Old Dog, New Tricks

I have a new trainer. I haven't told him I blog, so I won't throw his name out there. Ty called him a "Silent Assassin". He is a pretty quiet guy, real soft spoken. His parents were missionaries in Africa, he was born in Nigeria. You couldn't tell it by looking at him, the guy is super white with kinky curly blonde hair. When I first met him, I didn't think this was going to be a good fit. Then the workout began...

Now, I usually start with a warmup on the elliptical. I have gotten pretty good at it. I can move at a 6 mph pace at level 8, which sounds good while I am typing it. Yeah, I am trying to impress everyone. This is the way I figure it, If it wasn't for my weight and the impact on my feet and knees, I could run 6 mph. Pretty good. So, I thought we would start with that. Wrong. He started off with a squat, two handed overhead dribble with a 25 lb. medicine ball. Doesn't sound like much, but when you do it 30 times, it gets the heart pumping. Then you do 2 sets of them, and you have got a good start.

We then did lunges. That's where you step up, squat in that step position, then bringing your feet together. Ouch. 2 sets of those. Double ouch. Then we did squats. I have no problem with squats, but he had me do a weird variation of it. I had to squat down far enough to tap a core ball with my butt, then stand back up. Hmmmm. Kinda embarrasing. Good thing I am not trying to impress anyone up there. I then sat on the ball and did some weight lifting, just pushing some light barbells over the head. no biggie. Then to the kinesis machine for some punches. I like those, lots of aggresion relief.

It then occurred to me that this guy is working me pretty hard.

Time for core work. No easy situps this time. He had me sit down on the floor. He threw the medicine ball to me while I laid back as far as I could without laying down, then back up while throwing the ball. I then had to sit in a half sit up position with my arms in front of me holding 15 pound weights in each hand. I then had to reach to my sides with the weights, right side, left side. That was followed by half sit up back strokes. Ouch. Hurt good. He asked me if I felt like I worked out for an hour. Definitely. We scheduled our next meeting and I limped down the stairs. I swear I could hear the elevator laughing at me as I walked by.

When I got home, my friend Suzi saw me get out of my car and I could tell she was amused. In the short drive it took to get back home, my legs turned into noodles, my stomach was cramping, and my arms were tightening up.

Me and the new guy are going to get along fine...