What motivates YOU?

What is one of the things that keeps you out and moving?  Do you have goals you want to reach?  A race to complete?  A weight to achieve?  An ex to make jealous (I am not judging you)?  Do you find that just having that end goal keeps you driving through the days that you do NOT want to be out working on it?

For me knowing that I have an event coming helps to keep me motivated but it is not the end all be all.  I know I have races coming up and I should probably train a little harder but I always think I have more time.  To my defense the half marathon is in October, I will start kicking butt and taking names in June….after vacation.

One thing that helps me keep going is my kids.  I want to be able to run, jump, skip and keep up with them.  If I am asked (suckered) into coaching a sports team of theirs I want to be able to show those other kids a good example.  If coach asks you to do burpees she will do them too.  The kids where only five years old and I only asked them to do three, but man you should of heard the groans and laughs from the parents behind me.

Another thing that keeps me going, that I noticed on accident, is moving really helps me when I am upset.  Last November, my Grandfather passed away.  Unfortunately, it was not a quick process.  He teetered on the edge of this world and the next for over a week.  We knew it was coming but we didn’t know when the other shoe would drop.  Death doesn’t really bother me, it’s a part of our journey, but I was very close to my grandfather.  And even though I know he was ready, it didn’t make it any easier for me.  I felt restless and agitated inside.  Lacing up my shoes and pounding the bike path help to give it an outlet.  And it was raining, no one would know if I started to cry.

On those runs I would start to think about how thankful I was to be able to move.  There are people who just want to walk.  Imagine how they would feel to be running?

I don’t run fast or lift a lot.  I don’t love it while it’s happening.  It doesn’t feel particularly good to be doing it, while doing it.  But I do it and afterwards THAT is the pay off.  My muscles feel like they have expended the crazy energy that could get out no other way.  I am thankful that I am able to move my body.  And even though I may not be able to run a 10 minute mile I still get out and move.
Every day move your body with intention and be thankful for what you CAN do.  You don’t have to go fast, you don’t have to PR every time, you just have to go.

I dedicate this post to my sister.  She recently tried to knock her brain through her butt and is currently on bed rest until her concussion subsides.  I will run one for you sis :).

Sitting still seems pretty awesome.

I was super excited to be allowed to sit!  It was a glorious time until Mike decided if I was sitting then I should lift some heavy things.  I should come to expect this but our assessment of what is a good weight is always different.  If it were solely up to me I would stick with a nice safe lower than double digits weight.   A size that I could do a thousand reps with and still look fresh as a daisy.  A size that would not contribute to hardly any change, which is kind of bummer. 

Cue Mike and the, in my opinion, giant weights.   They really aren’t that giant, usually.  They certainly feel pretty dang giant through my reps.  There is no way I can breeze through my set.  And if I can he is there to make adjustments as needed.  I gripe, complain and belly ache through this whole process.  Fortunately, Mike seems invincible to the creative phrases that escape my lips.

He also is pretty darn positive about the whole thing too.  Telling me not to have negative self-talk and that I *can* do it.  Sometimes it seems pretty daunting.  I have these little stick arms and you want me to lift what, how many times?  My brain intermittently will flash the image of me somehow braining myself with a weight.  Fortunately, for me and my brain, it hasn’t happened yet and when I get a little wobbly Mike stands for back up.  I would imagine that is a scary spot to be; behind uncontrolled arms on a noodle rampage!  Still all that positive-ness has me convinced that he poops rainbows.  But it’s the good kind of positive.  Not too chipper, like he is trying to butter up a ray of sunshine and use it as a suppository, but enough to be believable. 

Look at that!  I could do it and I did.  I might have been a little warbly at the end, I may have made an unattractive grunt or a ridiculous looking grimace but I did it.  And pushing yourself (or being pushed in my case) is where you start to see change.

