New Training Regime

Wednesday 13th May

Today was the start of my new training regime. In the past I could use the excuses that;

• It takes too long to get to the gym (at least a 40 min round trip in Croydon traffic)
• I'm too tired at the end of the working day to go, I just want to relax!
• I'm too busy, I've got marking, planning etc to do.
• It can be really boring pounding it out on a treadmill

I've now decided that there should be no more excuses as to why I am not regularly exercising. I certainly can't use any of the above excuses any more as, I no longer work and the gym is very conveniently next door!

Our street. Our building is on the left opposite the crossing, the gym is in the blue building on the left.

Adam and myself joined the gym last week and promptly signed up for an introductory personal trainer package. This package gives you three 1/2 hour sessions with a personal trainer. The first session includes a consultation and a test of your fitness (oooh err)

Before we joined the gym Adam and myself decided to invest in some training gear. There just so happens to be a very handy shop a few mins down the road from our apartment that analyses your tread and measures you up for trainers specifically to fit your training needs! Adam suggested that this would be a good idea for me as he had, had a similar thing done in London. As most of you will know, I love shoes, so I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass me by, even if it was only for trainers and not Christian Louboutin shoes! We also kitted ourselves out in the sports shop at Bondi Junction with various gym/training gear.

The time had arrived for me to meet my personal trainer. Her name is Jenny, she moved over here from the UK about 6 years ago and is very nice. Anyway... we had arranged to do the first two 1/2 hour sessions in one go. Jenny suggested that this worked well as you didn't really feel like you'd done a full work out after the consultation and fitness test session. I said I was happy to go with whatever she thought was best, after all, she is the expert.

The consultation and the fitness test consisted of a talk about what I wanted to achieve from joining the gym and in theses sessions, any medical problems and what kind of exercise I had done on the past (In my case, the very distant past!) She then had to measure my height, weight, waist and hips. Followed by seeing how many sit ups I could do in 1 min, how many press ups I could do until I couldn't do any more (not many) measuring how far I could reach forward to my toes when sitting on the floor with straight legs and finally measuring my resting heart rate and then my heart rate again after 3 mins doing vigorous step ups on a step. Apparently using all this information will enable her to calculate my fitness age or something like that. I think I find out at the next session. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be too horrific!

Once that was over we started on a work out. The workout consisted of squats (which make you look like you're doing a poo) with weights, lunges with weights, pushing and pulling against the trainer, an alternative to sit ups, which works all the tummy muscles including a deep one, which I can't remember the name of. This consists of lying on your back, drawing your knees up and back down again in a controlled fashion. I also had to lie on the step and have hand weights to raise up above me and back to the sides of my body in an almost semi-circular path. I also had to hold myself on my forearms in a plank like pose, which is really hard! Finally we finished with stretches. And these were stretches that the trainer helps you with, so they push your limbs for you. A bit like what you see the physios doing to athletes and footballers.

I finished the session feeling rather pleased with myself. I felt good and I felt as if I had been pushed to work as hard as I could. My trainer also commented that I had really good control when doing the exercises and that I carried myself well. She also said that I picked up the exercises really quickly, which some people find hard, especially when having to co-ordinate arms and legs together. Gold star for me then please :)

Thursday 14th May

I woke up this morning not feeling so pleased with myself! Oh my god, every muscle in my body was in pain when I moved! And not just the 'oh dear I feel a little bit muscle achy because I did a bit of exercise' this was mega. Never have my muscles felt like that, even after a particularly strenuous hour long ballet class with Mrs Gray (In my youth, granted). It was so bad, that walking up and down stairs was a serious problem. Even a hot bath didn't really manage to ease the pain!!! I'm hoping tomorrow will bring relief! It had better sort itself out soon because the next session is on Monday. The good news is that it can only get easier the more I do. It also shows me how badly I needed to get back into it. Don't want to become stiff and creaky before my time!