Keeping in Shape

[Guest]

Went into the Colonial bar and had some wine. This was the first time I have tasted Thai wine. I thought it was fine so maybe its an alternative to beer and coke. I keep beer well in check as I worried about my expanding waist line.

Well this quote got me thinking. What do we do to keep in shape?

 

I recently looked into this specific topic of calories in drinks. The alcohol itself is very high in calories, in fact after fat, it comes next.  So I'm not entirely sure switching from a small beer to wine is that much of an improvement.   Discovering this was bad news.

 

The one thing I do when on holiday in Pattaya is walk back from Jomtien to South Pattaya as fast as possible.  Whilst staying at the Flamingo, I found a back route which went fairly close to the Sansuk & managed to average 5mph by really forcing the pace.   When staying nearer Boystown, there are too many pedestrians too keep a good pace at the end of the walk. 

 

Whilst back home, I enjoy walking and cycling.   Running is becoming less frequent.

 

 

 

 

[TMax]

I used to sign up at Clark Hatch in Thaniya but have found a good brisk morning walk around Lumphini Park just as good

[steveboy]

Well this quote got me thinking. What do we do to keep in shape?

 

I recently looked into this specific topic of calories in drinks. The alcohol itself is very high in calories, in fact after fat, it comes next.  

 

The one thing I do when on holiday in Pattaya is walk back from Jomtien to South Pattaya as fast as possible.  Whilst staying at the Flamingo, I found a back route which went fairly close to the Sansuk & managed to average 5mph by really forcing the pace.   When staying nearer Boystown, there are too many pedestrians too keep a good pace at the end of the walk. 

 

Whilst back home, I enjoy walking and cycling.   Running is becoming less frequent.

 

Have you looked at sex as a way to burn up calories?

 

To keep in shape, the best drink is water.  And not to fall for this theory that a few glasses of wine a day is good for the heart.

 

You seem to limit your exercise to aerobics (walking, running, cycling).  Maybe you are very young.  Many young people live with the idea that exercising is running, and so they run and run and remain forever a pitiful pack of bones.

 

As we age, it becomes increasingly important to exercise WITH WEIGHTS.   Weight lifting is essential to preserve a decent, functional body into old age, even if one gives up completely the aerobics.  The effort of heavy lifting exercises the heart and lungs quite well (like doing 10 squats with one and a half the body weight).

[vinapu]

I don't exercise being afraid I may get tired and hurt myself.

 

I walk plenty , Grand Palace to Saphan Taksin BTS by way of Charoen Krung -  2hr, Hero-BBB in even better at 1 hr. being my proudest achievements.

 

In Bkk I'm not worried about gaining weight because in the heat I'm losing an appetite and eat may be twice  a day only and how much weight one can get on chicken with cashew nuts mono-diet ?

 

Probably beer is my biggest source of calories on vacations.

 

At home I'm worried even less , due to uneven workload distribution over the year I'm guaranteed to lose weight in spring  and in the fall. Not watching TV at all helps to keep balance too since for most people this is coupled with munching on some fattening snacks.

 

No cold drinks other than beer on vacations only , soft drinks being more fattening than alcohol.

 

 

 

To keep in shape, the best drink is water.  

you are kidding? only animals drink water

[Guest abang1961]

The pollutant level at Bangkok streets is fairly unhealthy.

Actually a simple morning walk at Lumpini Park (for at least 30 mins) suffice as my body gets the minimum workout while my eyes can feast on the many beautiful bodies around... yum yum... the best of both worlds...

[kokopelli]

I don't often go to the gym, but when I do the trainers pay me. 

 

Unfortunately in Pattaya there are few choices.  Tony's Gym which has poor locker rooms and poor AC and marginal equipment.  The Mariott Hotel has a good gym but expensive.

[NIrishGuy]

After going to the gym at home for a few months before heading off on my last trip I decided to try to stick at it a bit while away to offset the holiday beer and eventually dragged myself to the outdoor Tony's gym on the corner there, firstly a) sorry no you can't train here, Thai only, there's a farang Tonys gym up the street. That was then changed to sorry ok you can train here but you can't PAY to train here as we can't take your money so you're going to have to go up to the other tonys 'gym, pay your money then come back with a ticket ( why i didn't just stay in the other AIR CONDITIONED gym and use it escapes me still !)

 

But away I went, got my ticket and came back and jumped on a machine or two and  BOOM  - the heat, OMG I thought i was going to die from the heat and a lack of seemingly available oxygen so I ended up doing about a quarter ( tenth :-) of what I'd usually try at home and genuinely thought i was ready to die even after that !   I ended up reducing down to just running SLOWLY on a treadmill a bit to save face and even that was no better as the sweat was running off me like a river lol.

 

Normally I would have cringed and gone back to my room BUT the one plus point is that it seems the Thai army pays for their soldiers to attend their local gym free of charge meaning that Tonys that night was RAMMED with the fittest, hottest, muscled, hot and sweaty ( in a good way) Thai guys that I've probably ever witnessed.  So, after I realised they were all politely ignoring the fat and sweaty farang in the corner ( albeit not even happy that I was there in the first place and not up in the farang gym it seems) I reduced my work out to almost nothing and "bluffed my way" and stayed watch the hottest workout shows going on all around me, then went home, got on Grindr and had a guy come round to my air con'd room and did my own horizontal work out training based on what I'd just witnessed.  