The Cost of Showing Up

"Gym memberships don’t come cheap, which is why in 2009 the fitness industry’s revenue was $19.5 billion. Yet despite the expense it is thought that 80 per cent of those Americans who actually have a gym membership do not use the gym."

So the one thing I love/hate about personal training is that I’m pretty much guaranteed to go. And when I go, I get my money’s worth. Most of the time I get a lot more than my money’s worth.

If stuff is cheap, we value it that way. The more we pay for something the more we value it. It can even make wine taste better! 

But it’s also a signal to ourselves how important it is and we respond!

I look at both the money and valuable time I invest in these workouts and the mere fact that I will show up even when I really don’t want to and work twice as hard event when I don’t want to - SO WORTH IT! I am worth it and the investment in Mike is worth it. Every single freakin’ time I walk out of that workout with Mike I feel so incredibly good about myself. Five gym workouts a week do not compare to the intensity I reach with personal guidance, attention and encouragement.

We don’t let the gym membership monies into our conscious mind because we’re ashamed we’re not using them. I have zero shame in the money and TIME I invest in personal training because I know it’s worth it. I am guaranteed one arse kicking a week no matter what.

This post kind of ended up being a complete smooch on the booty of my personal trainer but what can I say. I really don’t want to workout tonight. I want another glass of wine (yeah I said another, wanna make something of it?). But here I go jamming myself into my sports bra and workout pants…guaranteed! Worth every penny and every second.

So I know the weights are tiny but holy Hell
we had to move them up down right left
back and forth a thousand times!

Hurdles

I missed a Monday recently due to dying of the plague and tweaking a back muscle.  Let’s just hope I got all that out of the way for the rest of the year.  I am still not 100% back to normal but on my way there. 

This healthy lifestyle decision can be quite the journey.  I find there is a lot of back and forth, at least for me.  I think one of the biggest challenges is being honest with myself.  Most days I feel like I am barely hanging on to the healthy wagon by my fingertips and dragging my feet behind it.  My biggest hurdle is food.  I love food, all manner of unhealthy food.  It’s like my body has two people inside of it, “I feel so good working out, being healthy.  I solemnly swear that I will stop eating crap.”  Ten minutes later, “I will just hit the drive thru on the way to work, it’s the ONLY way to get there on time and eat.”  The last statement is a lie.  A big, sometimes delicious, often disappointing and almost always painful lie.  If you read my previous blog posts you will know that I have a stomach condition.  I am not supposed to eat a lot of foods and everything that gets passed through a drive thru window counts as a no-no. 

Another hurdle, I am lazy.  So lazy.  It seems daunting to get up and do things some days.  But when I laze about all day I feel really bad, physically and emotionally.  There is so much I could do, that needs to be done or that would be enjoyable to do. 

Going to see Mike really helps get me off my behind to check the ‘I did something that counts as exercise today’ box.  Not because he will make a sad puppy face or yell at me.  He won’t list why eating crap is a terrible idea, we have already covered this topic I *know* it’s a bad idea.  He will expect me to give my workout my best effort.  He will expect me to communicate.  He will push my preconceived notions of what I think I can do.  He will be there waiting for me.  And if I haven’t pulled my weight at home, moved my body with purpose, fueled my body with something other than crap, then my next hour is probably going to suck more than it should.

I am sharing this with you because I don’t feel like I am the only person who struggles with this split personality and I need some help being accountable.  I would imagine most people have this ridiculous problem.   I feel like owning the hurdles that I trip over will help me overcome them or at least bring awareness that they are there.  Owning the fact that certain things I am not willing to give up (Dr. Pepper you delicious little minx, I am looking at you).   Or that I hate showers so much that I need to arrange my workout schedule around when I plan on taking one.  Or that any activity that requires peppy attitude, overly positive chattiness, and bubbly music first thing in the morning will fill me with a horrible rage.

So when you find yourself tangled and tripped up in the hurdles of life remember that EVERYONE does it.  Get up, brush yourself off and figure out what you need to do to keep successfully clearing those hurdles.

