Personal Training Sessions #15 and #16

Session #15 was last Wednesday (upper body) and Session #16 was last Friday (lower body).

They were my last two workouts with my trainer and they were tough, but in a good way.

I’ve said a few times now that I have felt stronger… My trainer and my final measurements confirmed that I have in fact made improvements and gained strength.

My weight did not change, but I lost inches in a variety of places which indicates that I have gained muscle and lost some fat. I don’t think I will give all the details on the blog (Sorry! If you want to know the specifics, feel free to e-mail me); but I will say that I was very happy with the final measurements and my trainer was impressed (there was one area she re-measured 5 times to make sure she was reading it correctly because she was so amazed at how much less it was than the first day).

Thanks to all of you that have been so encouraging and supportive as I worked with the trainer to kick my butt into shape!

My trainer wrote up a program for me to do on my own for a while. With a little more cardio and continuing the strength training she thinks I’ll start to see even more results.

I’m excited to keep going and trying to push myself. I may sign up for another round of sessions after the holidays to mix things up a bit, but for now I’m feeling confident to continue the journey solo.

Personal Training Session #14

Session #14 was last Wednesday. It should have been completely focused on my legs, but because I’m still having some knee issues my trainer split it up between legs and core. It was a good workout, my knees actually held up pretty well. My abs on the other hand took a beating…and apparently because of that beating I was getting a little lazy on my last few crunches because the next day my neck hurt. I had a little soreness in my legs and abs, but it was my neck that was the sorest.

Note to self, do not strain neck while finishing the last of multiple sets of crunches.

I also rode the normal bike immediately after my session to get some cardio in and I have to say it’s just not as comfortable or enjoyable as the recumbent bike. I am getting used to it though; my homework was two sessions on the bike and one on the treadmill.

We pushed out my last two sessions to the end of this week to give my knees a little more time to rest, which really translates to “my trainer wants me in good shape so she can kick my butt.”

It should be fun!

Personal Training Session #12 and #13

Session #12 was last Wednesday and it focused on my lower body. It was a good session; my legs were completely worn out at the end. As I’ve mentioned before, I feel stronger, but even my trainer commented on how much better I’m doing – both with cardiovascular and strength-wise.
However, my knees started acting up again which caused me to take a little longer to finish some sets of the squats and lunges. My right knee is worse than the left. My trainer told me to take a few days off to give my knees a rest.

I didn’t do any normal cardio workouts over the weekend, but my knees were still acting up, in fact they were a little worse L

Session #13 was yesterday. It was an upper body workout and similar to the last couple of upper body workouts it went by fast! This one, however, worked my arms a little harder than they’ve worked for a couple of weeks; at the end my arms were jell-o and by the time I got home my arms felt so heavy. This morning I was sore, more sore than I've been for a couple of weeks.

The next session will be lower body, hopefully my knees will cooperate a little better after the days off.

Personal Training Session #9, #10, #11

As you’ve probably noticed I’m running a bit behind on posts lately. Sorry, it’s been very busy. I can’t believe it’s already August, anyway…

Here’s a quick recap on the last few sessions with my personal trainer:

Session #9 was a little over a week ago. It was all focused on upper body. It was a good session and it went by really quick! Before I knew it, we were done with the session. My arms were a little sore the next day, but not too bad, I think I’m really getting stronger and my muscles aren’t in so much shock after a work out.

Session #10 was focused on lower body. I did some time on the stair stepper and a variety of squats, lunges, jumping, lifting, etc. I’m having a little trouble with my knees, my right knee in particular, so that’s kind of annoying. My legs were sore the next day, but it only lasted about a day which is a huge improvement, so again I think I’m getting stronger.

I got in all my cardio homework over the weekend.

Session #11 was yesterday. I went in expecting an upper body workout like last week. The majority of the session was spent on upper body; but my trainer ‘surprised’ me by having me start with some sprints. Good news, they went okay, I didn’t think my chest was going to explode, I didn’t feel nauseous and most important, I didn’t throw up…things are getting better! After three rounds of sprints it was all about the arms and again it went by really fast and my arms felt great after.

