46 - The Gym

Diálogos en inglés, 46. The gym. Hello there. Hello, darling. How can I help you? I've just moved to the area and I'm interested in joining the gym. Fantastic. Welcome to Bob's gym. What's your name? Isabel. You've come to the right place, love. Thank you. And sorry, can I ask you how much is the monthly fee? It's £45 a month. And that includes access to the swimming pool, to the sauna. the weight room and classes as well we've got lots of classes here do you like yoga

Yeah, I actually like yoga. I think it's the only exercise I've done in the last five years. And actually I just gave up smoking yesterday, so I want to start, but I want to take it easy. Okay, great. So if you come with me, we'll go upstairs and I'll show you around and perhaps we can try a few of the machines. Oh, no, not today. I mean, yeah, it's great. I would like to have a look, but not today. I have an appointment to do my name. No, no, don't worry. It's free. The first day's free.

Come upstairs and I'll show you around. I'll just have a look, okay? And tomorrow I'll start. Thank you. Okay, so this is the weight room here. Okay, so you've got your treadmills over there. You've got your machines there. You've got the free weight area over there. So if you just come with me, we'll warm up with a bit of cardio, okay? But, sir, I said I have an appointment. I'm doing my nails.

Now. Do you want to get fit or not? Yeah, but I didn't bring my sport clothes. Now, what kind of attitude is that if you want to get fit? You want to get lean? You want to get in shape? You want to lose that spare tyre? That's right. Actually, last night I ate a huge pizza myself. Right. Well, I think you better get on that treadmill then. Come on. Okay, just warm up. let's have 10 minutes on that treadmill as fast as you can go okay How'd you feel? Alright? I can't breathe. Okay, sir.

I think I have an idea of what this is like. Can I go now, please? Hang on a minute. You haven't done your press-ups yet. Just one question. I'm interested in the classes, but... What classes do you teach? I do the yoga, I do the spinning class and I do the swimming lessons, love. Okay. So, I'll put your name down, right? I want to see you here. I think I might try karate, actually, this year. Fantastic. Yeah, I'll be here waiting for you. Okay, love? Okay. Bye. Bye. See you tomorrow.

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Dialogues in English podcast. We hope you are well. How are you today, Isabel? I'm good. How are you feeling? I'm very well, thank you. I'm feeling very motivated to get fit.

to get lean. I'm motivated to lose my spare tire. Mi flotador. Yes. Now that the summer is over, I don't need it anymore. Yeah. So we hope you found that little... conversation that little dialogue at the beginning of this podcast useful hopefully we can inspire you if you haven't already joined a gym to join a gym and to get in shape

Because it's very important. If you're not healthy and fit, then you can't really enjoy life to the full. That's right. You need to suffer a little bit in order to enjoy the pleasures of life. That's absolutely right. And so in this episode, we're going to talk a little bit about our experiences in the gym because we joined a gym. When did we join the gym? Eight months ago, maybe.

Yeah, so we joined the gym about eight months ago. And for the first time, I mean, I've joined gyms before, but I've never really been very consistent. I've been a typical person who signs up. Yeah, you sign up to the gym and never go. But actually this time I've been pretty consistent and you've been consistent as well, haven't you? Yeah. Many people usually sign up on the 1st of January, don't they?

Yes, yeah. We usually have a discount, so there is no matricula, ¿no? ¿Cómo se dice matricula? No registration fee. Registration fee, yeah. Yeah. They take the super offer and they say, yes, I'm going to come every Monday and every week, three times a week. And then after two weeks, that's it. Yeah. Their motivation wavers and they... they end up not going but uh so what is your secret to be so constant then to be so consistent consistent

I don't know really. I think it's because we had a bit of a lifestyle change, didn't we? We moved to a new city. I think also a lot of people are quite health conscious in Barcelona. People spend time... on the beach without their clothes on. So you've got to be in shape if you live in Barcelona. You have to show your body around four months a year. Summer is quite long here.

And aside from that, you know, I think I was getting a little bit out of shape, but I was a little bit inactive. I needed to do a bit more exercise, regular exercise. too much laptop no is when you are working on your laptop maybe no you are editing videos for a long time and then It makes you really tired and it's difficult to leave the house and get active. But for me, it's really good if I have someone that I can be motivated.

to go with yeah for example if i go running if i go with a friend of mine then i cannot let my friend down or if we say okay we're gonna run for this amount of time yeah then i cannot fail but if i go on my own it's so easy to give up so it's good if you can find a group of people maybe who go running around your area or if you go to the gym but you go to the classes and maybe you get into the the rhythm or you make some friends or you like the teacher

Just find an excuse, but you feel so good after you've exercised. Oh, yeah, absolutely. So how often, Isabel, do you go to the gym? I try to go twice a week. Yeah. And what kind of things do you do at the gym? Well, before I used to do the cross trainer machine, a little bit of running. Yeah, the cross trainer.

