3rd & 4th session with my personal trainer

(Photo at left taken by my sister, she said it reminds her a bit of Jillian from the Biggest Loser. I have been loving that show and am so inspired by the contestants and am so happy for the fantastic changes they are making in their lives and in their health!)

3rd Session

Did some ab work that I had never done before- a plank with my forearms on a bench and my feet on a stability ball, which was unsteady in itself, and then Chris had me pull one knee up to my chest and just try and balance tripod style on my two forearms and the other foot on the stability ball. Note to girls- do NOT put moisturizer on your arms before doing this! My arms kept wanting to slip off the bench and this really added way more to the instability aspect than I wanted!

Before hiring a personal trainer, I had been doing my leg extensions on a Nautilus machine, pretty much using the whole weight stack. Chris said that I needed to switch to a different type of machine that wouldn't make it so easy on me, and so we did. He loaded it up progressively until I had 4 45lb plates on each side for a total of 360lbs. My eyes bulged at the thought, but it was actually doable, and I could feel it working my legs & glutes way better than on the Nautilus.

TRAINER TIP - It is also important to keep your knees in proper formation when doing leg presses, don't let them roll in or roll out or you will not be working the proper muscles (too much adductors or abductors, respectively).

4th Session

Chris asked what I wanted to accomplish next with my workouts. Mentioned that I had climbed Mt Si the past weekend and wanted to be able to bound up through the vertical ascent parts vs plod through. He smiled and said we will do more plyometrics. Also said that maybe the workouts weren't hard enough because he saw me go and do additional lifting after my workouts with him. Oh no! That's not the case at all. I just like to "burn out" whatever muscles still have a little more ability in them.

"Competitions" keep coming up...

(3rd PT session)

After my workout a 24hr fitness employee came and chatted with me a bit while I was stretching on the mats. He said that I should think about entering competitions, I said that I didn't think I really fit that mold - not strong enough or lean enough.

(4th PT session)

Once again, when I was at the mats, chatted with a fellow gym member that I have chatted with several times in the past. She said she saw me training with Chris and while I was doing one move she said that my back actually had muscles ripple across it. I have no idea what that looks like, but it sounds interesting. She then said that she and her boyfriend had been talking about me and they think I should do figure competitions. There that "competition" thing is again, what's the deal?