Oh boy

I was pathetic at my work out today. It was my first time working out with my personal trainer, and I had told her how strong I was and that I had been working out for a long time, and there was NO evidence of any of that today at the gym. How embarrassing. :)

First of all, I had to hit the road this AM at 6 to get to Boston for some early morning meetings. It was a very busy morning, and when I left Boston, I had to rush back to NH to get to the gym on time. I didn't have a chance to stop for lunch, and I was already feeling weak, on top of my aching back and general sluggishness from coming down with a cold.

To top it all off, she decided we should work out chest and triceps today, my two weakest areas, natch. For the first exercise, we did one I do in my normal routine, so she kept increasing the weights every set because she could tell it was way too light for me. I was thinking that it wasn't so bad for a sick/injured/hungry person.

...Oh how the mighty fall...

Next we went onto the fly/cross, which I've always been so weak at, and I told her this, but she didn't seem to get the picture. I'm a big girl, and she's seen some of my muscles, so I think she probably thinks I'm deformed at this point. I had to keep it on the lowest setting. Now, in my defense, if I was cheating and doing the exercises quicker, or in the improper form that many people do, I could have done *much* more weight, but doing things the right way is very different my friend. :)

From that, we moved along to assist dips.

...another exercise I've almost always avoided. Hello - I'm too fat to do dips or this mid way push up things - even though I can put the weight on a certain resistance to offset some of my weight, it's not enough! I don't think my trainer has ever worked out with a fat person before (which is very possible because she's very new at this), and I think she was shocked that I had trouble with this exercise.

I've lost a lot of weight, but I still weigh a lot! Not to mention, this exercise uses the triceps and mine aren't built up, so the poor little things are trying to lift over half of my body weight...up and down...up and down...

I got about 25 dips in total, but they were wimpy, and not the full range that they should be. Luckily, I know that my muscles grow and learn fast, so by our next work out, I'll be able to hold my head high again.

Our last exercise wasn't bad, but it kept pulling at my injured back, so my arms were shaky and it was hard to get through. She must have thought I lied about all the working out I do and how strong I am! LOL

Finally, we ended up on cardio. I had told her how much I loathe indoor cardio, and while I do it, I don't like it. To the opposite point of my tales of lifting weights, I think she took that to mean that I don't do any cardio and I'm a complete beginner. With the weights, where she thought I could do more than I could, and with the cardio, she thought I could do less.

She wanted me to do 5 mins of low impact and 5 minutes of mid impact. She was thinking I would start as a 3 on the bike for the first 5 minutes and then move up to a 6 for the next five minutes. I started pedaling away, and I think it must have been obvious that it was nothing to me, because then she jumped me up to a 6 for the low impact and I did 10 for the mid impact.

She said my target heart rate should be 132 while doing cardio, which is lower than I'm usually aiming for. She said at the 132 range, I'm burning fat, but above that, I'm burning sugars, and I want to burn the fat...especially because I'm not eating more than I should...I just need to burn the weight off, not the calories I'm consuming...I think I get it. :)

All in all, it was a very good, informative work out. I had forgotten how much I didn't know. :) It's been so long since I met with a personal trainer (almost 15 years!), and the same amount of time since I trained some other folks at the gym I worked at. I lost a lot of good tips along the way, especially since I took so many years off from working out. I got into bad habits as well, sacrificing form so that I could lift higher amounts of weight, not going slow enough, etc...

I'm really excited about the work we are going to do together. She gave me homework to do between now and our next session, which is the day after we return from Florida. She sheepishly asked me if there was any way I'd be able to work out at all while I'm on vacation. Heck yes! I already found the two closest Planet Fitness locations to my hotels, and I am absolutely planning to exercise while I'm away.

She told me, "You're doing a good job, Kiddo," which was very cute since she's almost young enough to have been my child.