Exerciser exercising his right to exercise

These days I find myself doing the strangest thing.

Exercising.

Yes, I have begun to exercise. On a regular basis. Not that it’s unheard of, me exercising. It’s just that these days it’s become a real goal for me. Namely, to have broader shoulders and to lose the flab that’s overstaying its welcome in my mid-section.

In the beginning – I think it started in June – I’d been doing walks from my home in Tanjung Aru facing the SM La Salle football field. I’d start by going past the field towards Tanjung Aru town itself and walking by the police station. Turning left towards the beach, I’d walk/run until Terminal 2 and then cutting across Horn Field towards First Beach Tanjung Aru.

Staying out of sight from my colleagues who work there, I would run into the adjacent Prince Philip Park until Medan Selera, a halal and very dirty eating spot. Further on past the Medan, you’d see an old Shell learning-traffic-laws for school children and I’d run straight past that too until I get to a section of Tanjung Aru beach with huge cement pilings that were driven into the ground where dirt meets sand. It must have been done many years ago. I wouldn’t know.

Inspired by parkour or free-running, I would climb onto the first of those pilings and try to walk as fast as I could without missing a step and falling down onto the sand five feet below. At the end of this make-shift obstacle course, I get to a large abandoned piece of cement slab which I’d vault over.

Running on the sand proper now, I’d go until I reached the runway of the Kota Kinabalu International Airport or Terminal 1 and go onto a road that would lead me back to the main road that leads out from the T2, which makes you think of either one or two things.

First: the whole airport complex must be really small. Yes, it is.

Second: must be a really long walk (or run if I felt like it).

Honestly, the whole thing for me would take only a little more than one hour by walking.

Well, now I haven’t been jogging or walking for more than a month now. Funny how life is really good at distracting you from doing things you care about. Or maybe it’s just me.

Yeah, I guess it’s just me.

So now, everyday when I reach home, I make sure that I do my exercises before dinner or shower.

First, I’d do sit-up which is the worse part. Actually they’re more like crunches. My colleague P******’s husband taught me this when I told him what I wanted to do. I knew I’d asked the right guy for advice because this guy has actually had a six-park before. He’s lost it for a long time now though. What he told me was to lie straight on my back with thighs at a 45 degree angle and lift my shoulders up as if I’m trying to touch my knees with him.

Not an easy thing to do. And I do feel the burn in my mid-section after that. I try to do three sets of ten to start and it’s a bitch, let me tell you.

Next, I take a 2.5 kilo dumbbell and do a set of exercises of my own design.

For the first one hundred reps, I just pass the dumbbell from one hand to the other and this feels great on the forearms. I could the tension on them.

For another 100 reps, with my back straight I’d stare upwards at a 45 degree angle and jab one of my arms holding the dumbbells and switch it to my other hand. Doing this, I would flex biceps and shoulders.

The last thing I do is take a chair with a back rest and lean forward slightly over it while keeping my back straight. Then I would do an alternate snatch-and-let-go between both hands. I don’t grip the dumbbell with the whole hand but with my fingers to work on my fine motor strength.

With all this, I hope to get a six-pack by Christmas.

I got to make sure I stick to it this time.