Being Trained

I had my first formal training session at the gym last night. And no, he is not my trainer. We did some chest and bicep work last night topped off with a bit of calves at the end and while I'm sore as hell (with some lingering after effects of the kickboxing class on Monday), I know I made the right decision to hire the trainer.

First and foremost, my trainer rocks. He's a competitive body builder but not one of those freakishly large guys that my gym is pretty much known for world wide. I guess he would be a middleweight or even a welterweight but definitely not one of those freaks who can flex the muscles in their elbows and earlobes at will. He doesn't wear the tight t-shirts or shorts but opts for a loose fitting shirt that shows that he's never cheated on the bench press in his life and the long workout pants. There's no intimidation when you meet him. You know he's in great shape but he doesn't flaunt it. Even better he's just very down to earth with no pretense. He'll tell you what he's done (which is pretty freakin' impressive) but also how what you're doing relates to his workouts and how the training is different since his goals aren't the same as mine.

But best of all...he pushes me. HARD. He refuses to let me give up and when I say I want more weight or he comes in to assist when I'm at the end of a set and struggling a bit and I tell him I've got it and can make it to the end of the set, he'll throw on some more weight or some more reps so I have to prove myself. Case in point, I was doing some calf work on the angled squat press and up to 180 pounds when he pushed me to go to 40 reps on the last set because I had a look of "this is too easy" on my face or bumping me up from a set of 10 to a set of 15 because I thought I could bust out the last set of bicep curls.

I have 19 more sessions with this guy going through February. Couple that with the cardio that I'm doing as well and my goal to start morning yoga routines in January, I should meet my target goal. After that it becomes maintaining the weight, gaining more strength, and from there.

Who knows? Maybe I'll pick up some more training sessions in the middle of next year and go for more.