Cross trainer. Yeah. It's la bici elliptica. Yeah, the cross trainer. Yeah, and the running machines. I was doing a lot of aerobic exercise. Are you one of these girls that just goes to the gym on cross trainer and spends... Like 40 minutes there, but looking at their mobile phone at the same time? Yeah, no. i'm not one of those well maybe i've done it a couple of times but no now i go um i do weight lifting i just go to the machines okay so i do my arms my legs yeah

I do squats for my bum. I do sit taps as well. Yeah. For my abs. For your abs. I go abdominales, sit-ups. Squats are actually, yeah, it's good for your quadriceps, your hamstrings, your calves. your lower back, your abs, and obviously your buttocks as well. Buttocks? Yeah. Squats are a really effective exercise. In fact, I think they're one of the best exercises you can do. So what is...

How do you do a squat for those listeners who don't know what it means? Well, there are two ways you can do it. You can do it on a squat machine. which is pretty easy you just sit down on this machine and then select the weight that you want and then you you push your legs away from your body and it's a good exercise because you're using a lot of muscles in one movement so yeah squats are very good the other way you can do it is with the free weights with a barbell loaded with yeah

loaded with weights and then you you just sort of squat down you bend your knees and then like if you were going to pick up something from the floor but you have a big dumbbell In your hands. A barbell, yeah. A barbell. You can do it with dumbbells as well. Dumbbells are the little ones. Dumbbells you can hold in one hand. And the barbell is the long bar that you put weights on the end.

So yeah, you do squats, you do your arms, you do your legs, you do cross training. I do yoga as well. And I also... Do you go on the treadmill? What is the treadmill? The treadmill. You don't know? No. Treadmill is a running machine. Ah, okay. Treadmill? I call it running machine. I didn't know. Ah, okay. Yeah, la cinta de correr. Treadmill. La cinta is a treadmill, yeah.

No, I used to go, but now I prefer to run outside. I go with my friend down to the beach and around the park, and it's much better than running in the same place. I like to see what's going on outside. And I also go in an area and I just grab a mat, una colchoneta, and then I do some sit-ups and I do plank as well. Yeah, the plank. The plank is this exercise when you are facing down. You're face down, resting your weight on your...

forearms and the balls of your feet. And you hold your body as straight as you can for a minute or longer. And it's really good for your... For your stomach. For your stomach, yeah. For your abs. If you do that enough, you could get a six-pack. A six-pack. Yeah. Well, I used to do a lot of cardio when I went to the gym. I used to run on the treadmills for half an hour and then do cross training or a static bike.

But now I don't do any cardio. I just go straight to the free weight area. And what is the free weight area? The free weights where you have all the weights, the dumbbells, the barbells. I do a little bit of weightlifting. So how much weight can you lift, Philip? What's the maximum weight? Not so much. I mean, maybe I can bench press.

45 or 50 kilograms, so not very much. Nearly my body weight, I think. It's quite funny to go to the gym, though, isn't it? Because you see quite a few different kinds of people there, don't you? Personajes, no? Yeah. Los personajes del gym. So, Isabel, what kind of people do we see at the gym quite often? There is a great... mixture of people. I see many musculated men, of course. Muscular. I see many... I see many muscular...

Muscular. I see many muscular men. Yeah, you see some huge bodybuilders, don't you, sometimes. And they shout. Sometimes I get scared because I'm trying to concentrate with my dumbbells and suddenly someone does. Ah! Ah! Ah! But this is funny, but the annoying is when you are next to someone and they're like, psst, psst, psst. No, you mean when they're like this.

they are making big effort okay yeah something like that yeah it's quite funny to see them because they're usually looking in the mirror at themselves all the time aren't they As they're lifting the weights, they're looking at their muscles. I did feel a bit intimidated when I first went to the free weight area because I was like the smallest guy, the puniest, weakest guy. But yeah.

Now I just focus on what I'm doing and I try to ignore everybody else. But it's not always easy when they're making all these weird sounds like and things like that. But anyway. Who else do you see at the gym? There is a woman also who is there all the time. Yeah. And she has her own... ¿Cómo se dice una tabla de ejercicios? An exercise regime or exercise routine.

