Holy crap!

Met with the trainer last night.... happy to report I hurt this morning! =oP

We did a full body workout, and I didn't even have to use one of the machines with the generic dude on it. I have been working out everyday since last Tuesday, and I haven't felt like I actually have been working out until last night.

IT

WAS

AWESOME!

She showed me the Free Motion machines which is so much better than generic dude machines. There's no adjusting seat heights or the other various levers to make the ginormous machine fit my 5'3" frame. This means I get to go from one move, seamlessly to the next.

Well, as seamlessly as my "grace" allows. I only almost tipped over a couple of times.

We went through the full body workout twice. On the second time we got to the squats, and she had given me a free weight to hold while I was doing them, as I expressed I really needed to work on my very minimal minimums since I do not want another injury, even ugly runners knee to pop back up again.

I asked what weight she had given me the first time through, and she said "It was a 10lb weight, it was too light wasn't it?"

"Well, it didn't really make it hard." and as soon as I uttered those words I knew I was in trouble.

"Here, do this." She said as she held a 25lb weight over her head as she did the squats.

"ah...ok... I might tip over."

"That's why we'll do it above a bench and you can sit and then go back up if you need to."

It was glorious! Tough but fun!

She looked at me doing the squats this time smirked and said "you know, I haven't known you very long, but it's apparent you like to push yourself... this is going to be fun."

"Yeah, I do. That's how I ended up with the broken foot and 10 month recovery process."

"Well, we're definitely not going to do that again, and if your foot hurts AT ALL you need to promise to let me know immediately and we will work out another way to work the same muscle."

We did a couple more moves.

"Ya know, you have a high pain tolerance but you giggle when you hit your threshold, when it hurts."

"um...that transparent huh?"

"It's just a nice change. Most people complain when I give them exercises to do, and you push yourself, and are open to trying them. It's fun."

"It's AWESOME! I finally feel like I'm working out. Like I'm doing something."

"Well good."

"Ah.... you're gonna make me look like Kara Goucher right?" and at that we both laughed.

I went downstairs to change after the workout, finally feeling a bit like my oldself.... well a lot more of my old self, but re-assured by the thought I can reach my goal of dropping 20lbs of fat and adding some lean muscle by February.

This is good. I'll be running in December, until then, 10 min on elliptical, 20-30 min either biking or swimming after....

Trainers are good.

I actually even enjoyed it, but nothing close to running.....

I did enjoy it enough though to be able to continue to do it even after I've got the ok to run my little heart out.

Life's good. Keep at it, never give up, and when you feel like it, come here and pour your heart out, cuz this is one great spot for support! Thank you all!

I'm gonna look like Kara Goucher ya know..... ;o)

hahahahahahaahahhaha!

the mysterious machines

Finally back at the gym.... the physical therapist gave me the go-ahead to do the elliptical for 10 minutes. Not a minute more no matter how good it might feel.

So... for a week I've been going to the gym doing my 10 glorious minutes on the elliptical and then wondering my way over to the ever intimidating weights area.

Sheepishly.

Very very very sheepishly...

I have a water bottle which I use not only for hydration but it gives me a smooth way to check out how to work the weird weight lifting apparatus.

So I casually stroll over and to my relief see that they have signs above each row that lets me know this row of machines will work your arms, this one your shoulders, this your legs...etc.

I start at the first machine in the row... nonchalantly unscrew the top off my water bottle and slowly take a drink all the while, reading the instructions lest I look like an idiot who doesn't know what they're doing.. for some reason I always feel pressure to get out of the way of the muscle peeps who obviously know exactly what they are doing and have no time to wait for you to either use the machine or read how to do it.

Do you know there are machines that don't have any instructions? I mean really... well they do have the warning sign the one that if you don't use the machine correctly you'll injure yourself, and I'm just coming off of an injury so that's like kryptonite and I avoid it at all costs, and walk away wondering if that one machine might hold the key to getting me in shape and now I will try and try in vain all because I've skipped it because it didn't have instructions.

Oh and what's with the generic dude images that are illustrations of how to do the exercise? Would it really hurt to put eyeballs on there so I don't use up all of my water on one machine trying to figure out if the dude is facing forward or backward?


ahem....


My little drinking water trick has worked pretty well except when it comes to the machines where I'm just beyond weak.

You know.. where you put the weight on like 40lbs and you think oh yeah no prob.... lift your arms up get ready to push, and it doesn't move. Not one little millimeter. So you move it to 20, thinking that should do the trick...

And push...

... and it moves... at bit but it's not going any farther..

OK FINE 10lbs....

And.....

I can do 3!

Holy crap. I R Weak.

There are six rows of machines... each night I do 3 rows... then the next the other three...

How come there are different machines that pretty much do the same thing? But yet there are some that once you actually start them you realize it is a tiny bit different, but you feel it a lot differently then the one you just did that was almost exactly like that? I mean why? Why would you put machines in a row, thinking they are maybe two in a row so more than one person can do the exercise at one time, so you skip it, and then one day you actually try it and realize it's different so then you start doing all of the machines in the row, only to realize that no, I was right, there are actually some that are two in a row, and why are there shoulder ones in the arm section that are the same as the ones in the leg section, and shouldn't they follow the signs?

So, I decided to actually bite the bullet and hire a trainer.

Maybe I'll unlock the secrets of the weight lifting area.... don't worry I'll actually share my knowledge.