This year a friend of mine asked me if I would like to go to America with him for a two week holiday. I didn’t have to think twice. America is somewhere that I had always wanted to visit but didn’t want to go on my own. We looked through loads of brochures searching for the right destination. America is such a huge country with so many wonderful sights to see it wasn’t easy to decide. We were only going for two weeks and wanted to see as much as possible in the short time we were there. It took us quite some time to make up our minds but finally we decided to book a holiday in Florida.

As the holiday drew nearer we both spent a lot of time on the exercise machine (Heimtrainer) at the gym as we wanted to be really fit for our big holiday. At the Gym we noticed that a lot of people were wearing a ski helmet which looked very odd but apparently it makes people sweat more if they wear one. It is something that I had never thought of doing before so I also started to wear a ski helmet while I was on the exercise machine. We also did a lot of running and cycling which we both enjoyed very much.

Finally the big day dawned and we arrived at the airport in good time for our flight across to America. As we were waiting in the departure lounge we got into conversation with a couple of very fit young men who told us they were baseball players and had been over to England for a holiday. They belonged to a baseball team and had to get back as they were due to play a match. We were delighted when they invited us to go and watch the game and gave us a free ticket each to get in to see it. The big question for me was how they managed to keep themselves so fit for such a hard game. I was surprised when we were told they did more or less just the same sort of exercises that my friend and I had been doing at the Gym. They worked out on an exercise machine wearing a ski helmet (Skihelme) twice a day for 2 hours and then did swimming, running and cycling as often as they could.

When we arrived in Florida they gave us a map showing where they would be playing and we said our goodbyes. The following week before we flew back we went to see them in action. What a game it was and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Seeing how fit these baseball players were it made me even more determined to keep using the exercise machine. Watching them playing dressed in their baseball gear and a ski helmet to protect them it made me realise that I wasn’t half as fit as I thought I was and nor was my friend.