Yeah, and she doesn't use any of the machines. She just takes the mat and she starts with her exercises, but she's really, really active and she does them. Very, very fast. It's like a very intense kind of exercise. And she shouts as well. She's crazy. Come on, come on. She motivates herself. Really? Oh, my goodness. What about the really toned women?

that go and stand in the middle of the gym. Yeah, of course. They're always the really hot and perfect looking women who don't even sweat. They are so perfect. Yeah, and they usually go into the middle of the gym and start doing like squats or something. It's almost as if they're trying to attract... people's attention, no? With their big fat bones. Yeah, I get some people go there to flirt. But I remember once I was trying to, well, I tried a new exercise and...

Probably I wasn't doing it very well, but I suppose no one was looking at me. And then there was a man, he was maybe in his 30s. Yeah. And he came and he gave me advice. Gave me some advice. Some advice, yeah. He was like... hey sweetie you should do this uh this way stick your bum out bend your back like this he was giving me instructions and i felt so embarrassed i said oh great thank you

That's great. That's very helpful. Very kind of him. Was he trying to flirt with you? No, no, no. He was really nice, but I felt so embarrassed. Oh my God, I was doing this totally wrong because I was just so straight, so stiff. Yeah. I must have looked like a robot trying to do this exercise. Yeah. And he saw me and he was like, come on, bend your back, stick your palm out.

You shouldn't bend your back. Keep your back straight. ¿Cómo se dice flexiona las piernas? Flex. Flex your legs. Flex your legs. Flex your legs. Stick your bum out a little bit. And just lean forward. Which exercise were you doing? He was trying to get you to bend over. It was one of these weightlifting machines where you have to lift your arms and you pull. There are two strings that you pull from the top.

to the bottom okay but i was just standing up very straight so yeah i wasn't doing it right but he taught me yeah luckily i never saw him again okay

So do you have any recommendations for people that perhaps aren't in shape or need to get in shape or are thinking about joining the gym? What would you recommend they do? Any recommendations? Try to do it first thing. Get it out of the way. A good thing to do is to go to work, then you take the gym clothes with you and you go straight there. Don't go back home and start eating biscuits because then you'll be trapped.

That's what happens to you sometimes, isn't it? Yes, yeah. If you can go straight from work, then you're more likely to be consistent. And yeah, you've really got to work hard at making it part of your... routine your lifestyle you know otherwise you know you join the gym and then you just forget about it so yeah that's good advice yeah try to fit it into your Yeah, don't leave it until the last minute because then you will be tired after the whole day and it will never happen.

And it helps you a lot to disconnect if you have had a tough day at work and you go to the gym and you really, your mind is... flies away and when you leave you it's like a new day you feel like a new person even if you haven't worked that hard just a little bit of of exercise it makes you really Relax, your mind is clear. Helps you disconnect. Recharge your batteries. Yeah, and after you've been to the gym, later I usually feel like...

having something healthy for dinner. Yeah. It has a good effect, positive effect on your diet because you don't really feel like going to McDonald's after leaving the gym. Yeah. Absolutely. Although sometimes you feel like drinking a beer, no? Oh, yeah. If you have really earned a beer. Absolutely. And other advice would be if you can find a gym buddy, a gym friend to help keep you motivated. You could go together to the gym and motivate each other.

spot for each other or maybe you could make a friend at the gym this might help you stay motivated we need to start training because we're going to run aren't we in october Yeah, but it's an easy one, I think. It's an hour. Wow, it's 10 kilometers. One hour running. Yeah, here in Barcelona, 17,000 people are going to run. It's one of the most popular ones. The firemen of Barcelona started this race a long time ago.

And it has kept on going every year. And yeah, I don't know why it's so popular. We'll find out. Yeah. But I think I'm going to be one of the last people to arrive because all these firemen, they are so... Well, I don't think they're all firemen that run. I think it's mostly members of the public who run. Hopefully there are some retired firemen with a beer belly.

You won't be the last. You're quite a good runner. You've run 10 kilometers before, but you did it in just over an hour. You did it in just over... You did it in just over an hour the first time. They don't need to know. Yeah, Isabel's objective. is to beat her personal record, which is just over an hour. So she's aiming for less than 60 minutes, 10 kilometers. Let's see if she can do it. And you, you're aiming for 45 minutes.

something like that but no I'm just gonna I haven't run for ages so I'm just gonna take it easy I might just stay with you okay then anyway anyway we've been rambling quite a bit in this episode but do we have any questions for our listeners yes let us know if you have any tips that you can share in order for us to get fitter or to be more motivated about being healthy and having a good lifestyle. How can I lose my belly?

How can I get rid of this spare tire? If you have the secret for a flat stomach, please send me a private message. Let us know how you keep fit in the comments below. We'd be interested to hear. Okay, so we'll see you again soon. Thanks for listening. Bye. See you soon. Hasta luego. Bye bye. Psst. Hey, how's it going? ¿No has entendido todo?

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