Oh, Ow…Why? (New Personal Trainer)
I’ve written before about the cardinal rule of being instructed by a physical therapist or personal trainer, and it’s this: people are naturally efficient, and they are particularly good at exercising the muscles that they normally use, and at not exercising the muscles that they don’t normally use. So, when a trainer tells you how to do an exercise, what usually happens is the first time or two you do it, you think, “Hey, this one’s going to be easier than the others!” And then, they tell you that you should bring your elbows in, or twist your hands a little differently, or go this way, and then…no, see, this one’s hard, too.
My trainer was very solicitous, always asking if the weight seemed right, usually wanting to adjust it until I could answer that it felt like a good medium weight, though occasionally she would bump it up a bit. And through most of the ordeal, I felt like, “This is going pretty well, yeah, I feel exercised!”
Monday’s session was all about the upper body: chest, shoulders, and arms. Afterwards, she had me hold out my arms straight ahead of me, and would laugh girlishly in an amused/alarmed manner at how much my arms were shaking, and then show me another stretch to do to loosen them up, or direct me to do one that she’d already shown me, but nevertheless, here I am, a few hours later, a beaten man.
Oh, and I signed up for another 16 sessions. At twice a week, that’ll take me through to Solvang, in early March.
“Ha ha, ohmygod, your arms are still really shaking! Ok, let’s do another stretch.”
Tom Chappell wrote:
The second session on Wednesday focused on the lower body and midsection: quads, calves, and abs. We were more cautious, and when I got up this morning, I didn’t detect any soreness in the lower body or midsection at all. When I stopped by Larry’s house to carpool, I was even jumping around while chatting with Sally (it came into the conversation — you probably had to be there).
By noon I could sense a little soreness, but only if I tried to do a move similar to one from last night’s training session.
And then, by 3pm, I was just, well, sore. But not bad. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
My upper body is still crazy sore from Monday, though it continues to improve. I’m still a little wary that I might’ve honked a tendon, though.
Posted 10 Jan 2008 at 10:50 pm ¶
Tom Chappell wrote:
The third session on Saturday focused on flexibility only — I didn’t want to risk being broken for the 40-mile bike ride that Ron, Carlos and I are doing tomorrow. It went well, and I’m hoping for less, as opposed to more, pain as a result. Just in case, we’ve put off the next workout until Wednesday, to give them more time to recover.
My arms are starting to feel less like they’ve been injured, and more like they’ve just had a heavy workout.
My legs and abs feel fairly normal, especially after today’s session.
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 5:07 pm ¶
Tom Chappell wrote:
For our fourth session, on Wednesday, 01/16, 9 days after I first saw the personal trainer and was so sore, we finally dared to do upper body work again. It wasn’t particularly easier, but my arms didn’t bother me afterwards, and 3 days later, for our fifth session on Saturday, we did upper body work and abs again, and again I had no trouble.
So it seems as if the trainer was right — that first-time soreness was pretty much just a first-time problem.
Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 5:21 pm ¶
Tom Chappell wrote:
For our sixth session, on Wednesday, 01/23, we tackled more lower-body work, as planned. The personal trainer doesn’t do as much work with the machines as I would have expected. Instead, it’s a lot of work that mostly uses my own weight. And then Wednesday she had me do a lot of exercises while standing on the horrible Bosu Ball.
First, she had me just stand on the damn thing. It bounced around like you can’t imagine. Then, after 5 or 10 minutes practicing just standing on it, she asked me if I could do a bicep curl while standing on it. “Um…sure?” And then after that, how about some Hammer Curls? And…I don’t remember what all, but at one point, I looked over to her and said, “Admit it, you just won $20 from the other trainers, ‘Ha, I got him to stand on the ball, raise one leg, and move his arms from his sides to over his head.’ Girlish laughter ensued, but no outright denials.
I was still sore in my legs today (Saturday), and the ever-present rain makes cycling impossible, so for the seventh session, which was only a 1/2 session due to her getting lost in Alta Dena while trying to find her way around a bridge being disabled by the rain, we focused on upper-body work. The trainer said that I was one of her favorite clients, but I’ll bet she says that to all the boys.
Posted 26 Jan 2008 at 9:31 pm ¶
Tom Chappell wrote:
Our eighth session was lower-body work again. We only rarely use the machines, possibly because of having to compete for their use with the other patrons, but also possibly because the exercises that she has me do instead are more taxing than mere brute force while sitting down.
For example, last night, she had me stand on one leg, raising (say) the left leg a little off the floor, and then while balancing on the right leg, reaching down with my right fist toward my left leg. Good, do five of those. Ok, now the other side.
Squats: Done with your feet this way, or that way. Now like a ballerina. Now while carrying a bowling ball (not actually, but an 8-10 lb. ball, yes).
Lunges: Do them straight ahead. Okay, eight like that. Other leg. Now, alternating to the left and right. Now walk around, but using lunges instead of regular walking. Oog, yuck.
Posted 29 Jan 2008 at 8:07 am ¶