Gym Fears

This week Heather was home faking a cold and so I again had the opportunity to work with a new victim, I mean partner. I love partnering with Heather and look forward to next week when she will be back but it's kind of cool to have occasional opportunities to work with different people. I bet it's interesting for Mike to work with so many different people every week. Everyone has something new to offer.

Meet JIF (Tamara) who stepped in to be my partner this week. At the end of the session I asked her what her favorite part was and she said the Kettleball deadliest because she was afraid to do it (due to prior injury) and that it was cool to do it safely with Mike. It got me thinking about Gym Fears and how working with Mike mitigates them.

Three Gym Fears and how Mike can help you overcome them:

Fear that you will get hurt or aggravate an injury

• If you are honest and realistic in communicating with Mike about your abilities and injuries he can monitor them, weights, reps, etc.
• Mike knows a MILLION exercises so if something is bothering you all you have to do is speak up and he'll come up with something else awful, I mean amazing, for you to do.
• Mike will train you to do exercises the right way so that you don't get hurt. He is then there to watch you and make sure you don't slip into bad habits.

JIF getting ready to kettle ball dead lift

Fear of not being able to do the thing you are trying to do. AKA fear of failure.   

• Mike's job is to determine what is realistic for you so. If you are honest with him about how hard/easy each exercise then he will learn your abilities he shouldn't ask you to do things you can't.
• If you can't do it then you can blame it on him. 

Fear of not being able to do the thing you are trying to do. AKA fear of failure. 

• Mike's job is to determine what is realistic for you so. If you are honest with him about how hard/easy each exercise then he will learn your abilities he shouldn't ask you to do things you can't.
   
• If you can't do it then you can blame it on him.

Fear that you will look stupid

• Mike works out of a small training only gym so there are very few people to see you look stupid unless you write a blog about it and post videos.


• You will look stupid. Get over it. You'll look hot later.

Success!

One more pic for the cleavage

So if you struggle with Gym fears consider training (at least with Mike) because it can definitely help.

What other gym fears do you have??



~Biz

Mmmmfood

I love food.  I do not love tracking food. 

When Mike asked me to track my daily food I clarified if tracking it from my plate to my mouth counted.  Alas, my friends it does not.

I have done food journals before to help figure out medical conditions.  They are a HUGE help in many regards.  But they are a pain in the butt.  It isn’t so much that it is hard or an extremely time consuming task it’s just kind of a bummer.

I have never tracked calories before.  I figured if I want it then I am going to eat and worry about the consequences later.  I realize that is a terrible plan but it’s the one I typically operate with.  Fortunately, technology is a huge blessing!  Mike recommended checking out MyFitnessPal.  You can access it on a computer and download an app for your smartphone.  But this is why it is amazing to me; it has a bar code scanner.  One that works and pulls up the food and nutritional info almost every time.  The only time it didn’t work was some weird obscure something or other I was eating (I should probably be more concerned that it couldn’t find something I was eating).  You can also enter your exercise so that your calorie allotment for the day adjusts based on the calories you expend.  Be warned though, the fitness portion leaves a little something to be desired.

 Why is tracking food good for you? 

• It helps keep you accountable.  When you can physically see how many mini snickers you have chowed down in one day you start feeling a little guilty.
• I enjoy seeing how many free bonus calories I get after a good work out or run.  And don’t tell Mike, but sometimes I fill those bonus calories with cake!
• It is easier to see patterns which may help uncover certain trigger foods to avoid.  I have migraines and a whole laundry list of stomach issues.  I found out Chinese food made me feel like death and narrowed it down to that lovely MSG.  Another fun one with MSG, Dorito’s.  I haven’t had Dorito’s in over 8 years!
• It’s strangely fascinating to see the calories add up.  Some things will shock you by having very few calories. 

