In my article here I did talk about that I am working with a personal trainer at my local 24 Hour Fitness. I had my second session today and I was in pain until yesterday. Well, it is good pain because I realize that I am definitely in need of doing different exercises to really improve my overall strength of the core and the back to become a better runner (I love running). The exercises I have been doing in the past were not bad or wrong, but I was definitely not pushing hard enough. The old set of exercises that I did were also not targeted enough and I realize that just following the stickers on the machines is not enough to make for a good workout. The new exercises I am doing are kicking my butt (in a good way).
The second session with my personal trainer “Tessa” was really good. I arrived 15 minutes early for a warm-up workout and then met with Tessa to begin the training session. We briefly went through of what I had done since session #1 and discussed the good and the bad things (well, I had some muscle pain because I am now exercising muscles I did not even know I had). Tessa then had me do some of the exercises that strengthen the core and the back before moving on to new exercises. Today I used a leg press as an example. 24 Hour Fitness has several different types in the Gym I go to. She had me already use one last week, and today I had to use a different type of leg press. Tessa explained how to use it correctly and to pay specifically attention to stopping the weight when the legs/knees are at a 90 degree angle. Right after using the leg press Tessa had me do lounges which was interesting as I had done those in the past, but if you have somebody who can correct your posture while do it is extremely important.
We moved on to other exercises which are hard to explain with not having a picture to visualize the exercises. We also use dumbbells and towards the end of the session I had to admit that my arms felt like Jello. Here I am at 24 Hour Fitness with my personal trainer and my arms are giving up on me. I am not super-strong, but I also never considered myself weak. And to add insult to injury – there are guys and gals around us working out where you would think those arms look more like legs. But I know that they started out with much less and that I can work my way up to a certain level of strength if I stick to my workout plan.
We finished the session with foam rollers. Foam rollers are interesting. I have seen them on TV, my wife actually has one, and I know what they do. It looks so easy when somebody else who is experienced with them, uses them, but when you get down on the floor and try to repeat what you were shown – it’s a whole different story. Ouch. I did not know that you need to hold where you have most of the pain, but I have to say I felt so much better at the end of the training session and I am willing to give credits to the foam roller. I hope when I wake up tomorrow morning that I am still feeling good. I am ready to work out again.
Update: Read about Session #3 here.
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