Personal Training; Day Six

For all the anxiety I built up about today, it wound up not being as big a deal as I'd built it up to be - yes, we worked out our arms, but we used machines, glorious machines for said workout! No free weights for me! It was such a huge relief. At the same time, I am already feeling a little bit sore, so I suppose I can't really gloat too much, but hopefully I'll still have the strength to lift my arms above my head tomorrow (unlike after last week's free weight workout).

We used mostly familiar machines today, although we did use a lot of weight on said machines. But that's okay with me. I think free weights freak me out a little because there's nothing between me and the weight - like if I drop the weight on a machine, yes, it will make a big noise, but there's zero chance of me dropping the weight on my foot.

In between circuits with the upper body machines, we were doing various cardio machines to keep our heart rates up. I wound up facing two big fears today: the StairMaster and running on the treadmill.

When my friend and I worked out on our own before starting our training sessions, we tried the StairMaster on a whim one day. I fell off the damn thing. I didn't have a clue what I was doing, and I just kind of fell off. And for some reason, I have a big mouth in the gym, because I told my trainer this, so she promptly put me on a StairMaster. I was TOTALLY doing it wrong. Rather than taking tiny steps, I was taking huge ones, and letting the steps fall all the way to the floor, when I fell off. I must have looked like a ridiculous mess then. I looked a lot better on it today, although it was definitely a harder workout than I anticipated (even if it was only for three minutes).

As for the treadmill, any of you who have read Katherine Center's "Everyone is Beautiful" will know exactly what I'm talking about when I say I'm afraid I'll fly off the treadmill. I've never run, let alone jog, on a treadmill before, in part because I'm not entirely sure how and in part because I just don't run. Short of a few moments of running after my munchkin, I've not run since the summer of 1998 when I had to take Personal Fitness in summer school, and that basically entailed running around the track in 95 degree Florida heat for six weeks. Not fun.

So, I was mildly horrified when at the end of the workout, for our last cardio bit, our trainer said we'd jog/walk on the treadmill - thirty seconds of speed walking, thirty seconds jogging. For three minutes. Seriously? I told her about my fear and she said she'd help me. She came over to my treadmill while I was speed walking (which I do well on a treadmill) and amped up my speed to 4.5. I was still speed walking, though I was having a hard time keeping up, so she told me to add some hop to it, and before I knew it, I was jogging! Once I did it, it was no longer anywhere near as scary, and I was proud that I did it.

Phew, I have officially survived three weeks of training at this point! I'm so proud of myself. In two weeks, we'll sit down and take measurements and all that to see what's changed over the first four weeks of training, so I'm very curious to see what will happen then. Stay tuned!