My weight on Thursday was 222.2 and today was 223.4. I don 't know how that always happens. I can't remember what Wednesday was - but I think it was 222.6. Oh! Yes, I know it was.
Wednesday Katie and I met with the trainer at Brick Bodies for our final free meeting. That kind of bugged me. I set my appointment for 9am on Wednesday - then Katie met with her later and they decided to set HER appointment at the same time. I am not sure why they decided that was a good idea - MY first question was, do we get another combined meeting then? - but CLEARLY Katie and I have VERY DIFFERENT workout needs and strengths - and motivations. We were working on our abs. Anyway - She would set us up doing something that involves supporting our bodies on our elbows or knees or toes or something and then raising up our butts or whatever. Keep in mind that Katie weighs probably 100 pounds less than me. So Katie would be doing something that there was NO WAY I could do and Heather would get annoyed with me for not being able to do it. When I would ask her what benefit there was to doing whatever it was that we were doing all she would say is "It is a more advanced exercise." I AM NOT READY for the ADVANCED EXERCISE! I can't do the BASIC STUFF. So - during the course of all of this I managed to do something to my knee (the one that didn't USED to hurt!) where I ended up with a swollen lump. Also - the workout hardly touched my abs!! The only things that hurt during or afterwards were my back (from supporting 200 plus pounds on it!) and my hamstrings (from having to push up my butt with my legs!). Additionally - while Katie was doing whatever exercise I wasn't able to do I was sitting there doing basically nothing. What was the point in that??!!! So - I am back to the original statement - Why were we paired up!!???!?!!
Additionally - the workout she had us do (even if I was able to do it) was so fricking complex, that there was no way I would ever do it again! The only thing (out of a 45 minute workout) that I remember her having us do was holding one of those exercise balls between our legs lifting it up and passing it over to our hands and then doing the same thing back down again. It LOOKED stupid, and SURELY there was a less complex way to work the same muscle groups!
The REALLY frustrating thing was that my abs are not weak! When I do the pilates video I can do most of the exercises all the way through. I CAN'T support my body weight on my arms - but I would be willing to bet most of you couldn't push up - or bench press 225 pounds either! Go ahead - try it! Put 80 pounds or so into a back pack and THEN try doing push ups or lay on your back and lift your butt or hang from a couple of poles and lift your hips - or WALK on a flipping treadmill or WHATEVER! But there are other things I CAN do. So why didn't she spend more time working on those??
So - I didn't go to boxing that night because my knee was hurting. I didn't go to the gym yesterday because it was late by the time I got home, and my knee was still hurting. I am planning on definitely going tomorrow though. No excuses.
2 comments:
Give them a call--either talk to the trainer or the gym manager and say you really didn't get anything out of that session since you were paired up, unnecessarily, with someone whose fitness and training needs are vastly different than yours and that you need to have another session to make up for this one. Add that if the person you met with is too inexperienced to know how to vary a person's exercise routine based on current fitness levels and needs, then maybe they have someone else you could meet with who can be more creative and flexible.
This was a similar experience to the one I had a million years ago when we had a free trial gym membership and a free training session. I had just come off of a year of crew and was in *fabulous* shape, but the person doing the training obviously was just giving me Exercise Routine B (for the young suburban woman) that was no challenge to me at all--weights that were half what I was used to, ab work that I could do in my sleep, and aerobic exercise that was like a nice stroll in the park. And they don't listen--they just want to get on with reading People Magazine or whatever they do when they aren't working with a person. I suspect that most are not highly trained or adequately paid, so they get people with little experience who are going to leave to become car salespeople and party planners.
I can't do push ups with my OWN body weight -- they're really a stupid exercise for developing upper body strength. Like pull-ups, too -- if you don't already have the strength you're not going to develop it that way. It's better to start with something you CAN do, build it up, and work your way up to being able to maneuver your own body weight.
I agree with Sarah that you need to lodge a polite complaint and get your money's worth!
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