Personal Training

This morning I had my usual personal training session at Fernwood. I say 'usual' but there are changes at the gym again and I'll be going through the whole new trainer experience. Fortunately it won't seem so hard this time, as I won't be losing touch with Krissi after she leaves the gym. Apart from our running sessions, I've booked in to do the next Outdoor Group Fitness Challenge, which starts in a few weeks. I've also made up my mind to do an extra PT session with her once a week, on top of what I'm doing at the gym.

What's likely to be different is the gym itself. I've heard all sorts of stories about what's happening. The group fitness area is moving, there are going to be more cycles, the place is getting a general face lift and there will be more classes. It will be interesting to see how having a franchisor in charge affects the way that the gym is run. The impression I have already is that there are going to be a lot more rules and regulations for the staff. Of course, not working there myself, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. The gym has seemed to suffer from inexperienced management for a while, so I think it's probably going to be a good thing. Time will tell.

On a personal level I have to establish a new relationship with one of the Fernwood PT's. The main problem is that they aren't as experienced as my previous trainers. I guess we all have to gain experience by doing, but I'd prefer it if they'd practised on someone else instead of me. I wonder if this impatience with novice trainers is a sign that I'm getting old. "The youth of today .. " blah blah blah.

This morning I started with the usual warm up on the treadmill, then moved over to the leg press. I loaded one of the weights for the first time. Phew - those 20kg weights are hard to move. I did a warm up set of straight leg presses, then Krissi had me do two sets with five full presses, five bottom halves, five top halves and then five full presses again. It's amazing how much effort is required to get through a set. I really feel the top halves in my backside too.

I moved on to hamstring curls. I was really pleased with my form on these. I'm getting the hang of lifting my butt while I'm bringing my legs back in rather than afterwards. It's much easier on my lower back as well. I like these fitball exercises as the need to balance during the movement certainly engages a lot more muscles. Krissi rewarded my form improvement by adding a couple of extra reps to the last set. I'd expected her to do that on the first set, so I felt like I'd gotten away with something.

We then moved over to the Smith machine, where I did chest presses. I did the usual 10 kg warm up set of 15, only I was tossing the bar today. I can always feel the effect of that later. After the set I was supposed to do five pushups. I wasn't able to do the first one, which had Krissi laughing. After resetting I managed to squeeze out five very sorry pushups. As a superset I think I'd definitely left my super hero costume at home this morning.

Krissi added 5 kg to the bar and I managed to get through another 12 presses. I had a rest break without pushups and then tried another set. I managed to get through 10 presses, struggled through the 11th and then completely fizzled on the 12th. It was great!

I then did some shoulder presses with 4kg free weights, a set of upright rows with the bent bar and then a set of jack knifes. I watched Krissi demonstrate, thinking that I'd not manage them at all, but they weren't too bad. My core is definitely continuing to improve. A bit of stretching and then I was done.

The gym was closed for renovations this evening, so I gave myself the evening off. I had thought I'd be doing belly dancing, but I'd managed to mix up my days. Belly dancing was on last night. The gym reopens next Thursday so hopefully I'll remember to get myself to the class next week.

On Sunday I'm planning to do the women's jogalong with some of the girls. it will be interesting to see if there's any improvement in my time. I'm going to try to do the whole run without dropping back to a walk.