Community sports editor works out 25 exhausting days

It took 25 days to run myself into the ground.

Plenty thought this was a New Year's resolution. In actuality, it was just a challenge. I wanted to know what would happen to me if I worked out for 25 straight days.

It was to test myself, seeing if I could actually complete this. I mean, I try to frequent the gym as much as possible, but never had I ever taken on something so time consuming.

Something so involved, yet exhausting.

And I completed this marathon, dragging my feet to the gym on the last day. From Jan. 3 to Jan. 28, I entered Anytime Fitness in either Lutz or Wesley Chapel as if there was a revolving door installed.

I used the one stationary bike at both places so much they're sticking a bronze plaque with my name on it.

When I told friends and colleagues of this idea, some thought it was a great concept, others laughed at me and thought I was crazy.

It's perhaps a little from column A and a little from column B.

Though I think I'll go with the latter. It was insane to do this.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I needed a break. That much was obvious.

Oh, I got plenty of benefits, too. I'm now in shape, something I haven't been in a while, lost about 5 pounds (196 to 191) and dropped about 7 percent of my body fat (27 to 20).

My whole body is leaner, too — toned actually. I even have a skinner face, that is, according to my biased wife.

To be honest, I'm just dog tired.

I can tell my body feels relieved for these 25 days to be over. I need to recharge the old Energizer-Bunny batteries.

"I'm impressed with the stamina, the dedication," the owner of the Anytime Fitness in Lutz, Rob White, said. "I won't say it's not a good idea. You're still young and bodies need more recovery time as they age.

"But it also depends on how you're pushing yourself each workout."

There was one key. I had to set a limit as to what I had to do for a minimal workout and what max I could push myself. I figured one to two hours would do, or else I'd fall asleep on the treadmill.

There were some days I struggled. Especially on the weekends. I'd wake up and have to hit the gym like an assembly line, and some days it was just too much.

What struck me was that I had to do laundry a lot more. I had to do extra loads so I wouldn't reek at the gym. Then there was showering nearly twice each day.

Those two things were hassles among themselves.

And I whined. And complained. Even rationalized how I could get out it.

Each day, though, I sucked it up and got my lazy butt over there.

White agreed with me, saying that I needed to recover at least one day throughout the ordeal. That I needed to take a day off to let my muscles huddle up, regroup and figure out the next play. However, working out each day was not much of a stretch, White said.

"You'd need to switch things, or muscles up on a daily basis, but it can be done," White said. "At least that's what the professionals do."

Bingo. There's the real key. Professionals do this.

I can't. I'm not getting paid workout on a daily basis and my job, my livelihood, doesn't depend on how well my abs are sculpted, which for me are more like a bumpy surfboard than a washboard.

My life is not dedicated to spending eight hours in the gym a day. Breathe a sigh of relief to that. I give those guys and gals props who do it every day to take home the honor of being called Mr. or Mrs. Got-No-Neck-But-Abs-That-Can-Grate-Cheese.

I thought I would mentally break down, but in the end, working out does what a lot of people hope it will do: melt stress away.

This could've been a good resolution, but it was really motivation.

My mind was like a coach, one with neck veins bulging, screaming at me to get my (expletive) to the gym, to push my limit to the (expletive) extreme.

It was the drill sergeant that wouldn't let me stop. An R. Lee Emery character that made me feel like Gomer Pyle.

Golly, I was sore for 25 straight days, Sgt. Carter.

And it was worth it.

Community sports editor Mike Camunas can be reached at mcamunas@sptimes.com or (352) 544-1771.