In the end, everyone is going to have bad days.  Don’t beat yourself up too bad for dipping into the candy bowl every once in a while or eating a delicious white bread sandwich BUT don’t forget to log it.  If you think of the food you put in as the amount of burpee’s you will have to do you may just think otherwise.  Happy tracking!

The Pros and Cons of Balls

Why is it that I always find myself talking about balls?  Maybe cause balls are great for training... so much innuendo.    Today I'll go through some pros and cons of the Sweaty Swiss Balls that I love and hate so much.

PRO: There is A LOT of comedy to be had when trying to balance, squeeze, roll, and fondle balls
CON:  MUCH of the comedy is simply trying to get into position to start the exercises...

PRO: They work a lot of different body parts.  In addition to core activation each exercise works other areas too like shoulders, glutes and hamstrings.
CON: This means that ALL of me is sore for 2 days not just part of me...

PRO: The exercises are easily adjustable for different skill levels so they work well for partner training because we can each work at our level
CON: Its easy for your partner to kick your ass..

PRO: The exercises are fairly simply to understand.
CON: Imitation is harder than understanding...

PRO: Mike always has something new to add into the mix
CON: Mike always has something new to add into the mix...

PRO: I always like the idea of swiss balls before and after using them
CON: I remember how much they suck WHILE using them...

PRO: They use your body weight instead of added weight
CON: When working with weights it's because the weight is too heavy... with these its my body weight thats too heavy...

PRO: You get to play with balls
CON: They get really sweaty...

PRO: Mike mixes it up and does circuits with lots of different exercises
CON: Just when you think you are done he makes you do more dead bugs...or banging bugs which I'm sure I'll talk about another time.

PRO: You get to lie backwards over them at the end of the workout (trust me its amazing)
CON: You have to survive the workout to get to the end

PRO: I always survive and feel good about it.  =)

~Biz

Noodle legs!

Who knew there were so many ways to torture ones legs?  Squats with kettlebells, squats with a band, low side step squats, squats with a bar, Bulgarian split squats, the list of squats is endless I am sure.  And let us not forget the machine that is *ahem* less than lady like and makes your butt hurt.  Wait!  That came out wrong! 

We opted to pass on pictures of the awkward machine.  And if you are wondering where it made one’s butt hurt, think top cheek like a wicked slow building Charlie horse.

We did however take some pictures of the Bulgarian split squats.  These are without weights at first because I have the grace and poise of a drunken elephant and wanted to get a feel for the move prior to holding something heavy above my head.  Then Mike was convinced I could do them holding heavy items.  I am pretty sure he gave me the lightest thing he could find in the building and that still counts!  The Bulgarian split squats work a lot of things at once. That is why they suck and are awesome.  Both legs seemed angry at the same time, which is impressive considering one is kind of kicked up there. 

I know you are worried about my stick arms.  Have no fear!  Mike decided to go ahead and round out the night by making my arms work for it too.  But not as hard as my legs because I might need my arms to drag my noodle legs out to the car.  For that I am thankful.

I have been doing yoga two days a week at 5:30 am and I really enjoy it (the yoga not necessarily the time).  It is quite challenging after trainer days.  This morning the instructor was going over what to expect and says “today will be like leg day only with yoga!”  Let’s just go ahead and assume there was a lot of rests and modifications today.  On the up side I didn’t cry and I didn’t leave. 

One day the exercises of today will not generate the same level of soreness.  I am looking forward to that day where I can hold my baby weight and whip out sets and be like “BAM! Check that out!”  I know when that happens it will be short and glorious because Mike will hand me something heavier and we will start the process again.  It is worth it.

Strap me down, I’m gonna lose it

Dead Lift for Sweet Booty

So I kind of hate dead lifting but we’ve been doing it a lot lately. It makes my lower back sore and my neck and shoulders. I have the laptop disease so it’s always a mess in that region. “Well that’s probably why you should be doing dead lifts,” say World’s Most Sensible Personal Trainer Mike Welch.

