Stand In: A flashback to my first session

I finally got rid of Heather!  Just kidding I love Heather but as she was out of town last week I seized the moment to torture another friend.  Shannon agreed to be my fill in training partner and check out what training is like.  It gave me flashbacks to my first few sessions and a lot of thoughts that I had back then.  So for my first blog I’m going to flashback to some notes I made after my first session.

“Today I had my first personal training session.  I was excited and a little nervous because I didn’t really know what to expect as I’d never really been to a personal trainer before.  Things went well and it made me recognize what the value of having a personal trainer will be.  I will have someone else telling me what to do and expecting me to do certain things which will make me push harder than I would push myself.  Those extra couple repetitions or extra couple pounds of weight could really make a difference.”  

“I think every exercise that we did today was something that I would never have come up with on my own.  We used a lot of different equipment (but not many machines) and had a lot of variety in exercises which I think will be good for me and keep me interested.  At one point he said something about us being almost done and I felt like I hadn’t been there very long so I was obviously into what we were doing and not counting time down on the clock.”

 “I feel like a lot of the session was spent on assessment and trying to figure out for both he and I what I can do and what my limits are for different things.  For example he asked me “how do you feel about box jumps?  Can you do 10 box jumps?” Well, I have no idea cause I've never done a box jump, it's probably something I can do but even if I can do it I don’t know how many.  It was like that with a lot of exercises.  I didn’t know if I could do it at all, how many I’d be able to do or how much weight I’d be able to do.  Mike was good at assessing and everything we did was pretty close to where I needed it to be. He started me a little easier which is fine with me because there was no defeating moments where I couldn’t do what I was asked to do and instead I got to do more.”

“I’m sore and I’m not really very excited about how I’m gonna feel tomorrow.  Overall I think a lot of today was about not knowing what to expect, being nervous, getting kind of over that and he and I trying to figure out where i’m at.  That will help us figure out where to go next.”

One of the hardest parts of personal training for me was getting over the fear of getting started.  The anxiety, nerves, self-doubt, fear of failure, etc. etc. etc.  By my third session or so I had dropped most of those and instead look forward to training days as the days that I do something good for myself.  Training is still hard but the fear and anxiety is gone.

My newbie Shannon handled the session like a Rock Star and by the end I was exhausted on the floor and she was still smiling.  As I was the first time I'm sore and tired but glad I take the time each week to go see Mike for my "me time" in the gym.

~Biz