Hello, this is Dojo from the Creative Club.
This time, I'd like to share a report on the personal training gym "24/7 Workout" that I attended for about two and a half months, from late April to early July.
What prompted me to join 24/7 Workout?
After I turned 30, I started to put on weight easily. One day, I happened to look at a photo from 10 years ago and saw that I looked like a completely different person.
I keep going on diets and then regaining the weight, never able to reach my ideal weight.
In the past, I've tried restricting my diet and going to the gym, but I'm not good at doing multiple things at the same time, so when I get busy at work I end up neglecting my diet, and I never ended up continuing it.
I went to a fasting center over the New Year period and although I lost 5kg, I gained it all back in an instant.
After all, if you lose weight by not eating, it makes sense that you will gain it back if you eat.
So I came to the conclusion that I needed to fundamentally transform my body and increase my basal metabolic rate.
However, I was reluctant to go to personal training and pay hundreds of thousands of yen to lose weight, but what ultimately motivated me was the voices of those around me and my concerns about the future.
The photo on the left is me from 10 years ago.
When I meet a friend for the first time in a while, I hear heartless comments like, "You've gained weight," "You look like an old lady," and "You should follow the example of so-and-so."
Also, a senior at Monosus (Mr. S) said something extremely rude: "If I were the dojo owner, I'd go to Rizap."
It's true that even when I occasionally go to places to meet people, I don't get approached by men like I used to.
I used to blame it on my age, but maybe that's not the case.
I asked myself these questions over and over, and as I was approaching 35, I became anxious that if I continued like this I would never be able to get married, so I decided to spend a lot of money to lose weight drastically at a personal training gym.
Me in August 2016. My face is completely round.
Once you have made your decision, the first thing to do is choose a personal training gym.
As expected, the popular "RIZAP" was the first option that came to mind, but it is quite expensive.
The course I wanted to join, which included strength training and aerobic exercise, cost about 550,000 yen for two months, including the registration fee.
I can't really put this out there.
The next contenders were the women's only "Shaps" and "24/7 Workout."
The fees for both companies were around 200,000 yen for two months, so it was difficult to decide which one to choose.
As for "Shaps," I was quite attracted to the fact that it was specifically for women, but ultimately, after looking at the monitoring results, I chose "24/7 Workout," which I felt would produce better results.
I don't really like being seen by others while I'm training, so the fact that 24/7 Workout offers completely private rooms was also a factor in why I chose it.
After joining "24/7 Workout" the battle with myself begins
After narrowing my sights down to 24/7 Workout, I immediately went to their Yokohama branch for a consultation. During the consultation, a slim, muscular, good-looking guy appeared and explained the pricing, training, and dietary restrictions.
He was a refreshingly handsome man like this. (The photo is for illustrative purposes only.)
The content was as expected and there were no problems, so I decided to join that same day and scheduled my first training date.
There were about two weeks until the first training day, but we were told to eat whatever we wanted until it started.
I understand that they want me not to restrict my diet until training begins because it would mean that my weight loss (achievement) would be less after training begins, but I packed in cherry blossom viewing parties and drinking parties during this period, and ended up gaining 3kg in 2 weeks.
As a result, I ended up giving myself a handicap when I started my training.
During the first training session, I was given dietary advice.
The diet involves restricting carbohydrates, as you know. The daily carbohydrate intake is limited to 50g or less, and the diet is as high in protein as possible.
Specifically, staple foods like rice, bread, and noodles are of course off limits, vegetables such as potatoes and root vegetables are off limits, meat is fillet if possible, sweet sauces are off limits, and when hungry, atari fish or nuts are the only options.
The first day's training was a little lighter, to see how much muscle strength I had. In fact, I didn't have as much muscle pain as I thought I would, and it was surprisingly easy.
After your training, finish off by drinking 24/7 Workout's original protein.
From this day onwards, the tough days of carbohydrate restriction began.
I was pretty strict during the first week, limiting my carbohydrate intake to less than 30g per day.
