What a bummer that you can't continue with your trainer. I'm only going once a week (despite his preference that I see him twice) to try to stretch out my sessions as much as possible. We'll see how I feel after I'm done with this bit.

You're doing great. Those planks on the ball are HARD! My trainer just had me do those this week. I can't imagine doing them on the BOSU and one leg! Awesome!

I've only been to the gym once this week. I don't consider the week a failure - it's just been an unusual one. I had to travel on Thursday (and pack and cart heavy boxes) and then the last two days have involved snow shoveling (very difficult, heavy, wet snow yesterday). Needless to say, I decided to cut myself some slack. There is a possibility of going to the gym today, but I haven't decided for sure yet. My last training session is this coming Tuesday.

Hi Lisa. Thanks for stopping by. :)

Sounds like you've been getting plenty of exercise! :D
It won't be long till you are comfortable without your trainer. Are you considering a work-out partner? I always had such a close relationship with my training partners. I've learned to enjoy working out solo now...it's all what we get use to. :)

I had my last meeting with my trainer today and it was a little sad but otherwise very positive. He measured me, though I question how accurate he was, and it totalled about 10". Now that wasn't since we started but about 6 weeks (I've been with him about 11 weeks total). I don't give so much merit to those numbers or the scale (which did go down, but of course not as much as mine when I weight myself consistently). Instead I just know with my strength and how my clothes fit that there has been a tremendous difference. Hell, even how I hold myself and how strong my core feels and how I think about my posture is enough to show there is a significant difference. I have to say too that the money was well spent in many ways.

First, I saw it as an investment in my health and you can hardly put a price on that...but sometimes it's about prioritizing and scraping together the funds (which I'm so glad I did).

Second, he was MORE than generous with me...giving me hour sessions from the start, even though the first 5 should've been 1/2 hour sessions. He also gave me two free sessions in the beginning and today. AND today he spent a little under an hour doing a light workout with me (which I'll post below) AND chatting with me (taking measurements, answering questions, etc.) for over an hour. That's 2 hours of his time he gave me freely and he also encouraged me to e-mail him or call with questions. He was pleased with my results and so was I.

The third thing that occurred to me is that I used to go to the chiropractor 3x week. I was lucky they allowed me to bring it down to one co-pay a week of $15, but even so, that added up to $60/month. I currently only go once every 4-6 weeks. So even if you say that's $15/month, I've saved $45. I can't say that directly correlates to me working with a trainer, but it does at least help subsidize the investment.

But no matter what, it was money well spent in my book and I consider myself very, very lucky. I took his guidance to heart and made it work for me and will continue to do so in the future.

Here is a light workout, but with some challenging, complex components, that we did today:

Warm-up
10 minutes elliptical

Core/Resistance

Leg lift crunches with back on BOSU ball - 12 reps, 3 sets

Superman on BOSU ball – 60 seconds x3

Push-ups with arms on foam roller and feet on BOSU ball - 2 sets of 10

Nautilus - reverse push-ups (hanging and pulling up – today was harder version with feet placed on weights so body is hanging) 3 sets of 10

Jump squat (double – squat start and squat end) onto BOSU ball - 3 sets of 5-10 (counted by trainer)

Jump squat (double) on platform (high jump) – 1 set of ???


Cardio

30 minutes treadmill, 10 minutes of intervals, 20 minutes of increasing resistance total, with 10 minute decreasing resistance and cool down.

Lisa, sounds like a great investment to me :thup:

I know that you're going to miss your trainer, but he's got you off to a great start, and you'll definitely be able to capitalize on that in the future.

Lisa - What a great trainer you had! How nice of him to give you that extra time! I am going to face a similar decision in a couple of months when I have to decide whether to continue. I'll be watching you and seeing how you fare without the trainer. :)

What I have found so helpful in my running is to have a plan mapped out ahead of time. For example, right now, I'm doing one hour runner, so I am slowly working up to running for one hour straight. Each week, I have 3 runs planned out and I know exactly what I need to complete. I also do other cardio things 2 or 3 times a week, and I find I'm less motivated on those nights because I don't have a plan and a goal. I'm just at the gym to be at the gym. Planning is good. :)

I think if you plan things out according to the parameters your trainer gave you, you will definitely stay motivated and continue progressing. Plus you've got Demi and Galatia (and to a lesser extent, me) to be your virtual workout buddies. Keep reporting out to us and we'll keep cheering you on!

