I finished off the week with 6 workouts (including 4 lifting days) under my belt, so I am feeling good. Being off program always seems like fun for a week or two, but eventually I start to feel sluggish, squishy, unmotivated, and generally unperky. Getting in a full week of planned workouts fixes me right up, though!
Saturday at eleven I met with a trainer from LA Fitness for one of those free “introductory” workouts that are more or less sales pitches for their services wrapped up with a workout designed to lift your mood, get your endorphins circulating, and make you more amenable to suggestions like — “Doesn’t shelling out $720 for 3 months of training sound like a GREAT idea?” I knew this going in, plus I was still very much focused on completing our TMMO personal finance plan, so I decided to have fun with the questionnaire, get as tough a workout as possible out of the trainer(s), and ask a bunch of questions about their success rate, how their program would be any different from what I could do on my own, and what it was like to work for their company.
These PT questionnaires always assume a pretty low level of fitness and a newbie starting state for each client, so I found it amusing to put in some of my answers.
Personal Training New Client Questionnaire (Partial excerpt)
When was the last time you were in the shape you like the most? Fall 2007
How did you feel at that time? Hungry.
What keeps you from reaching your goals? I like to eat. A lot!
Do you have a special date or event coming up that you’d like to get fit for? The rest of my life.
Who will support you in your fitness goals and keep you accountable? My husband, my sister, the wonderful gals at my women’s fitness forum, and around 1,000 readers per day on my fitness blog.
I wound up with two trainers, the nice ectomorphic former Army 11B who went over my survey with me, and a compact, mesomorphic former powerlifter who actually did know proper form for the lifts we went through. I technically wasn’t supposed to lift again until Monday since I’d just done a heavy workout the day before, but what the heck. Opportunities to have one’s squat and bench press form checked and corrected by an expert are few and far between when you work out alone. The workout consisted of 3 sets of 8-10 reps of:
BB Squat
45 degree leg press
Leg extension
BB Bench press
DB lying press variations
Tricep dips
Tricep rope pushdowns
Apropos of nothing, my triceps feel like they have been repeatedly pounded by a meat tenderizer and stabbed with bamboo slivers and there is a burning ring of DOMS fire around the lower insertions of my quads and hamstrings from Saturday’s workout.
I am sticking with my solo MGS workouts for now, but it was a good workout and a productive way to while away the time while my car was in the shop for it’s 90,000 mile tune up.