In my initial fitness assessment, they did the following:
- Took my blood pressure - normal, which is good
- Took my measurements
- Tested my upper body strength
- Tested my flexibility
- Tested my body fat percentage - yuck, but that's why I'm there
- Tested my cardio level on the treadmill
- Took my "before" picture
- Got my pedometer
- Borrowed a device to test whether I have sleep apnea
Next week, I go to my first group session, my first personal training session, and my first nutrition session. I talked to my trainer on the phone yesterday to setup our first meeting for next week. He seems really nice, and I hope that we hit it off well. I've done personal training in the past, and it's important to get along well with your trainer and get the kind of support that you need to be successful.
I can honestly say that I'm not big on exercise. In the past, when I've made a point of getting to the gym, I always came home wiped out. And when I tried to exercise in the mornings, I just slumped along all day. A lot of people talk about the rush they get from exercise, but I seem to have the opposite effect. That's why I've scheduled my workouts for the evenings. I can go to work, then head off to my workouts in the evening, come home and eat something healthy, and then pass out for the night.
I'm really not excited about having to work out at a gym. I find gyms kind of overwhelming. There are all kinds of machines that look like torture devices, and I look like a complete idiot trying to figure them out. Occasionally, a nice person will offer some help so that I can go on with pulling my muscles and reminding myself of how out of shape I am. I'm always thankful when I don't have to exercise next to a smug exercise addict - you know, the people who clearly live at the gym and they look at you like they can't imagine that anyone would exist on this earth who doesn't share their sense of excitement about working out? Those people baffle me just as much as I baffle them.
In truth, I'd love to just work out in my own little box and not really have to deal with anyone at the gym. But, then I'd never get anything done. The nice thing about having a trainer is that I'll finally learn how to use some of the new machines at our gym and figure out at what level I should be working out. That will help me to stop trying to pace with people I'm working out next to. It never fails that I get on a treadmill or elliptical trainer in a relatively empty section of the gym, and then a marathon runner comes and grabs the one right next to me and whirs away. It's really hard not to subconsciously speed up and then I wonder why I have no endurance a few minutes into it. As they explained to me today, the duration is more important right now than the intensity. The light bulb went on in my head.
Oh well. At least I'm going through this with a lot of other people who have similar or worse issues. It's kind of hard to go in thinking, "gosh, I'm overweight and I should do something about it" and then find out that you're actually obese. Yikes. I have to say that I don't think I look obese, but I've always carried my weight pretty well and I dress for my body type, so I think that helps. And they define obese as someone who is 30 pounds or more overweight, so I think a lot of people are actually obese that I would have previously characterized as overweight. It's all relative. But, I'm not too far over that line, so I'll be back in the overweight category soon enough and then in the healthy range in some time.
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3 comments:
You should post your workouts like we do. Might help to keep you on track. At the very least it's helpful for you to see your progress.
Yeah, then you could become a blog team member and we could have some sort of team avatar, like a skull and crossbones. And the crossbones could actually be two dumbbells. And the skull is just a plastic canister of creatine. 'Course, then it wouldn't be a skull and crossbones anymore. but you get the point. To make of for the lack of S&CB, we could but it on a black flag and wave it around while we plundered the harbors of well-to-do port towns.
Plus, us three are all ugly and hairy. So you could be our hot fitness model mascot. So we can lift weights while you walk around in a bikini, holding a big placard above your head that has the weights we're using for whatever exercise we happen to be doing.
I dunno. Just an idea.
LOL! You crack me up :) I will definitely post about my experience along the way. I contemplated starting a blog specific to the program, but I think I'll just keep blogging about it on here, since this will likely take over most of my free time for awhile anyway.
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