Gym and socializing
After work yesterday, I went to the gym. I got out of work slightly early, so I had time to do some cardio and weight work before my hour with Emilie.
The session with Emilie went pretty well, I think. It was emotional and somewhat stressful—they're always emotional, because we're working on some deep stuff here—but she says she's impressed with how fast I'm moving on some of this balance and posture stuff. I told her about our walk in the park (which she referred to as a hike after I described it) and how well the balance stuff had gone on Tuesday. Apparently I am more vertical than I was two months ago; it's harder to notice from inside, and she's commenting on what I achieve when carefully following her instructions to move that foot a little bit this way, and tilt my pelvis thus, and so on. The tricky thing is doing all of this at once, but I'm starting to internalize some of it.
Then I met![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cattitude and roadnotes for dinner and conversation. It was good getting a chance to catch up with her. We're both making, and thinking about, changes, me this internal/body stuff and her leaving her job and planning a move.
However, after Chinese food, we went to our old favorite La Lanterna for dessert. I'd forgotten that their bathroom is down a steep flight of stairs. That plus the gym wound up being the most steps I've done on one day in a few weeks. My knees were hurting on the walk home from the subway. They seem better this morning, but I've not left the apartment yet, so that's not strong evidence.
Cardio, 11 minutes, top heart rate 129
Chest press, 50 pounds, 12; 55 pounds, 8
Balance ~fly, 65 pounds, 15 with each foot forward; 50 pounds, 15 each. (This wasn't a deliberate increase; I forgot to change the weights from what the previous person had them at.)
Calf raise, 70 pounds, 17
Adjustable row, 70 pounds, 12, 7. (Stopped because the left wrist hurt a little.)
Crunches, 2 sets of 30
Back arches, 17
Biceps curls, 10 pounds each hand, 2 sets of 20
One effect of doing the weights first was that I had to ask Emilie not to push on certain things, because the muscles or joints had already been pushed. But useful as the work with Emilie is, it doesn't provide the same satisfactions as the weights. Balanced is good, but I like being strong and muscular.
Emilie and I started a little late, because she'd run over with her 5:00 client (and this in turn meant we ended late, delaying her 7:00). There was another trainer working with her client in the same area, and then a couple of other people came randomly through to use some of the gear, so it felt more public than usual, which may have added to my stress levels. (Emilie tries, in general, to avoid shouting at people, which is good, but sometimes I have to ask her to speak up because of the gym music system, and the general noise of other people doing stuff.)
She had me stand on the half-roller; it didn't go as easily as when I was at the gym on Tuesday, but I got on, and we did things like adjusting the position of the right foot, and her telling me to tuck my pelvis under (which I don't have a good idea of yet, though I seem able to produce it when she asks), and the tricky one of turning my head to one side without moving my shoulders. (That I can do with her touching or pointing at the shoulder; we'll see on Monday or Tuesday how well it works without that.)
At one point, after adjusting a few things, she told me that I wasn't allowed to slouch anymore. I got upset and said no. And pointed out that "don't slouch" has bad overtones. We agreed that "make your spine straighter" was fine. She promised not to say that to me anymore, thought a minute, and said that she wasn't going to say that to any of her clients, and thanked me for pointing it out. What I didn't get to explaining was that the "not allowed" was also problematic phrasing: I don't want her to be that much in charge.
Then she had me fiddle with more things, including the position of my pubic bone, which involved her touching my back as she gave me instructions. She'd started doing this with me looking sideways at the mirror; I asked to switch that so that I could remember doing it facing forward. When we were done, I was noticeably vertical and symmetrical. Emilie said that I looked as though I'd dropped ten pounds. I said that I liked the weight I'm at, but agreed that it looked good. (She knows I'm not looking to lose weight, but I'm not sure she realizes that there are sore spots there.)
I asked her to show me the hamstring bridge again, because I'd thought I was getting it wrong at home, but apparently I had it more or less down already: I'm supposed to feel it in the back of my knees, because the hamstrings anchor there. I need to remember to do the exercise where I lie down, put a rolled towel under one knee, and press down.
I don't need to roll out the IT band every day anymore, because that's already much better. (This doesn't mean not doing it at all.) We finished with some hamstring stretches, then went over for me to sign that we'd done the session (so she'll get paid) and schedule for next week. I was startled, looking at the sheet, to see that this is paid session 6 (or 7 total), with another 6 to go; it had felt like more.