No need to soil the screen with my internal reply to that.

So it turns out there are two great things about doing dead lifts. Number 1, getting strapped down! I live on a laptop so in addition to my neck and shoulder issues, I have to be careful about the carpal tunnel parts. In other words, my grip can not keep up with my ample banging-trained booty.

And here’s where it’s great to be in a gym with World’s Best Take-No-Excuses Personal Trainer Mike Welch. I say “I can’t do it!” and he says, “Let me strap you down.” Yes please! Once I take the focus - both physical and mental - off my grip, all the sudden I can dead lift! Being strapped in allowed me to lift a TON more than I would have without them.

Strapping Biz Down!

So look for straps in your gym and ask a friendly fellow banging trainer to strap you in. You won’t regret it! Check out the pics to get an idea of what they look like - I’d seen them before but not known what they were about. 

The Number 2 reason to dead lift, watching Biz max it out. AMAZING! She is freaking strong and in the sexy freaky way. We put plate after plate of weight on her bar and she murdered them! She left me in the dust and I believe I have mentioned my ample banging-trained booty. If you ever need a car lifted off your baby, call Biz. If you need to save the Wicked Witch of the East, Biz can hold the house while she escapes. I will not say she’s at Atlas level but a few more weeks with World’s Best Yes-You-Can Personal Trainer and I might put the whole world on her shoulders - but only if she’s strapped in!

Hey everybody! I am the new girl, Christy.

You will have to be patient with me as I learn how to do this 'blogging' business.

I have never been a real athletic person. I tried when I was younger but it never stuck. It was hard, it required running (especially track, go figure) and I wasn’t particularly coordinated. It was after a track injury in middle school that we found out I have accessory navicular syndrome in my feet (essentially an extra bone). And here is where my life doing exercise ended. A doctor’s note to get out of PE for the rest of my awkward teen years? Heck yes!

We won’t count how many years went by until I decided to be a more active and fit adult. Fast forward to the present, through an injury or two, chronic workout relapses and here I am, back to the gym with Mike. I need the extra push to work outside of my comfort zone. I mean sure I could feel pretty bad ass doing 1000 reps with my 3lb weights but how far is that honestly going to take me? Fortunately, he is able to cruise along unscathed with my eye rolling and grim
acing. Be warned though, his negotiations are tough! I managed to negotiate instead of doing a set of 20, a set of 10, twice, with no break in between….not sure that was a win.

I am scared to admit that I was less sore after my Monday session than I was after the session the Friday before. Mike encouraged (made) me bust my butt on Monday. There was a healthy sprinkling of reverent, exhaled swear words. Just a hint, my favorite rhymes with ‘bucket’ and was often expelled when I thought I couldn’t lift anymore heavy things.

Customary bathroom before pics!

It’s an odd sense of pride you receive after working out hard. You’re tired, sweaty and smelly (my apologies to all who had to endure my stank at the store. I was tasked with getting lettuce and heaven forbid I forget that!). But after all that, it’s like your body sighs with the satisfaction that it did SOMETHING with all those amazing muscles.

My fiancé doesn’t seem to find my gym stories as entertaining as I do but now I can share them with you! Thanks for reading and I hope to share more stories with you soon.

Schedule Swapping and Consistency

Heather doing whatever they are called...
but they make her butt look amazing!

So just as soon as I get back from my snowboarding and think we can finally get back to a normal schedule I remember that I have to go out of town for work... sheesh. Then it turns out Heather will be gone as soon as I get back so our reschedule options are limited. I will say that getting the three of us on schedule is one of the harder parts of partner training (the rest is super easy?)

