country skiing simulation; you get on the sliding footpads, grab the retractable handlebars that stretch all the way to the floor, and just act like you're skiing on this small, flat thing.  Your movement generates power so you can see your progress on the screen.  Yeah, I think all three of us played on those machines for a little bit, then abandoned them.  Father threw away the CC sim, by the way.  The treadmill, too ... oh yeah, we had a treadmill; now I remember.  I may have gone on it once.  It may have been broken, but it too has been thrown away.

Then there is this huge machine that, many years ago, Mother wanted and/or Father bought and brought down to the basement.  I think it's what they call a stepladder machine, or a step machine -- it has two separated footpads, you step on each, you alternate moving them, like you're climbing stairs, and that's how you exercise.

Unlike the other machines, I may have tried it, oh, twice or thrice, and all those times probably for about a minute.  It is a humongous contraption, and I don't think I ever understood it.  I don't think I've ever seen Mother on it, either, but I think that the only exercise machine she has ever used was the treadmill.  (Father doesn't exercise.  He buys things for other people to use.)

And yet an epiphany hit me about last weekend.  I have been mentally inveighing about needing to schlep out to the community room to exercise.  Maybe it's the winter or my guilt over not getting through My Stuff as much as I would have liked by now, but while I sometimes have to rouse myself into changing and getting into my car to go exercise before, now it feels even more like a herculean challenge.

I was thinking about the next time I would have the time to work out, and I was dreading needing to dress up and go out in the cold to drive in the cold to the gym.  And then I remembered the stepping machine.  Why don't I just work out on that?  It's here, and I don't have to brave the frigid weather.  I just have to change, go into the basement corner, figure out how it works, and, well, work out.  Besides, I'd be working out by myself and removing a layer of risk by exercising by myself.  The past several times at the community center another person was working out too, and I wasn't that comfortable sharing that space with that person and his/her possible COVID breath.  Still.

Well, Monday was that time.  I thought I just immediately go home, take a nap, then go downstairs and work out.  Instead a bunch of other crap happened to which I might blog post about some other time, and then I needed to work out even more because 1) I had so much stress to let loose and 2) by the time I was done with said crap, it would have been too late for me to get to the gym.  So even though it was later than I wanted to, it was high time for me to get on this lonely, old machine and give it some purpose.

Like some machines such as the ellipticals and treadmills at the community center, this step machine has programs.  I think I put myself on the first and easiest one.  It was only 20 minutes in length, and even though the screen (which is self-powered, like the late and lamented cross-country ski machine) said there would be resistance in changes, it was a relative breeze to get through.  (It helps to have a spot next to the machine on which you could rest your laptop so you can stream a college basketball Game.)  Not to say I didn't get a workout; if you are "walking up stairs" for 20 minutes straight, you'll get a bit bow-legged.  But feel the burn and all.  Oh, and the machine has a fan that you can turn on and power while you exercise.

And now that I've taken it out for a spin, so to speak ... you know, it's not a bad machine at all.  I don't know why I can't work out on it a little more.  Sure, I love my elliptical, it's good to jog and run on a treadmill, and we don't have kettlebells at home.  But if I want to exercise but don't want to drive in order to do it, I should blow the dust off this stepladder machine and use that.  It's been waiting to be used for years now.  And it deserves to be used.  Shoot, I'm going to use it!