Personal Training Session #7 and #8

I'm a bit late in posting, but it was a very busy week! There's so much going on right now.

Session #7 was Wednesday last week, and the focus was split pretty evenly between upper and lower body. I'm not sure if that was the original plan or if that became the plan when I told my trainer I had to be able to walk the next day because we had our engagement photo shoot scheduled. Either way, it was a good workout...I was feeling much better mentally and physically focused than I had the week before. I was able to walk the next day, I actually felt pretty good overall.

Session #8 was on Friday. It also seemed to be a combo workout of upper and lower body, but with more abs/core exercises thrown in. I definitely felt the lower body workout on Saturday morning when I woke up.

My homework this week was to focus on adding in some snacks to my day to make sure I'm getting enough calories to fuel my workouts...I'm trying. If anyone has any good healthy snack ideas that pairs protein and carbs (preferably not super heavy snacks), please leave them in the comments, I could use some new ideas.

Personal Training Session #5 and #6

Session #5 was Monday and it was another session focused on lower body. It was a good session, it was tough and I felt great afterwards, but I figured the pain would come later. Sure enough, on Tuesday my butt hurt; my legs actually felt good. Wednesday morning it hit my legs and I felt it in my hamstrings, just in time for Session #6.

Session #6 was today. I made it through, but it wasn't a great session. I haven't been sleeping well lately and I've had a bad headache since Monday afternoon; so physically I was exhausted and mentally I just wasn't all there. I considered rescheduling the session, but I didn't want to make excuses so I decided to suck it up. Thankfully my headache was gone before my session started, but the other factors definitely made things more challenging today than they should have been. I struggled with things that really should not have been that difficult.

Although there was one thing my trainer added at the very end today that was freaking hard and I think it would have been regardless of my physical and mental state...if any of you can do planks and/or push-ups on an exercise ball all by yourself, I'm IMPRESSED! Balancing on the ball and holding your body up are hard and my natural insinct was to push out the ball which pushed it away from me and caused me to lose my balance and fall; my trainer had to help keep the ball in one place for me and it was still hard!

We also did a check-in today, unfortunately there's no significant improvements to report, but to keep it positive and finish off on a good note... I am starting to feel stronger and it's been fun and encouraging to realize I'm capable of pushing myself further.

Personal Training Session #4

Session #4 was yesterday...today I can barely walk.

Before we got started, my trainer asked how my arms were doing...at that point they were a little sore. Today, however, they hurt. I'm not sure if my arms should be feeling worse...it's been 3 days since they took a beating in Session #3. (I'm planning on trying a heating pad this evening, maybe that will help.)

Not that it mattered how my arms were doing since she had planned a lower body workout. It was a very tough set of exercises, but I made it through.

My trainer gave me some 'homework' to do before next week when we meet - two cardio sessions. I asked if I could do one on Thursday (today) and she laughed...at that point I should have realized what I was in for. She recommended that I 'wait and see how I felt, but I'd probably only be able to take a casual walk around the neighborhood'.

I know that I will be very happy with all of my sessions and the results they bring, I'm even pretty happy now with the sessions and that I'm being pushed and challenged, it's a good feeling...except today. Today, my muscles are not just sore, they hurt, everything aches and I'm pretty sure my body hates me right about now.

Personal Training Session #3

Today's session went really well.

My trainer started off by asking how I felt and if I was sore. I told her I was a little sore, but it was better than a few days ago and I was feeling pretty good. She followed up with a question about whether my arms were sore. Telling her that just my legs and core were sore may not have been the best idea...she definitely focused in on my arms today, with a few leg and core exercises thrown in.

My arms now feel like jell-o, but overall I feel good, we'll see if that's still the case tomorrow :)

Personal Training Session #2

My second personal training session was yesterday.

It was tough.

I didn't throw up :)

My legs felt like jell-o at the end.

Today I'm feeling muscles ache that I didn't even know I had, but I still got my 'homework' done (cardio on the elliptical).

Looking forward to a day off tomorrow, then back with my trainer on Monday.

