Personal Training -Two Weeks In

So far, I am loving personal training! It's really done a lot for me in terms of variety and showing me my strength. I've had the chance to work with two trainers, each with different styles. The first trainer had me doing much more "traditional" weight lifting with weights that brought me to failure at 10-12 reps. Having somewhere there to push is invaluable! I was able to move up to 15 pound dumbbells for shoulder press, which I'd never do alone. He forced me to do biceps and triceps too, which I HATE! I avoid them at all costs. :) My favorite variation he gave me to add challenge to my workouts was the use of the BOSU ball. I've used it many times before but this time he had me kneel on it without my feet touching the ground while I did shoulder raises, bicep curls, etc. It is HARD to keep your balance!! Awesome core work!

I had trainer number 2 tonight, and his style is what I'd call "exploit your weakness." He had me start with one-legged squats on a high step, and he noticed that my stabilizer muscles were weak because my ankle and my knee wobbled. Soooo, we worked on that for a whole hour. We did some lunges on the BOSU, some outer thigh raises while balancing on a stability ball, and single-leg calf raises. All of it made my legs shake, and I'm pretty sure I'll be super sore tomorrow. The good thing is that I need to work these muscles. When I get pain, it's all IT band related, and he says that working on these muscles will help. My left hip is soooo tight compared to my right so we talked a lot about balancing strength and flexibility on each side. Loved it!

They had me change my diet a bit too, but I'll write about that in another post soon. In other news, we're starting a Shape Up Challenge at work, and my coworkers nominated me to be their team lead. Fun!