Pumping iron - again

Last November I suspended my membership at our local leisure centre. I'd been using the pool there for swimming while training for triathlons and the gym to add some strength training and different cardio exercises to my keep fit routine. I'd also been going to the gym with my son in order to encourage him to do some strength training.

In the run up to cancelling my membership we slowly stopped going to the gym as my son had lost interest. He also had some examination coming up at school and wanted to have the extra time available should he need it which was understandable.

So I decided that I'd suspend my membership until the New Year and he would have to decide whether or not he wanted to go the the gym himself at that point otherwise I'd cancel my membership altogether.

In January my membership resumed, it took a couple of weeks before I realised it had. Once I did I bought some new gym clothes, women's gym clothes, because at some point I knew I would need to start going to the gym as Jenna because I'd simply not be able to hide my breast development.

So today was the day. Today I went back to the gym, with my son, but not looking as a man but as a woman. Of course a padded sports bra helped give me a bit of extra shape up top but the biggest thing I did was to wear make-up. I know that my foundation can survive going out for a run, even the eye shadow, lipstick and blusher (yes it was full make-up) can survive doing some exercise.

I wasn't sure how people would react, so I was a bit nervous. As we were going in I bumped into someone from work as they were leaving and said hello to them. After showing my membership card the rest of the session was fairly normal. I got a couple of glances of people in passing but nothing more than I'd expect if I'd gone without make-up and wearing male sport clothing.

I went easy on the cardio exercises in order to allow me to get back into things. I even reduced the weights on some of the exercises but I was soon putting some of them back up on the second reps as they were too light, which was a surprise.

Hopefully this will now turn into a regular Sunday afternoon session. I've gotten over one of the biggest hurdles I think I still had to face which was going to the gym as Jenna. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Even my son has admitted that, after all the world didn't end or anything.