Philipians 2:14

This was my first week with the personal trainer. I was nervous. And it turns out that I had every right to be, lol. Last Monday was my first day. On Monday morning Justin, my trainer, called me at home to do a "pre-show" evaluation. He asked me questions, and I was to answer him using a 10 point scale. How strong are you?...7-ish. How well can you balance?...5. How flexible are you?...4. How good is your endurance/cardio...I told him that there is always room for improvement, and so lets go with a 9-1/2...hahaha! A bit aggressive. He asked me what I wanted to get out of these 6 training sessions...Weight loss, and core strength. He told me at that time, that when we met later in the day that our first workout would be a "Getting to Know You" session...he would have me do different exercises with different weights to see my ability and gauge where things would go from there.

When I met with him later that day, he had me first jump on the treadmill for a 5 minute fitness test. He said that the treadmill reports a grade based on your heart rate during the activity. He prefaced the test by saying, that I shouldn't put too much weight on this exam, as it isn't incredibly accurate...OKAAAAAY??? After all was said and done, the treadmill reported that I was "Average"...LAME! I hate average.

He then had me doing a series of pull-up exercises, mountain climbers on a BUSU ball, lunges with weights, lunges without weights, wood choppers with a medicine ball, and all kinds of other crazy things that I can't remember. I was sweating like crazy. I have NEVER sweat like this during an exercise routine. Even though this was a "get to know you" meeting, it was intense. I picked this trainer becuase I had witnessed his work ethic in the gym. This guy was serious. He demands respect. He doesn't let you slack off. But during this training session I was experiencing a different side of him. There were times that I was struggling during the workout, and he gave me lighter weights. There were times that I was supposed to do 15 reps of an exercise, and when I was struggling, he said, "Just get to 12"...or "Just get to 10." I never whined or complained in my struggle, but he could just see that I was having a hard time. By the time I reached the 10 or the 12 that he had told me to get to, with the exception of 1 occasion, I always then pushed myself to do the full 15 reps. It felt like I was cheating myself to do less. And one exercise he had started me off with a set of weights, but after doing a GRIP of lunges, I became weaker, and he gave me smaller weights...I took them. When I was supposed to do the exercise again, I told him not to give me the smaller weights this time. I was half way through the reps when I began to struggle, and again he offered me the smaller weights, and again, I took them. :0( Despite having an exceptional workout, I was concerned about this pattern. I wanted someone who was going to push me! I expected him to get in my face and yell at me. I expected him to tell me to suck it up, and DO IT! I told myself (and was reminded by others) that this was a "get to know you" session. If he did the same thing at Wednesday's workout, I was going to have a talk with him about holding me to a higher standard.

When I woke up on Tuesday, I wasn't too awfully sore. My upper body was squeaky, but manageable. My bottom half was totally fine. I took pride in that. I have been a running-cardio-queen for the last 6 months +/-, and my legs are strong. When I was at the gym later that night, doing my 9 mile run on the treadmill, Justin had been working the floor, and he come over and asked if I was sore from the day before. I had told him that my upper body was still feeling the workout, but my lower body was holding steady. He responded, "Oh." I explained to him that I thought my legs just must be conditioned from all of the marathon training. He said, "Cool." That was the extent of our conversation.

My 2nd training session was the following day on Wednesday. Note to self, "Don't tell the trainer you weren't sore from his workout!" Oh my word. The guy was nuts. VERY pleasant, but he was on a mission! He had me doing all kinds of crazy circuits with sumo squats, lunges with a medicine ball that I then had throw to him, lunges with wood choppers, squats with hand weights, high steps with high knees, rowing, bear crawls, holding a plank position, etc. Everything I did I had to do for 1 minute straight. I had 10 seconds to catch my breath in between each exercise.

In addition to all of those exercises, on one of the circuits, he had me sprinting on the treadmill. I only had to do it for one minute, but after each series of circuits, he kept the sprint speed the same, but increased the incline. I was proud of myself for just doing the sprint! But when it came time for the 2nd sprint, and I knew that he was going to be increasing the incline, I whined (boooo!) and told him that I didn't think I could do it. I immediately caught myself whining, and I told him to not listen to me whine, and if I whined again, to just ignore it. But again, I immediately felt convicted in my head. I don't need to complain at all. He doesn't need to ignore my complaining, he needs to not HEAR my complaining! I only complained the 1 time in both of the 2 sessions, but after that 1 time, I did occasionally feel like falling flat on the ground during a bear crawl, or sighing loudly during a plank, or...but just kept saying Philipians 2:14 over and over in my head..."Do everything without complaining or arguing."

At the end of the session, I was spent. Monday was the most I had sweat in a workout, and on Wednesday I think I had literally sweat double what I had sweat on Monday! My trainer was focused, but he was nice. Initially I began to say that comment to my family as if that was a bad thing. But then I caught my self, and realized...he doesn't need to be a jerk to be good at what he does!

And he was good...TOO good! I have never been so sore, for so long! My upper body was fine this time around, but my lower half was aching for DAYS! It hurt to sit down...to go to the bathroom...to walk...to do anything but lay down! I was discouraged, and wondered when I would feel normal again. Finally, 4 days later, on Sunday, I felt like myself again. Just in time to do it all over again today. :0)