Lunch menu for one day during training
[Example of meals during training (carbohydrate content)]
Breakfast: Protein (2.6g), whole soy milk (1.8g)
Lunch: Caesar salad (9.1g), salad chicken (1.15g), boiled egg (1.1g), miso soup (0.5g)
Snack: dried squid (0.2g), mixed nuts (4.7g)
Dinner: Pork loin (0g), Shimeji mushrooms (0.5g), Chinese cabbage (6.4g)
Total carbohydrates for this day: 28.05g
At the time, I was only eating squid as a snack during work, which caused the people around me to smell like squid and I started getting complaints, and I also had an incident where I chewed too much squid and my jaw started to hurt.
As a result, I lost 3kg in just the first week, but I felt very fatigued and my mind was foggy, and it was starting to affect my work, so from the following week I changed to a more lenient carbohydrate restriction.
As for the second training session, it seemed like the real training started from this day, and I did squats and bench presses with a heavier barbell than last time.
As a result, he became oxygen-deprived and ended up vomiting during training.
That day was really tough and I was very worried about whether I could continue.
Training will be conducted twice a week for approximately two months.
The content of the muscle training varied depending on the trainer each time, but the basic training I did was as follows.
- Bike 10 minutes
- Squats (40kg barbell) 15 reps 3 sets
- Brazilian squats: 2 sets of 20 on each leg
- Bench press (barbell 30kg) 15 reps 3 sets
- Lat pulldown (barbell 20kg) 15 reps 3 sets
- Upper arm training (barbell 10kg) 15 repetitions, 3 sets
- Sit-ups: 20 repetitions, 3 sets
- Plank 1 minute
- Bike 20 minutes
The above training will be carried out for a total of about 70 minutes, with intervals in between.
The photo is just for illustration purposes, but this is exactly what our training was like.
All of the muscle training was tough, but the squats, Brazilian squats, and bench presses were the most difficult.
As you know, squats are when you repeatedly squat down and stand up with a barbell. By the third set, my legs were shaking and I was out of breath after the first set and couldn't talk for a while.
It was the first time I experienced being out of breath during strength training.
Brazilian squats are single legged squats.
I do squats with one foot on a chair placed behind me, but for some reason I always end up getting a cramp in the sole of my foot.
I do it without holding a weight, but this is still quite difficult.
The bench press involves lying on your back and lifting the barbell using your chest muscles.
For me it was better than squats, but suddenly during training my muscles would stop responding and wouldn't move at all.
This is what is commonly known as being pumped up, but I was surprised when it suddenly stopped moving.
Lat pulldowns involve grabbing the bar overhead with both hands and pulling it towards your spine.
This wasn't too tough, but it was difficult to keep my spine in place.
Plank involves standing with your body straight as if it were a board, and supporting yourself on your elbows and toes.
This is a training to strengthen your core, and although at first I couldn't even last 30 seconds, by the end I was able to easily endure a minute, which made me very happy.
After completing the training, what is the before and after?
The good thing about going 24/7 is that the trainers will take you beyond your limits.
I don't think I could have continued for two and a half months on my own. If I had stopped when it got too hard, I wouldn't have been able to push through the limits of my muscles.
Towards the end of the month, there were days when I couldn't go to the gym due to work commitments, but with these dietary restrictions and training, I eventually managed to lose 10kg in about two and a half months.
After I lost about 5 kg, I started receiving nice comments from my colleagues at work, such as "You've lost weight" and "I didn't recognize you from behind."
Another great benefit of this 24/7 workout experience is that it has helped me understand how to control my weight.
Now that I've mastered the exercise and dietary restrictions necessary to lose weight, I think I'll be able to continue losing weight on my own.
It's been a while since I stopped attending, and although my weight has gone up and down slightly, it hasn't rebounded, and even if I gain a little weight, it goes back down quickly.
Also, restricting carbohydrates seems to have been a good fit for me. When I was restricting carbohydrates too much, I felt fatigued and my head was fuzzy, but once I got used to it, my physical condition improved.
First, my chronic stomach pain disappeared.
This was a pretty good find.
Sometimes eating carbohydrates gives me a stomach ache, so I think the cause was carbohydrates.
Also, instead of drinking only beer, I have started drinking low-sugar highballs, and have adopted new lifestyle habits such as drinking soy milk instead of cow's milk and having protein in the morning, which are likely to have a positive effect on my body in the future.
If I had been greedy, I would have liked to lose another 3kg, but the 3kg I gained before I started had an effect.
I would like to continue to do my best in the long term.
July 2017, Ishigaki Island
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