Monday 5th November

I'm definitely back on track!

The neck injury has all but cleared up and Friday night I had the best session I've had for months, I came away from the gym feeling drained but really happy. Thankfully as I'd hoped, the gym was pretty empty what with it being a Friday and I had more time to dedicate. It was a 3x12 session and it meant I managed to fit in all three sessions last week after all.

I only get 35 minutes in the mornings as I have to get showered and home in time to feed my son and get ready for work. The one thing I realised on Friday was that having more time really made a difference, I didn't feel rushed and could put more into it. David Lloyd couldn't have timed a leaflet drop any better as I was considering going to have a look anyway, but they're offering free membership until January so I went and had a look around on Saturday. I was slightly disappointed with the free weights section, no squat rack from what I could see and only one Smith machine as opposed to the three at Cannons, plus it looked a bit cramped compared to Cannons. The rest of the club though was a definite improvement, especially the baby pool which is quite important to me as I take my son regularly.

The problem is that with any gym you need to use the facilities before you can judge and it pissed me off that they were not prepared to give me a free guest pass, especially as I told them I was looking for a family membership. Who's going to sign up without knowing what they're getting into? Plus I wanted to know what it's like first thing in the morning, if it's busy then I'll stay where I am, but again I need to use it to find that out. Normally I'd have told them where to go but they open at 6 which is perfect for me, plus I have a mate who's a member there so it means every now and again I could have a training buddy. So I went onto ebay and bought a day pass for £7, which will hopefully come in time for me to use on Wednesday morning. At least then I'll know whether to stick with Cannons or take the plunge with David Lloyd. If it's not busy at 6am then I will, as this will give me an extra half an hour gym time, meaning I can put a lot more into it, especially on the 4x8 sessions as time seems to be very limited when doing these.

As far as the weekend went I had a few beers on Saturday night (well, more than a few) but resisted the hangover blowout and again ate well. I was up nice and early this morning again despite having a day off work and again had more time on my hands to complete a good 4x8 workout. It will be interesting to see my measurements in three and a half weeks, I swear my arms have got bigger, not sure about the rest of me though.

I'll hopefully be able to report back on Friday about David Lloyd at the end of what is week five. By the way, does anyone suffer with serious wind? I swear it's the protein, my guts are all over the place at the moment and it's far from pleasant!