By George Mahl Sports Editor

After my first workout, I thought I would feel a little sore because of the muscles I had never stretched before. But, that was not the case at all, probably because of the post stretch exercises Karen and I did together over at Shannon’s Health and Fitness Center. I felt a little more energy before my workout than I previously had before. I go into the part of the club where Karen has a class, this is when she means business. She did not even tell me hi or good morning. Instead, she tells me “go in the other room and get on the treadmill. I’ll be in there in a minute.” I could tell it was time to get busy.

I did something different this time on the treadmill that I had not done in the past. Instead of holding onto the bar while walking at a brisk pace, I placed my hands to the side. That way you get the blood to flow throughout your entire body. I did that for about 20 minutes. I think I walked at 3.4 MPH while on the machine. While on the treadmill, Karen and I continued to talk about nutrition. One of the things she suggested was to eat fat free meats on wheat or rye bread along with spinich leaves, which are a great substitute for lettuce.

The next thing I did was stretch my hamstrings. This is a good stretching excercise because it prevents the back of your legs from tighting up after running or walking for an extended period of time. It was back to more stretching before I continued on the weights. The only part of my body that was hurting the slightest was the back of my shoulder. There was no concern about it because Karen explained to me that the only thing that happened was that a muscle was forming on the back of my shoulder. No problem whatsoever. Instead of doing 15 reps on the leg lifts exercise, I did 30 reps. I must admit, though, it was not a lot of weight, but it was a start.

One thing is for sure, I feel much better about myself after each workout.