On track with my Training!

Day Eight – (This was last Wednesday)

Today was the first day of training! Domingo walked me first thing this morning!

The Club has a lot of stairs up to the gym and I was surprised I had to stop half way up and take a breath. After putting my items in my day locker I was ready to venture up another set of steps to meet Luke. Surprisingly I ran these stairs without effort. What is that about? Met with Luke at the gym. He started me on the weight bench face up with hand weights. Soon I realized that even sitting up from a laying position was more than my back to do and so we agreed he would take the weights and I could turn on my side to get up. Ugh!

My intention is to be gentle with myself and just witness and I have done well so far. My mind did wander back though to when I considered myself macho and had definition in my shoulder muscles. Oh, mid 1990s. That was 20 years ago. Watching my slow unsteady movement with the free weights was a real wake up call to how truly out of shape I am!

Next was the Nautilus for my back, where I learned to squeeze as he pressed the middle of my back. Was I ever mistaken! I really thought I knew what I needed and could do it on my own. His training is so attentive and so different than what I expected. I see this could change my life!

 Wow! My eyes lit up when we went to the racquetball court for lunges. Have to digress here. When I used to work at a Federal Prison camp (as a counselor,) I worked out regularly with my dear friend and coworker Herm. We had a great time spotting each other and we both got a great workout; thus the definition in my shoulders. Well, one day we invited another coworker; I’ll call Carlos to play racquetball. Mind you, I am not a good racquetball player, but it was fun and a lot of exercise. Well, Carlos could not just have fun. First he tried to teach me. I didn’t want to be taught, I wanted to play for fun. Next, he came onto me sexually. Yuk! We were there to play racquetball. Next, he started putting me down. Really? I quickly realized that the three ways he knew how to be with women were to 1 – tell them what to do or how to do it 2 – treat them as sexual objects or 3 – be verbally abusive. Well, that was the last time he was invited to play.

Nevertheless, my eyes did light up at the Club because I loved racquetball. Loved the fun I had with my friend and also the high that comes from fun exercise and belly laughs!

Back to lunges. It was interesting how I realized how poor my balance was. I moved to the side of the wall in case I needed to touch it for support. My lunges seemed to be fairly good for the first time and I enjoyed it. Next planks.

Laying on the mat I did my first plank. The tension in my lower back was of concern, but my shoulders did well. Luke was a gentleman and although I only made 10 seconds at a time, he was kind. The second set was a killer. My mantra was “torture.” The third set surprisingly was much easier and I sat back in the child’s pose and thanked my body for all she did today!

Okay, I am on track!

Iwannabeaskinnybitch!