Crunch Gym, River North, Chicago

When I lived in East Ukrainian Village/Wicker Park I used to go to the Cheetah Gym on North Avenue. When Dallas and I moved to Roscoe Village there wasn’t a gym in the neighborhood except for Curves, which I wasn’t interested in. Nobody must have been interested in that gym because it closed while we lived in the neighborhood. There was the Lakeview YMCA, but I have to have something close or I won’t go. In Logan Square there isn’t a gym, but there are rumors that Cheetah is going to open this summer. I would like to join Cheetah, then, but decided that I couldn’t put off not exercising any more. In the winter I am just a lazy couch potato. In the summer I will ride my bike every single day, but it’s not a complete work out.

On Friday I joined Crunch Gym at a location that is near my office. They were having a promotion where I got $150 off my enrollment fee (it was $49) and got my monthly membership reduced to $49/month. That’s $10 off the normal membership fee. I also get 2 free personal trainer sessions. I’m especially interested in these PT sessions because even when I did go to the gym all I did was walk and try to run on the treadmill. I say try to run because I actually hate running. I thought a PT would be able to teach me some new things and get me psyched to be at the gym. Start me off on the right foot. If I decide I like it Crunch is also having a special on some super cheap PT sessions. My membership at Crunch is month to month so I can stay a member as long or as little as I like. And if I decide to move to a different gym, I’m not tied into a yearly membership.

Last night I met Eric, my new personal trainer. We talked for a bit about goals and stuff. Then we got going. I did a lot of step exercises, squats, lunges, ab exercises, push ups, jumping jacks, and squat thrusts. Not anything I’d normally do, but definitely was interesting and challenging. I was sore last night. I’m not going to lie. Walking down the red line steps, transferring up and down steps at Jackson to the Blue Line and walking down the California Blue Line stairs were a challenge. Plus the gym is in a basement. It’s a lot of stairs to do after a tough work out! Today, I expected not to be able to move, but I’m ok. A bit sore, but manageable. Still looking forward to my next PT session on Friday, which is good. Eric says he is all over the place doing functional exercises like the ones we did last night, stuff on the trampoline, with weights, and in the boxing ring. Looking forward to the variety and working out different muscles. Instead of legs on my bike or legs on the treadmill every single time.

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