My First Personal Training Session

Overall, I think I’m a pretty healthy person. I eat pretty healthy most of the time (with the exception of my sweet tooth, but all things in moderation, right?) and I go to the gym at least 2-3 times a week for cardio and weights. However, I typically do the same routine over and over and I don’t really push myself too hard.

I thought it might be a good idea to mix things up a bit and do something a little more to trim down and get in a little better shape before the wedding.

As a birthday present to myself I purchased a package of personal training sessions at my gym (it was a highly discounted summer deal). I picked my trainer (she’s awesome) and scheduled my first appointment for today, my birthday…it seemed fitting since it was my birthday present to me. It also seemed a little symbolic… a good way to start off a new year or something to that effect.

So I told my friend I couldn’t meet her for lunch today, I had an appointment with my trainer during my lunch break. She told me I was crazy…she may have been right. Here’s how it went:

I showed up for my appointment a few minutes early, excited and ready to go. But since you all are friends I’ll be honest, I was mostly excited because I thought today would be a nice and easy ‘intro’ session; kind of like the first day of class when you meet the professor, get the syllabus, and leave without actually having to learn anything or do anything. I thought my trainer and I would have a nice little chat about what I wanted, what my goals were, we’d fill out some paperwork and collect some starting data and then do a little light test workout…see doesn’t that sound fun? Well, that’s not really what happened.

She did collect some starting data and we did chat for just a bit. This is about how the chat went:

Trainer: “Do you run?”
Me: “No.”
Trainer: “Can you run or is there a reason you don’t run?”
Me: “I can run, I just don’t like to run.”
Trainer: “You’re going to run today. What cardio do you usually do?”
Me: “Treadmill with incline intervals and the bike on random intervals.”
Trainer: “You’re not doing the bike any more. What speed do you usually do on the treadmill and what’s the highest incline you usually get to in a typical workout?”
Me: “3.4/3.5 speed and usually 3 or 4 incline.”
Trainer: “Your new minimum speed is 3.8 and you can do the elliptical machines at (some minimum I don’t remember). Let’s get started”

We headed over to the treadmill and she started me off with my usual…for about 30 seconds. Then she started increasing speed and incline. It actually wasn’t so bad. She took it back down a bit and told me to get ready.

The speed started increasing and the incline started increasing. She told me I could hold on when the incline made it feel like I’d fall. The incline got steeper and steeper and I wasn’t holding on which seemed to impress my trainer, so she kept increasing the incline and the speed. I think I finally grabbed the handles at an incline of 12 (I have no idea what the speed was, to be honest I was trying to distract myself from the fact that I was running so I was looking out the window at cars in the parking lot).

My chest was burning, but my legs didn’t feel too bad. My trainer was very pleased and said she couldn’t believe how long it took me to grab the handles.

Side note: I LOVE Biggest Loser and Losing It with Jillian. I definitely did not want to be like the whiny and wimpy contestants, so I decided I would try and suck it up and push it as much as I could.

After we wrapped up on the treadmill the trainer gave me a couple minutes to catch my breath and grab a drink of water. The following exchange occurred:

Trainer: “How’re you doing? You look a little…”
Me: “I’m good, I just haven’t ran in a really long time.”

I really thought I was good, until…

She had me do some push-ups. After the push-ups I stood up and she started saying something, I don’t remember what, I interrupted her with, “I need to go to the restroom.”

Apparently, I am much more out of shape than I realized and I ate good healthy oatmeal for breakfast for nothing, what a waste*.

My trainer gave me some water, said she was happy I was willing to push it so hard, and sent me home for the day.

I guess it’s a good thing I signed up for a trainer, huh?

I will say that by the time I got home, I had 'recovered', and I felt great! Maybe just a little hungry ;)

I'll see her in a couple of days, it should go much better next time…


*The only other time a workout has ever made me sick was when I went through a speed training program in middle school…but I had had nachos at a class party shortly before my after school session so I think it had to do more with that than with the actual workout. I never got sick at two-a-days in high school. But then again, high school was quite a while ago.