Basic Training

My training session with Jerry was today at the YMCA and it was pretty amazing.  He dispelled my fears about the exercise ball and taught me several exercises I could do with it.  He explained that though the circuit machines served a purpose and that it wasn't a bad thing I had been working them for the past several months, he said they were kind of superficial, because in your daily activities, you don't generally sit and pull down fifty pounds of weight 15 times for 4 reps.  Working with the ball, challenges your body and it can be modified based upon your ability.  So, I can start out easy if I need to (with having been working out there since August, the easiest way was generally too easy for me) and increase the resistance based on where I position my body on the ball.  Good stuff to know.

We did some dumbbell work too and the biggest challenge there was doing the correct form, but all in all a great workout.  Jerry is very nice and very professional and took the time to chat with me to find out more about my weight loss journey.  At first I was reluctant to confess to him that I'd had surgery.  He had me warming up on the bike and he came over to talk to find out how much weight I had lost and if I was doing a specific program like Weight Watchers and I remained very non-committal in my answers.  Problem was I really liked this guy and felt like I wanted to be honest.  I finally asked if I could confess something to him and not have him think less of me (what a terrible assumption, huh?  Thinking that a trainer would think less of me for having surgery, but one just never knows).  He said of course and I told him about the surgery in April.  He was very supportive and I gave him some of my weight history and he was the first one to say that having surgery didn't mean I didn't have to work at losing weight and that he knew how hard I had been working.  How nice to expect to be judged and getting exactly the opposite.

We talked about cardio too because I get a lot of different information depending on who I talk to; 30 minutes a day, 60 minutes a day, etc.  Jerry explained that my days should alternate, ie, working harder on the machine for a shorter period of time, like 30 minutes. Another day working at a less intense pace for longer like 50-60 minutes.  We talked about my desire to run and he said if he were me, he would wait until spring and I told him that was my only option as girlfriend hates the cold.  He said to get good running shoes and start out walking briskly and then running for a bit, alternating back and forth.  He said I should sign up for a 5k and go for it and again he reiterated that he had been watching me and he felt I had what it took to really be successful (and he is an older married gentleman, so this was all genuine and professional ) with this.  He said I should think of myself as an athlete in training all the time, that though I am not training for a specific event, the mindset is what I need as this working out thing is a long term ordeal as we all know.

So a good day.  Tomorrow I go to court to testify on the guy who robbed us.  Report tomorrow.