By GEORGE MAHL – Sports Editor

It was back to the bump and grind of my three-day-a-week workouts over at Shannon’s Health and Fitness Center. Feeling better and ready to move on, I decided to go back to getting myself into shape. I started things out slowly last Friday. Instead of walking on a treadmill for 35 minutes, I only walked for 30 minutes (there was a 5 minute cooling off period after I was done. I felt a little more tired than normal after walking, but I guess that is because I was still feeling the after effects of being ill for several days.

It was then time to go do a new stretching exercise I had not done before. I got on my hands and knees and was instructed by Karen to lift my right hand while lifting my left leg and straightening out. I think it was a balancing exercise I was doing. I felt OK after that exercise.

It was then on to the weight room. I usually do 12 squats, however, by missing nearly two weeks worth of workouts, I only did 10 reps. I went on to my leg lifting exercise after that. Again, instead of doing 12 I only did 10. I was glad this was the last exercise in which I would have to use my legs, because at this point my legs felt like they just ran a marathon. A couple of more exercises with my arms and I was finished for the day.

I stepped it up a little bit this past Monday and Wednesday. On Monday, Karen introduced me to a new exercise called the Elliptical. This exercise makes you feel that you are walking up a mountain while wearing skis. I felt proud of myself because I lasted a whole 10 minutes doing this exercise. I thought I was going to die after being on it for the first three minutes.

Although, 10 minutes, according to Karen, is a great time to start off doing this exercise for someone like me. It was back on to the treadmill for me after this exercise. However, I only did 20 minutes on the treadmill this time. The reason is because “doing 10 minutes on an Elliptical is equal to doing 20 minutes on a treadmill,” according to Karen.

I finished off my workout by doing a chest exercise. It is sort of like doing a bench press, except you are not lifting a bar above your head. Everything else is going fine. For those that have seen me and felt I lost some weight, I thank you.

You may be right, but I have not stepped on a scale since I began four weeks ago. Until next week, be good to yourself.