![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I got to the gym in time for cardio and a bit of weight-lifting before my session with Emilie. ( details )
This trainer session was less emotionally draining than the previous ones have been. That may be partly that a chunk of it was massage, and maybe also that we were doing either things I've done before, or close to them, and familiarity helps. There's more of a sense that I know how to do this.
Emilie started by saying that she was tired from moving/unpacking, but focused despite the yawns, and asking how I was doing. I told her that, after feeling better, my knee and then left hip had been bothering me a bit. She offered to do some massage, which I accepted, and which wound up being about half the session: leg, arms around the elbows, shoulder, neck, and back of head. I think she'd have been willing to do the entire hour as massage, but I wanted to do some balance work, and we did.
First she had me do a little of the hamstring bridge. Then the "open the chest" stretch on the roller, which I'd forgotten I'm supposed to start with my arms reaching up into the air. Then we did the one where I lie on the roller and raise first just my arms, then raise one arm and bring one knee toward the chest, then both arms and the knee. I told her I'd been doing it starting with the one knee and one arm, not because I was intentionally jumping ahead but because, again, I'd forgotten the first step. (She started, this time, with me just lying there on my back on the roller with my feet on the ground and breathing.)
I also balanced on the half roller. I took my shoes off for that, after trying it with them on. This time she stepped back rather than being in reach to catch me; what I noticed at first was that she was further away and to one side, which meant I had to work to not turn my head when she talked. But I got balanced on there, and then successfully kept my shoulders back (her phrasing was "distal ends of collarbone wide") and turned my head to one side and then the other. While I was on there (before the head-turning part), she had me draw my pubic bone up and ribs down, which has the effect of lengthening the spine and making the abs do more of the work.
Emilie thinks that (at least) part of why my lower back has been bothering me is that when I slouch, it puts more pressure on those discs; drawing my spine up/out is tricky to remember, and trickier with pants and belt on than in my gym clothes.
(Somewhere in there before standing on the half roller she had me roll out the IT band, which was a lot tighter than when I did it yesterday evening.)
This trainer session was less emotionally draining than the previous ones have been. That may be partly that a chunk of it was massage, and maybe also that we were doing either things I've done before, or close to them, and familiarity helps. There's more of a sense that I know how to do this.
Emilie started by saying that she was tired from moving/unpacking, but focused despite the yawns, and asking how I was doing. I told her that, after feeling better, my knee and then left hip had been bothering me a bit. She offered to do some massage, which I accepted, and which wound up being about half the session: leg, arms around the elbows, shoulder, neck, and back of head. I think she'd have been willing to do the entire hour as massage, but I wanted to do some balance work, and we did.
First she had me do a little of the hamstring bridge. Then the "open the chest" stretch on the roller, which I'd forgotten I'm supposed to start with my arms reaching up into the air. Then we did the one where I lie on the roller and raise first just my arms, then raise one arm and bring one knee toward the chest, then both arms and the knee. I told her I'd been doing it starting with the one knee and one arm, not because I was intentionally jumping ahead but because, again, I'd forgotten the first step. (She started, this time, with me just lying there on my back on the roller with my feet on the ground and breathing.)
I also balanced on the half roller. I took my shoes off for that, after trying it with them on. This time she stepped back rather than being in reach to catch me; what I noticed at first was that she was further away and to one side, which meant I had to work to not turn my head when she talked. But I got balanced on there, and then successfully kept my shoulders back (her phrasing was "distal ends of collarbone wide") and turned my head to one side and then the other. While I was on there (before the head-turning part), she had me draw my pubic bone up and ribs down, which has the effect of lengthening the spine and making the abs do more of the work.
Emilie thinks that (at least) part of why my lower back has been bothering me is that when I slouch, it puts more pressure on those discs; drawing my spine up/out is tricky to remember, and trickier with pants and belt on than in my gym clothes.
(Somewhere in there before standing on the half roller she had me roll out the IT band, which was a lot tighter than when I did it yesterday evening.)