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irongirls)
This morning I got a call from someone at my gym, explaining that Robert, the trainer who had set this free (re)intro up for me had called in sick. I thought she was going to reschedule, but she wanted to change trainers instead, to "get [me] working out as soon as possible." I guess he hadn't told her that this was an extra freebie, not the one that you get when you join. So I now had an appointment with someone named Earl.
I made pierogies for lunch, then headed out. I got there earlier than I'd planned, despite a stop at the drugstore, so I added two minutes to my cardio, and did the hip abduction and adduction first: Hip adduction, 115 pounds, 2 sets of 12; abduction, 100 pounds, 2 sets of 12. I'd have gone for a third set of each, but someone else came along and started using the adduction machine.
Cardio, 35 minutes, top heart rate 156, mostly cruised along in the 147-150 range from minutes 10-33.
Then I talked to Earl. He had me fill out a form, which it turned out later he hadn't actually looked at, but he did get the key points: this is strength training and weight loss is irrelevant, a bit of what I've been doing, and that I have bad knees. Based on that last, he told me I shouldn't be doing any leg press stuff, so we took that off the list of things I wanted to be shown. Since the goal was for me to learn stuff, I did relatively brief stints at lots of different things. Earl is big on lots of reps at lower weights; he also has an odd trick of reducing the weight as his client goes through an exercise. I told him up front that I don't do well with being lied to: if you tell me five more reps, it better not be five and then another two. He was thus amused later when I did more reps than he'd predicted or asked for, and I explained that it's different if I add them rather than feeling pressured or lied to.
He showed me a leg extension machine, at 40 pounds, and had me doing the leg curl at 45 and with the positioning set differently than I usually do, this after asking me how much weight I normally use. He also gave me a different stretch to use after that, with my foot straight up on the window ledge, and trying to touch my toes.
Next on my list was lat pulldowns, since I hadn't done those in a long time. Did a set of those at 48 pounds, with attention to positioning. Apparently if I look at this odd loop on the top of the device, it puts my head at the right angle.
After that, equipment for abdominals: a bench for doing crunches on, and a thing where you lean back, then put the weight on your arms and lift your legs straight off the ground. Difficult for me. Earl also showed me some stretches on a different device than the one I usually use, including one for the shoulders and one for the calf.
We did a set of rowing, on a "dual axis" machine that's supposed to be good for two things, but I just did rowing.
Next up, the assisted pull-up. I'd had a bad experience with one of those, and wanted someone to show me how it works. Earl was glad to. I did five reps with the maximum assistance, and now I'm not afraid of it. He said that when I can do ten comfortably, I can reduce the assistance by one notch.
After that, we did some lateral raises, some things he called presses which involved lifting those weights toward the ceiling, and one with each arm alternately going from next-to-thigh to waist height.
Since I'd mentioned balance as a goal, he showed me balance exercises with a physio ball. The first was leaning back over the physio ball , and lowering my head toward the floor and raising it, repeatedly. That one was much easier with my eyes closed: being upside down and staring in a mirror is not good for my balance. Another was lying prone over the ball, and raising either both hands, one hand and the opposite foot, or both feet. I couldn't get both feet off the ground at once, even with both hands on the ground; I'm not sure how much of that was that I'm not yet well enough balanced, and how much was fear.
That was the end of my freebie session. I finished my workout with triceps pulldowns (40 pounds, 3 sets of 15), and more work on the crunch bench (2 sets of 25, the first of which was fairly easy and the second of which I got through mostly on sheer stubbornness and the desire to make them come out even).
irongirls)This morning I got a call from someone at my gym, explaining that Robert, the trainer who had set this free (re)intro up for me had called in sick. I thought she was going to reschedule, but she wanted to change trainers instead, to "get [me] working out as soon as possible." I guess he hadn't told her that this was an extra freebie, not the one that you get when you join. So I now had an appointment with someone named Earl.
I made pierogies for lunch, then headed out. I got there earlier than I'd planned, despite a stop at the drugstore, so I added two minutes to my cardio, and did the hip abduction and adduction first: Hip adduction, 115 pounds, 2 sets of 12; abduction, 100 pounds, 2 sets of 12. I'd have gone for a third set of each, but someone else came along and started using the adduction machine.
Cardio, 35 minutes, top heart rate 156, mostly cruised along in the 147-150 range from minutes 10-33.
Then I talked to Earl. He had me fill out a form, which it turned out later he hadn't actually looked at, but he did get the key points: this is strength training and weight loss is irrelevant, a bit of what I've been doing, and that I have bad knees. Based on that last, he told me I shouldn't be doing any leg press stuff, so we took that off the list of things I wanted to be shown. Since the goal was for me to learn stuff, I did relatively brief stints at lots of different things. Earl is big on lots of reps at lower weights; he also has an odd trick of reducing the weight as his client goes through an exercise. I told him up front that I don't do well with being lied to: if you tell me five more reps, it better not be five and then another two. He was thus amused later when I did more reps than he'd predicted or asked for, and I explained that it's different if I add them rather than feeling pressured or lied to.
He showed me a leg extension machine, at 40 pounds, and had me doing the leg curl at 45 and with the positioning set differently than I usually do, this after asking me how much weight I normally use. He also gave me a different stretch to use after that, with my foot straight up on the window ledge, and trying to touch my toes.
Next on my list was lat pulldowns, since I hadn't done those in a long time. Did a set of those at 48 pounds, with attention to positioning. Apparently if I look at this odd loop on the top of the device, it puts my head at the right angle.
After that, equipment for abdominals: a bench for doing crunches on, and a thing where you lean back, then put the weight on your arms and lift your legs straight off the ground. Difficult for me. Earl also showed me some stretches on a different device than the one I usually use, including one for the shoulders and one for the calf.
We did a set of rowing, on a "dual axis" machine that's supposed to be good for two things, but I just did rowing.
Next up, the assisted pull-up. I'd had a bad experience with one of those, and wanted someone to show me how it works. Earl was glad to. I did five reps with the maximum assistance, and now I'm not afraid of it. He said that when I can do ten comfortably, I can reduce the assistance by one notch.
After that, we did some lateral raises, some things he called presses which involved lifting those weights toward the ceiling, and one with each arm alternately going from next-to-thigh to waist height.
Since I'd mentioned balance as a goal, he showed me balance exercises with a physio ball. The first was leaning back over the physio ball , and lowering my head toward the floor and raising it, repeatedly. That one was much easier with my eyes closed: being upside down and staring in a mirror is not good for my balance. Another was lying prone over the ball, and raising either both hands, one hand and the opposite foot, or both feet. I couldn't get both feet off the ground at once, even with both hands on the ground; I'm not sure how much of that was that I'm not yet well enough balanced, and how much was fear.
That was the end of my freebie session. I finished my workout with triceps pulldowns (40 pounds, 3 sets of 15), and more work on the crunch bench (2 sets of 25, the first of which was fairly easy and the second of which I got through mostly on sheer stubbornness and the desire to make them come out even).
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