(This is not in temporal order; I'm working from memory, not the notes I have for the weight stuff.)
The session with Emilie went pretty well, I think. It was emotional and somewhat stressful—they're always emotional, because we're working on some deep stuff here—but she says she's impressed with how fast I'm moving on some of this balance and posture stuff. I told her about our walk in the park (which she referred to as a hike after I described it) and how well the balance stuff had gone on Tuesday. Apparently I am more vertical than I was two months ago; it's harder to notice from inside, and she's commenting on what I achieve when carefully following her instructions to move that foot a little bit this way, and tilt my pelvis thus, and so on. The tricky thing is doing all of this at once, but I'm starting to internalize some of it.
Then I met
cattitude and roadnotes for dinner and conversation. It was good getting a chance to catch up with her. We're both making, and thinking about, changes, me this internal/body stuff and her leaving her job and planning a move.However, after Chinese food, we went to our old favorite La Lanterna for dessert. I'd forgotten that their bathroom is down a steep flight of stairs. That plus the gym wound up being the most steps I've done on one day in a few weeks. My knees were hurting on the walk home from the subway. They seem better this morning, but I've not left the apartment yet, so that's not strong evidence.
Cardio, 11 minutes, top heart rate 129
Chest press, 50 pounds, 12; 55 pounds, 8
Balance ~fly, 65 pounds, 15 with each foot forward; 50 pounds, 15 each. (This wasn't a deliberate increase; I forgot to change the weights from what the previous person had them at.)
Calf raise, 70 pounds, 17
Adjustable row, 70 pounds, 12, 7. (Stopped because the left wrist hurt a little.)
Crunches, 2 sets of 30
Back arches, 17
Biceps curls, 10 pounds each hand, 2 sets of 20
One effect of doing the weights first was that I had to ask Emilie not to push on certain things, because the muscles or joints had already been pushed. But useful as the work with Emilie is, it doesn't provide the same satisfactions as the weights. Balanced is good, but I like being strong and muscular.
Emilie and I started a little late, because she'd run over with her 5:00 client (and this in turn meant we ended late, delaying her 7:00). There was another trainer working with her client in the same area, and then a couple of other people came randomly through to use some of the gear, so it felt more public than usual, which may have added to my stress levels. (Emilie tries, in general, to avoid shouting at people, which is good, but sometimes I have to ask her to speak up because of the gym music system, and the general noise of other people doing stuff.)
She had me stand on the half-roller; it didn't go as easily as when I was at the gym on Tuesday, but I got on, and we did things like adjusting the position of the right foot, and her telling me to tuck my pelvis under (which I don't have a good idea of yet, though I seem able to produce it when she asks), and the tricky one of turning my head to one side without moving my shoulders. (That I can do with her touching or pointing at the shoulder; we'll see on Monday or Tuesday how well it works without that.)
At one point, after adjusting a few things, she told me that I wasn't allowed to slouch anymore. I got upset and said no. And pointed out that "don't slouch" has bad overtones. We agreed that "make your spine straighter" was fine. She promised not to say that to me anymore, thought a minute, and said that she wasn't going to say that to any of her clients, and thanked me for pointing it out. What I didn't get to explaining was that the "not allowed" was also problematic phrasing: I don't want her to be that much in charge.
Then she had me fiddle with more things, including the position of my pubic bone, which involved her touching my back as she gave me instructions. She'd started doing this with me looking sideways at the mirror; I asked to switch that so that I could remember doing it facing forward. When we were done, I was noticeably vertical and symmetrical. Emilie said that I looked as though I'd dropped ten pounds. I said that I liked the weight I'm at, but agreed that it looked good. (She knows I'm not looking to lose weight, but I'm not sure she realizes that there are sore spots there.)
I asked her to show me the hamstring bridge again, because I'd thought I was getting it wrong at home, but apparently I had it more or less down already: I'm supposed to feel it in the back of my knees, because the hamstrings anchor there. I need to remember to do the exercise where I lie down, put a rolled towel under one knee, and press down.
I don't need to roll out the IT band every day anymore, because that's already much better. (This doesn't mean not doing it at all.) We finished with some hamstring stretches, then went over for me to sign that we'd done the session (so she'll get paid) and schedule for next week. I was startled, looking at the sheet, to see that this is paid session 6 (or 7 total), with another 6 to go; it had felt like more.
(This is not in temporal order; I'm working from memory, not the notes I have for the weight stuff.)