Today was another gym day.  I’ve decided to start calling Cardiac Rehabilitation “the gym.”  It sounds so much less heart-patienty, doesn’t it?  It’s 3 days a week for 12 weeks, then presumably I continue afterward at some other gym that doesn’t wire you to heart monitors and take your blood pressure 3 times per visit.

Today’s trip to the gym was better than usual, despite exacerbating a knee injury that I’m going to have to figure out some solution for.  I have had a chronic knee problem for about 15 years.  I take daily pain medication to dull it, but it’s simply become a routine a part of my life.  My knees (and hips – the problem is with the band that connects the two) hate it when I move around and boy do they let me know it.  There is a surgery that might fix it, but it is equally likely to make it much worse.  I’ve been sticking with the devil I know and not getting any exercise for years.  In retrospect, that probably wasn’t my best plan.

What made today’s rehab so good is that it’s the first day I brought my own music.  Man, what a difference that makes!  I’m still in the baby steps portion of cardiac recovery, so my gym routine involves a small number of minutes on a small number of machines set to minimal difficulty levels, but the music made the time fly today.  They do play music at the clinic and, surprisingly, for the most part it doesn’t suck, but it’s not usually anything I would be listening to on my own.  And it never has the sort of tempo that fosters moving faster and working harder.

I know I am not the first person to ever think of this.  Practically everyone who goes to a real gym or who is a runner has a “workout mix” of some kind or another.  I never have, though.  Even back in 2000, when I was actually going to a proper gym regularly and getting fairly fit, I didn’t bring music.  I went with my gym buddy, Leslie, and we’d just chat the whole time. So the whole workout mix concept is new to me and it’s 500 kinds of fantastic!  As a major bonus, not only do I get to listen to music I enjoy, it’s like I get to bring friends with me.  The Buddhist always comes with me, but he has to sit at the end of the room with the other “plus ones” since he’s strong-hearted.

Today’s mix was awesome.  I loaded my Shuffle with a bunch of truly diverse stuff since I wasn’t sure what I might be in the mood for, then set the iPod to random and let it select what tunes to play.  In between The Ramones and Fear and some oddball 80s dance stuff that made me giggle, who showed up but my friend Larry, singer for Red Die Number 9!?  It was like a few days go when the clinic’s music brought Susie to the exercise bike next to me.  Today, Larry reminded me that Life is Good.  A bit later, toward the end of my gym time, Louis Maistros popped in and sang Son of Sam as I finished up on the weird you’re-cross-country-skiing-but-you’re-sitting-down machine.  Thanks so much for the company, boys!*  With your help, I improved a wee bit in all areas today – duration, speed and difficulty. And then I went home and slept for 4 hours.  Rehab is good, but man it wipes me out.

So what do you folks listen to at the gym?  Tell me some of your favorite workout songs in the comments.  I’m counting on you!

* For those who may be concerned (hi, Mom), despite the million medications I am on, I’m not actually hallucinating my friends at the gym.  It just feels like they are there, cheering me on.  🙂