Gym time

Me personal training sessions at Bally's are going remarkably well and I’m very thoroughly pleased.

I’m quite pleased with Josh, and not just because he’s a cutie. He’s one of those never-stops-moving jock types who is all about being active (football, basketball, baseball, golf, cycling, you name it, he does it) and his approach to training is not about how much you can lift or lots of aerobics.

Instead, we focus on things like proper form (in just about everything) and working muscles to the point of failure (as in, I started off doing this shoulder press exercise using dumbbells and now I’m just moving my arms up and down with no weight and I still can’t do it!) Plus lots of emphasis on balance (standing or kneeling on the BOSU, using the big balance ball for flyes rather a flat bench) and coordination (do these curls / presses while standing on one foot) and exercises that address the core (abs, obliques, back muscles.)

For an hour a day, three days a week.

I usually try to make it there half an hour to 45 minutes before our session so that I can (a) do about half an hour’s worth of laps (walking) on the track and (b) do some stretching. By the time Josh is done with me, I’m whupped so afterwards it’s about all I can do to get through a shower and then stagger home.

The great thing about Josh is that he’s very attentive to detail and gives very constructive feedback. He doesn’t just say, “that’s wrong,” he says, “try doing this” and keeps on saying it until – voila, at last! – I finally make the mind body connection and start moving things in the right way. And when I do get it right, “that’s a hundred percent better” or “you’ve nailed it” or “you squat better than I do, I can never keep my feet straight.”

For the first time in my life I feel like I’m being coached, in the very best sense of the word.

I’ve pointed out all of this to the fitness director (Nick), who hooked me up with Josh in the first place, and to Josh as well, who, for his part, says that he enjoys training me because I work hard.

The benefits are obvious to me, even though they’re probably not particularly evident as far as the scale is concerned. My torso is much tighter than it ever has been previously and everything else is firming up nicely, too. I don’t seem to have lost (or gained) any weight and I doubt my measurements have changed any but I can feel the difference and on occasion I can see it in the mirror. I’m inclined to think the goals I set out when I first talked to Nick about hiring a trainer (See 57 Weeks and Counting, March 9, 2007) are completely doable and that I’m well on my way to achieving them.

In some ways it’s sad that I have to pay someone to motivate me to do this kind of work but I keep reminding myself that it’s not just that – I’m getting instruction, not just motivation, and of a sort that I have craved for a very long time.