THE CRUSADES - by dougal macdonald Chief Evangalist - day 27

The Comeback Begins

It started early morning. Where the heck is my gym card? Do I have a sweat towel (glow towel for the girls) handy. Where's my water bottle?

I mean 2 months out of the gym and I've lost the plot. Finally with everything I need carrried out to the car off I trundle to the Gym. Yes I drove. Well it's only up the road...a back road. Oh get over it, so I drove.

Approached the door, walked in and was bombarded with house music, people walking in different directions, trainers huddled with their clients, sharing intimate secrets. It was a bit of a culture shock but I was brought back to the present when Bruce, a trainer said to me "Sheesh dude I didn't recognise you you've lost so much weight. What happened? Wow, are you sure you should be here. Bro go slow, right?"

Moving swiftly to the stationary bikes to eliminate further verbal "warm ups" I jumped on for a 5 minute warm up. Gave me a chance to get my bearings. I looked around. Some of the usual suspects on the bikes, munching on a carrot and bran muffins and reading O magazine. They come to an interesting part in the article about 'tighten up your waist and your finances'
and they....stop. At some stage they realise this, have a quick look around feeling self conscious and start pedalling madly again, until the next rivetting article. I enjoyed my 5 minutes and headed for the stretching area.

Full body stretch complete and to 'The weight room'. The area where the big boys play. Oh yeah. The guys who load up the bar with agazillion weights and do half a squat whilst the spotter behind him screams ' It all yours dude, all yours'
Then they leave all the weight for some poor sucker to unload.

I head to the bench. 'This is what I'm talking about.' I load the the olympic bar with..........nothing. that's it nada, nothing.

I get underneath the bar and close my eyes. 'Thank you God that I'm here and able to do this . Thank you'.

I call a spotter...no I'm kidding...and unrack the bar. Boy it felt strange. My chest was pretty tight as were my shoulders but I did a set of 12 with increasingly good form after the first one or two jerky reps. Felt great.

Moving around the gym, lat pulldowns, tricep push downs, bicep curls, shoulder press, I soaked in the atmosphere doing one set of each slowly, feeling my way.

People looked at the Darth Vader collar and I could see wonder in their eyes. They didn't ask the question and I didn't volunteer. This was my time.

I left the gym and walked into bright sunshine....I'm BACK.