 

This was a MUCH better use of my time and that day was WAY more fun than any other gym work I've ever forced on myself :-)

[firecat69]

Love it!!!

[calluna15]

Tony's gym charges 240 for day pass for farang 40

For thai. Bring exact change cause the girl u pay

Will say I have no change i will give it when u leave

Then claim she does not remember. They're way

Of getting a tip from you. Yes they have a tip box

On the counter. They charge for towels ect.

All foreigners working here euro iranian fillippinno

Asian. Be prepared for the highly opinionated and

Overbearing expat cliques the roided up tatoo freaks.

The equipment hogging types etc. And don't get me

Going about the changing area.

But like someone said not many other options. I shall

Find a way to excercise and use them a lot less and

Save some money on my coming trip this month.

[Guest Steve1903]

Hated Tony's Gyms. Signed up for a year membership at the Jomtien gym before realising the machines are clapped out second hand shite. Had a running argument with the gym staff and whoever answers their emails in the early months before being told it would be better for me not to complain anymore.

Went in one day to find smiling staff telling me "have new running machine" which cheered me up a bit but then using them found it was the same machines with the same faults and all they'd done was paint the base a different colour to make them look like new ones.

[NIrishGuy]

I'm glad you posted that about the machines as I thought I was just being thick in trying to get even the most simple running on several of the machines I tried to use - I'm talking here about basics such as speed of the treadmill or the incline etc and I too came to the conclusion that a lot of the machines were well past their best.

 

Glad I'm wasn't TOTALLY losing it that day.

 

Oh and the reason the guy couldn't and wouldn't take cash of me in the corner gym was in case his boss heard he'd taken it and not given out a ticket ( which he hadn't been given access to) as he said a previous staff member had already been let go for trying that scam and so he both wasn't allowed, nor wanted anything to do with collecting the 200 baht or so gym charge - hence telling me to go elsewhere and buy it and then come back.

[steveboy]

I don't exercise being afraid I may get tired and hurt myself.

 

I walk plenty , Grand Palace to Saphan Taksin BTS by way of Charoen Krung -  2hr, Hero-BBB in even better at 1 hr. being my proudest achievements.

 

Probably beer is my biggest source of calories on vacations.

 

No cold drinks other than beer on vacations only , soft drinks being more fattening than alcohol.

 

you are kidding? only animals drink water

 

It's very smart not to exercise to avoid getting hurt while exercising.

But if one is smart, the chances of getting hurt exercising are nearly zero. 

I'm talking about a gym, not exercising by mountain climbing or bicycling on the streets.

The safest place to exercise is in the controlled environment of a gym,

knowing one's weights, form, equipment.

A well exercised strong body has much less chances to get hurt in normal life.

 

I also enjoy walking. In BKK I walk many miles from Babylon to Lumpini or the Silom area.  I never take a motorbike. I also walk for miles in other areas to reach my destinations (gay saunas). In four or five trips to BKK I have used a taxi only once or twice.

 

Yes, I like to drink water because I am an animal, well placed in the evolutionary chain.

I got to this happy point as follows:  first coffee, then green tea, then tea without the tea (hot water), and finally the water at room temperature. No ice!  Nice fresh water from the activated-carbon filter (no bottled water).

 

I gained a likeness for beer, which originally tasted horribly, from the need to get high in gay bars when I was insecure.  Now that I am not insecure anymore, haha, I stopped having a strong motivation to drink it,  but I enjoy it in good company.

 

The problem with soft drinks is that they are very unhealthy, I know many addicted to coca cola, and it is sad. 

[kokopelli]

 

The safest place to exercise is in the controlled environment of a gym,

knowing one's weights, form, equipment.

A well exercised strong body has much less chances to get hurt in normal life.

 

 

Yes, I like to drink water because I am an animal, well placed in the evolutionary chain.

 

 

 

I don't often drink water, but when I do it turns into wine!

 

 I agree about the benefits of weight training and rare that I have been injured.  As others mentioned places like Tony's gym are marginal equipment wise. There is another gym in Jomtien that look decent, at first,, but the equipment is junk. Also no locker room .  It is mostly for convenience of guests at the hotel. Too best of my knowledge, in Pattaya, the only decent gym is at the Marriott Hotel but too many clients like to hang on equipment and chat with each other. Mostly an older crowd. Cost is about 40,000 TB/year  unrestricted or 20,000 TB for a 3day/week limit. Tony's gym 12,000/12 months at present.

 

I did see another gym on Soi Buakaho and it was not Tonys so may look at that. 

 

No doubt many gyms in Bangkok.

[biguyby]

I keep in shape: Round is definitely a SHAPE

[vinapu]

I recommend SHAPE spa on Thonburi side, friendly service and one can stay in Shape for at least 1-2 hrs. 5 BTS stops from Silom plus walk

[ChristianPFC]

There is a running track and with several fitness points around Phratamnak hill in Pattaya, and a simple open air gym near the entrance to the park. I saw large numbers of Thai and Farang running and using the equipment there when I went for runs. Some areas are cruisy.