The trainer was certainly a good thing for you. You had a very positive experience, got a good "send-off" into having confidence and a good understanding of what you're to do. I never had experience with the type of training you had, but you certainly made very nice progress. :)

You talked about posture....isn't that a great feeling! When your muscles are strong, you find "holding yourself up" more natural and comfortable than slouching. That is my experience too. And less visits to the chiropractor...the benefits of strength training just go on and on. :cool:

Thanks so much, babes!! I agree with you all. The benefits have proven themselves to me to continue and I have the tools now to do this, so what I'll do is plan out a week at a time and do that style of training for a couple weeks. That is, if I'm doing endurance/stability (higher reps, lower weights, forcusing on balance/stability) I'll only do that a couple weeks, then I'll shift to heavy weights...that sort of thing. My goal is to keep the variety and to keep my body guessing. I also want to do more heavy work overall than I did with my trainer, but I need to ease into that. So much depends on my body and I'm going to keep listening to it. Unfortunately today I feel ill, so I'm resting. But tomorrow I will be back at the gym continuing my pace for this week. Next week I'll be without a gym or any cardio equipement so it'll be a true test of my knowledge. I'll keep you all posted on what I do!!

Dear Gym Log and Gym membership,

Did you miss me? Did you wonder if I've become a flabby amorphous blob? Well, good news...I haven't. It turns out all the work we did together over the last few months kept me going and kept me strong while we were apart.

I suspected things would be ok when I was still able to do some push-ups a week or so ago AND I did a workout at another gym (don't be jealous, I was in a different state and had no choice) and I was able to run on the treadmill for a few minutes at a time. I had a feeling things would be alright in the end, it was just a matter of coming back to you and hoping you'd forgive me and accept me back.

Today I attended your Pilates class...an hour of very challenging, core-strengthening moves. And though it was difficult and I was sweating, I could feel all the strength I had from our prior work together and I was so hopeful of making a comeback!

So what do you say? You and me together again, say, 3 times a week or so? Nothing too crazy, let's just start slow with a few classes. I'm thinking Monday Yoga, Tuesday Water Aerobics, and Friday Pilates. And then maybe if we're having a good time, I will do some more free weights and supplemental cardio too?

Let me know. I look forward to rekindling our once strong relationship!

<hugs and planks>
Lisa

Monday Yoga

I went to an hour of Vinyasa Yoga and it was brutal and wonderful at the same time. The instructor said I was a "natural" and she forgot during the class that I was new. I guess all that time learning poses and trying out DVDs really helped! I was sweating a good bit and really felt the challenge of it. I think it will be a welcome addition to my "kindler, gentler" weekly workout. It's just a shame I'm going to miss it next week (because I'll be out of town). Next up is water aerobics tomorrow.

Tuesday Water Aerobics

I forgot to put my update here yesterday. I spent an hour in the water and my heartrate shot up pretty high, so I'm going to have monitor that. I'm always amazed at what a great workout I get in the water. It's wonderful. The nicest part was the warm welcome I got when I joined class again. The instructor was glad to see me, as were some of the ladies there. It was really sweet - I guess I made an impression when I ware there last. LOL Anyhow, the workout was a good one and I'm looking forward to doing back again two weeks from now (I have to be at my Mom's house early next week so it won't be an option).

I forgot to mention that I did Leslie Sanson's "Walk Strong" with handweights on Wednesday. The handweights were SO light I had to laugh at myself. It's amazing the different level of fitness I have now. They were 3 pounders and it was just ridiculous...useless actually. So I picked up 5 pounders for now and hopefully that will be a little better for next time.

Today (Friday) I went to my Pilates class and enjoyed it thoroughly. I was sweating a good bit and felt like it was a great (but nicely low impact) workout. Afterwards I did one full-body circuit of weights (it's a fast circuit designed to hit upper and lower completely) and then a little mat work (to compliment the pilates, including some stability ball work and some push-ups, which I can happily still do well!).

Unfortunately I'm back to square one next week as I'll be out of town, but at least I'm moving more again and my body is responding well!

This week I was out of town again, so I had to miss the earlier classes of the week. But on Thursday I went in and did some cardio (elliptical and treadmill) and my own ab/core workout. It wasn't a lot, but it was a good start back to the gym after being gone more than a few days.

Today I went to my Pilates class and boy, do I still love it! It was very challenging but very rewarding and my body responds well to it. Over the weekend I'm going to do the walking DVD with heavier handweights and then Monday will be Yoga.

I went to my Yoga class today and I have to say it was very awkward and frustrating. I realize a practice like that takes patience, but I must admit to you that I don't have time to be patient. I'm in a situation where the working out I do will only get more difficult and need to be modified...it's NOT going to get easier, like it normally would, most especially because I'm not losing weight but also because my balance will be challenged as I progress. Therefore I think I'm going to see about an alternative class or workout to do. I'm still going to try to use yoga DVDs because I love the stretching, but heart just wasn't into it this class. Perhaps it is too advanced for me, but it just felt off. I know some would say I should keep trying, but I just don't know. It's a very different feeling for me to be working out now...always wary of what I'm doing and hoping I'm not causing harm. I think I can find plenty of other things I enjoy more to keep me going. I made sure to do a weight session and some push-ups when I was done today.

I went to water aerobics class today and loved it. It was great. I think I need to go to more of these. I get such a good workout and it feels so good to be in the water. I'm checking the gym schedule as we speak...