I take it personally (Session 2)

Today I had my first real personal training session (my previous session was the complimentary introduction & fitness tests)… and all I can say is ouch. I’d love to say more, but my arms are having problems typing this, so The End.

Just kidding. But wow… they really do hurt. I had the day off today so decided to ride my bike to my personal training appointment early (they’re just down the road), which got me there about 25 minutes early. It was quiet though – just me and the guy at the front counter so we chatter for a while and then I did a slow warm-up walk on the treadmill for about 15 minutes (I’m trying to bulk up, so jogging or running on the treadmill will defeat the purpose because I want to gain weight – not loose it) and them my trainer Josh arrived.

We did a few warm-up sets to begin with – cable rows, Smith Machine military presses and assisted chin-ups. That was followed by a few harder sets on all of the above. Actually, the first warm-up set was not too hard, but the second set was tough and the third was a killer – but that’s the point I guess, so I was happy with my efforts .

After that, we did some free weight work like barbell raises (up to the chin / neck), bent over rows and bent over reverse fly’s to work the shoulders. At about $2 a minute, the 45 minutes went quickly – but like I said, the lest few reps of each set were really tough. Yet I know I absolutely needed to do them. I have needed (and wanted) to be able to do those “last 3″ killer reps for months – but here at my home gym home on my own… it’s just not safe.

I often reset the weights when it gets to tough for safety reasons (in case I can’t finish a rep) – but the great thing about having a PT is that he can take some of the strain so you can squeeze out just… one… more… rep! Hehe. It’s an awesome feeling to be able to push yourself just that little bit further. After all, it’s those “last 3″ that shred you. You need to be able to do them to get anywhere. And I think that’s been my problem in the past. So while my upper body feels like it’s been put through a tumble dryer, it’s such a good feeling.

At the end of the session we recorded the numbers and he congratulated me on my excellent job for the first session, saying that he was very impressed with where I’d been able to go. I’m happy too, because I know from the weights we were using, that the numbers are more than I usually use myself. Moreover, I was able to complete more reps… and that’s exactly where I wanted to be after my first PT session.