My Experience With The Personal Trainer

So, last night I met with a personal trainer at the gym I recently joined. One of the “perks” of joining this gym is that you get a complimentary session with a personal trainer. I really didn’t know what to expect, but kind of thought that we would discuss some of my goals and that he would develop a plan for me and I would go about my business. As it turns out it was a little different than that.

We did sit down for a few minutes and discuss my goals and reasons for joining the gym as I expected. Then we went over to the weight lifting equipment where I thought he would show me how to do some things and then put those items in the plan I thought he was going to put together for me. Instead, he had me hop on the equipment and do 20 reps of every kind of leg press imaginable. On one of the machines, he had 190 pounds of eight on it! 190 pounds! Seriously? Does this man not know how lazy I’ve been for the last 33 years of my life? But, I powered through – for seven minutes! That’s right, go ahead and laugh, because I laughed too! After seven minutes of this guy saying “one more” and “come on” and “higher” or “deeper” I couldn’t go any further. I thought I was going to vomit, pass out and die of thirst all at the same time. It would not have been pretty. Clearly I haven’t done much weight lifting/training in my day. In fact, yesterday’s seven minutes reminded me of why I quit playing softball – I hate weight training!

After the most excruciating seven minutes of my life, I sat back down at the guy’s desk and tried to catch my breath and keep from vomiting in his garbage can. My legs felt like jello and I was afraid that if I got up to walk that my legs would buckle under me and I would crash to the floor. I was able to muster up enough courage to go and get a drink of water from the fountain before I fainted or fell over from lack of leg mobility.

After the most wonderful water break of my life, I headed back over to the desk and we discussed what the best route for me would be. Unfortunately, he didn’t put a plan together for me like I had hoped. Basically, the whole “free session with a trainer” thing is to try and get people to sign up with a personal trainer, which would be great if I had money to throw around, which I don’t, so I won’t. If anything, yesterday’s session was a motivator in the fact that I need to get my butt in gear and attempt to get in better shape. I mean, seven minutes, really? That’s terrible and I’m ashamed that’s all I can do, but it makes me laugh too and it really does make me want to do better for myself and my health.

After the meeting with the personal trainer, I walked on the treadmill for about 20 minutes to keep my legs from getting stiff. They are of course terribly sore today and I am walking as slow as a turtle. I’m sure people are wondering what the heck is wrong with me. I’m heading back to the gym after work today and will be working on arms, which means that tomorrow I may not be able to walk or lift anything – that should be interesting. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and hope that I’ll be losing some pounds soon. One of the biggest things we all need when attempting something like this is motivation and I hope you will all keep me motivated through this adventure, and feel free to make fun of my seven minutes or the way I’m walking today at any time – I think we could all use a good laugh from time to time.