Job Discussion Forums

[Win Some Lose Some]

Ok. There's 2 kinds of exercise I try to do regularly.

1. Resistance training (i.e., lifting weights). I can buy a set and exercise with them at home, I guess.

2. Interval training. Kind of like jogging except the goal isn't to go at a constant pace for a long time like it is with jogging. Rather, it is to do a series of maybe 8 sprints that get the heart rate up to max for maybe 30 seconds and alternate that with a slower recovery pace for about 90 seconds. My favorite machine for this was always the elliptical trainer because it is so low impact it's difficult to get injured no matter how flat out fast you're going.

Kind of guessing that there won't be any health clubs in Ibra and perhaps dressing in gym clothes is considered inappropriate in a Muslim country.

Feedback anyone?

[It's Scary!]

Resistance training is going to come in quite handy when you try to get your charges to read, write or do homework!

It's not that they can't, it's that they've been led to believe that they don't hafta!

[Win Some Lose Some]

[veiledsentiments]

He's not in Oman...

I always gave homework in every Gulf country that I worked in... but I suspect that it depends on your employer. I always worked in university/college foundation programs.

No, they never give much in the way of cultural training in the Gulf. I guess they expect you to do it on your own before you arrive. (the only place that I taught where they had such a thing was the American University in Cairo... terrific introduction program for all incoming professors and EFL teachers... including a course in survival Arabic)

Lifting them over your head should build your muscles, but I doubt that it will do much for them.

VS

[bertonneau]

I am in Salalah but nonestly don't have access to what I consider I great style Western gym that I have seen so far in my brief time here in Oman. There are two recommendations I would make as far as portable gyms that do full body resistance training. First a product called Bodylastics it is the best resitance tarining I hav eseen that allows you to emulate a gym via basically rubber bands. Go to the website and you can pick from a varity of different models. Also a portable system designed by a US Navy Seal called the TRX which works totally from gravity and allows you to adjust the resistance based on the degree of gravity and angle at which you work out. For gym in a bag products these are the best things I have found that are pretty hardcore for what they are if you dont have easy access to a gym where you are.

[madrileno]

There are no gyms in Ibra.

There is one single room exercise "club" with a free weights set and couple of machines (treadmills), but it's a ways from the flats where the ASU teachers live, so unless one has a car, it's not worth joining.

I'd suggest investing in some home exercise equipment once you get to Oman.

[Ma]

you could always trying walking/jogging to the nearest bar...has to be 100+ kms, and then lifting a few beers...that would make teaching the Bedu youth slightly more bearable....Or extract your huge salary from the bank in coins and run around a few of the jebels with that on your back....