Personal training and Body Attack

This morning I had my personal training as usual. After warming up, Leanne handed me a 2 kg medicine ball and had me do lunges around the gym, raising the ball over my head while I lunged and lifting my knee up in between steps. Usually we just walk across the gym a couple of times but today she had me travelling down to the group fitness room. Not only did we go further than usual, I was able to chat to Leanne while doing them, which is pretty cool. Mind you, my arms were tired when we stopped.

While I was chatting away I was thinking back to how I used to feel about lunges. I always found them a real challenge, especially as I used to experience pain in my left knee when doing them. It's taken a lot of work to get to the stage I'm at now, and I really enjoy being able to do them now. All that hard work to strengthen my left knee has paid off.

We were working my legs today, so Leanne had me go straight to squats, while throwing the medicine ball. We did 40 of those, and then did 'rested' by doing some pushups with the medicine ball. I didn't think I'd be able to do them at all, even on my knees. Leanne got me to try on my toes first, and I was able to get into position ok and try a couple, but that was as far as it went. I didn't trust my balance enough to bend my elbows. On my knees, I was able to bend my elbows, so I did two sets of 12 pushups. Leanne encouraged me to use my chest and my back, which had me thinking. I finally understood that I could use my back on the way up and I found it a lot easier. I think my pushups are going to improve out of sight.

We then went back to legs and I did 2 minutes of knee repeaters on the step. I was really getting into it and Leanne commented on the fact that I was doing them much faster than in the past. My cardio fitness is really good at the moment and I'm definitely enjoying the benefits.

After that I did a set of a combination of two jumps on the spot and then squats. I did some addition later, and realised I did 60 squats this morning. My legs are definitely tired now. After that we finished with a couple of fitball exercises, one which was kind of like a rolling plank and one which was a butt exercise. It felt like a great workout. I am really going to miss these sessions with Leanne. It's the last one next week. There's a chance I'll have to travel down to Melbourne next week. I explained to the boss that I'd really really like to be in Canberra next Thursday morning. Hopefully he can make that happen for me.

This evening I made it to Body Attack. I hadn't had this instructor before and she seemed really high energy while chatting before the class. As usual, when confronted with somebody new, I was feeling a little anxious about keeping up. I shouldn't have worried. The instructor kept showing us the low impact options and I was able to keep up with the high impact option about two thirds of the time. It was a great calorie burn. I'm definitely going to keep this class in my repertoire.

There were lots of star jumps. I'm really pleased to be able to do them. I was checking out the class in the mirror to see how far behind everyone else I was with these. To my delight, I was quite a bit ahead of some of the others. It's a great feeling. Mind you, I'm not getting too carried away with myself. Those mirrors are quite unforgiving. I was definitely the 'biggest' girl in the room, and I was horrified to see my tummy bouncing up and down with a life of its own. Anyway, I figure I have to get over feeling horrified as it's going to bounce. I did the two bra thing again, and felt quite comfortable, even though there was a lot of bouncing going on there too.

There's a lot of change happening at the gym. Apart from Leanne leaving next week, there are other people who have disappeared from view. Two of the slim coaches are leaving this week. They are both lovely ladies, and I'll miss seeing them around. At least I knew they were leaving, so I've had a chance to say goodbye. I do wish the gym would let us know what was going on. My favourite receptionist has gone, and I didn't even know she'd left. I saw her at the shops recently and didn't stop to talk as I thought I'd see her at the gym. I hope I bump into her again, as it would be good to be able to wish her well in her next endeavour.

I finally got building access at work, so I'll be able to start my various 'exercise' commutes - running, walking or riding. I haven't done any of these yet, because it would have been too much of a hassle to get to the showers. I could have tried the commute on the way home but I really prefer running in the morning and I have a complex about standing around in the foyer in my cycling gear while waiting for someone to sign me in. That's all sorted now. I'll have to ride my bike out there on the weekend, just to confirm that I can cope with the hills.