Personal Trainers

Wednesday:

I was really sore yesterday afternoon, especially the fronts of my thighs; lowering myself into a sitting position was a challenge and walking down a slope quite painful. But this morning most of the pain & stiffness was gone and I was back at BodyPump. I managed to get there in time, despite some parking issues, and again got throught the class ok except for the lunges -- although I did a little better there today. When I really think about it, my "ok" includes various compromises due to my old shoulder injury; for instance I do push-ups on the wall instead of the floor and my bar has no weights on it for the chest presses. I can't rest a bar on my shoulders because my arms don't twist back far enough for me to support it, so I hold a plate pressed to my chest instead. I do what I can and modify what I can't. On Monday the instuctor said "good variation" to me 3 or 4 times during the class.

Today the (different) instructor was demonstrating the clean & press move and said "everybody's favourite" and I think she was being sarcastic. But it really is my favourite move!

I spent the rest of the school day editing and finished the current job. Always nice to email one off.

I was ravenously hungry again all day and failed to make great choices. I was really tired too, understandable perhaps after four gym sessions in three days. After the kids got home I was weak-willed and gave Jasmine the option of whether we should go to Club Gecko or not, she wanted to go so it was back to the gym. I got straight on to the rowing machine. I decided to go for a longer row rather than push for more speed, so I ended up doing 21 minutes (I am working on increments of 3 minutes because my goal of 5 km in 30 mins means 500 m every 3 minutes -- it's just easier to work out how I'm going). It's the longest row I've ever done but yesterday I looked at a you-tube video of rowing technique and I think it helped. I was pretty comfortable until my trapezius muscles started to hurt. If I'd been going at my goal speed I would have gone 3.5 km in 21 mins but I only made 2.89 km which is way under. I'll get there, I'm only starting this challenge!

I've been noticing a few personal trainers around the gym, but none of them make me think I really need one. There is a cute young guy who sometimes brings his client to a treadmill near mine when I am cooling down, and I feel very unimpressive at my slow walk. I've been working really hard before this, honest! My least favourite pt is an older, very attractive and fit woman. I've seen her chat in a very friendly way with her various clients, stand around while they exercise, check her phone ... she sets up the machines for them with the right weights but I've never seen much in the way of motivation or encouragement or pushing them. Maybe she does stuff I haven't seen, but it looks like a waste of money to me.