Thankfully Mike is always willing to work with us to find times to train (even when they are inconvenient for him). He was willing to squeeze us in just before I left town for Montana and right when I got back so we managed to keep 3 sessions in 3 week. Once again he is working with us and is now sacrificing his Sunday morning to train us before I leave so we don't have to miss a week. I am less than excited about giving up my bloody mary but sometimes you just have to makes those tough sacrifices. This leads me to some thoughts on consistency of a training regimen. Consistency seems to be critical. We've been able to keep our weekly session going for around 5 months with minimal interruptions... although I seem to remember Shannon (who's awesome) coming once to save me when Heather abandoned me for what I'm sure was an awesome work trip.

Bulgarians.  Not to be confused with Bulge-atarians

As usual I did a little googling and I found this that seemed to ring true:

For some people, it is common to become energized about working out and jump right in. In these cases, unless there is a long-term plan in place or some thought has gone into how the fitness activity will be sustained, there is often a drop off in enthusiasm, resulting in inconsistency. A well thought out fitness plan will go a long way in helping you to reach your goals.

I'm waaaaay to lazy to plan so Mike is my plan. I'm very much the type to go all in and then when unable to maintain it to give up. Having training once a week is sustainable and has allowed me to maintain consistency with a strength workout that I have never had before.

Having a partner is also key. Heather will yell at me if I try to flake out (yeah, she's pretty mean). Seriously having 2 people counting on your being there makes it a lot easier to keep it up and knowing there will be 2 smiling faces is a added incentive (and yes when Heather isn't yelling at me she does smile for about 30 seconds until we start swinging kettle balls).

For optimal results, you will want to build up to higher and higher levels of cardiovascular strength, flexibility and strength training. A gradual increase in intensity will allow your muscles, tendons and ligaments a chance to adjust to the strains and challenges of a fitness regimen.

Training with Mike each week allows for the gradual increases in difficulty. I am getting stronger even while I've been working on some injury recovery, travel, holidays... life in general. This is because of the consistency we've achieved (and good training of course).

~Biz

Banging training v 2.0

Tears in the Gym

So on more than one occasion I have exercised myself to tears. I’m sure I’m not the only person out there (right Biz?). Pull-ups and squats so far have been the big ones. Sometimes I just want to cry and sometimes it’s like I blew a fuse and start laughing and crying at the same time. It’s the like the emotional equivalent to farting and burping at the same time. No one knows what the hell is going on.

I did some really basic googling and here are a few fun facts from good ol’ Wikipedia:

A neuronal connection between the lacrimal gland (tear duct) and the areas of the human brain involved with emotion has been established.

So crying and emotions are connected in the brain – no big surprise.

Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition, which differs from other types of tears. They contain significantly greater quantities of the hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, Leu-enkephalin, and the elements potassium and manganese.

So when I cry in the gym it’s different than crying over the onions.

Here’s my favorite though:

Crying is believed to be an outlet or a result of a burst of intense emotional sensations, such as agony, surprise or joy.

I cry at the gym as a result of a burst of intense emotional AGONY. And sometimes some surprise is added in as well. And thanks to Biz there might be moments of joy, but first…

THE AGONY

I cried this time while doing squats and not just to make Biz feel better. We go deep – past parallel and past all human decency. Mike is there to support us and push us, of course. He is also present to supply loads of fresh agony.

I made it to my last set and the last rep of that last set broke me. Mike tried to give me an assist but even with no weight I was just stuck there like a frog trying to take a big dump. Even after he moved the weight I couldn’t stand up. (You don’t even want to know how I felt for the next 3 days).

THE JOY

So my camera sucks but Biz is rocking some serious tricep definition. She was doing like 20 pounds more than me for triceps pull downs. I think it’s from a lifetime of pants-ing boys but what do I know.

Also, we tried this new exercise that I can't even explain so I will let Biz demonstrate through pictures. I absolutely did cry during this one and it way definitely joy. Partner training is where it’s at! Stuff you don’t want to do but is stupid-good for you, weird awesome things you’d never do alone in a gym and an opportunity to check out your buddy’s sweet behind.