I joined a gym

Shocking, I know!

All new members get 3 free sessions with a personal trainer.  The first of the three sessions is just an interview to determine goals, health history, fitness history, diet, yada, yada, yada.

This is how my interview went:

Personal Trainer:  One a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, what is your motivation for getting fit.

Me: A 5 or 6.

Personal Trainer:  So, what was it that motivated you to join the gym?

Me:  Well, the babysitting services.

Personal Trainer:  Oh, okay, I appreciate your honesty.

****I went on to explain how my husband’s busy season is coming up and how I need an hour of kid-free time every so often.

Personal Trainer:  What are your fitness goals?

Me:  I don’t really have any.  Just to firm up the mommy areas and run off some stress.

Personal Trainer:  Well, goals should really be specific instead of general.  Would you like to run a certain distance, be able to do 100 push-ups, bench press a certain amount of weight?

Me:  Um…(long pause)….none of those things really interest me.  Why don’t you just pick one for me and I’ll work towards that?

***We agreed that running 3 miles without stopping would be my goal.

Personal Trainer:  Have you ever been a member of a gym before?

Me:  No.

Personal Trainer:  Do you work out regularly?

Me:  Not anymore.  But I do chase three kids all day long.  Does that count?

Personal Trainer:  How many meals would you say you eat a day?

Me:  6 – 8.

Personal Trainer:  6- 8????

Me:  Well, let me think….I eat at 8:30, 10:30, 12:30, probably 3, 5, and something in the late evening.  It seems I eat when the kids eat which is every hour and a half or two.  Not all of the meals are huge, though.

Personal Trainer:  What is your goal weight?

Me:  I don’t really have one.

****(We did decide on one but I won’t announce it here)

So after our interview we did the weight check, measurements, BMI and body fat percentage.  Kind of weird and embarrassing.  I was shocked to see my body fat percentage was 15.8%!!!!  I was thinking it was suppose to be around 10% but he said that it was in a normal, healthy range.

After that I had to do push-ups.  I only did 10.

Personal Trainer:  Is that all you can do?

Me:  No, I just stopped.  I don’t know why.

Personal Trainer:  Oh, okay.

We also did balance tests, squats, and a flexibility test.  I did fine.  He said I have bad posture, though.  It’s true.

After that we did the Stress Test.  The name alone just doesn’t sound fun.  Basically the idea is stress out the heart to see how quickly it recovers.  So he put me at the highest incline on the treadmill machine and had me walk/run.  My heart rate wouldn’t go above 130 so he kept increasing the speed.  Finally I was at the highest incline and running over 5 mph for a minute and it jumped up to 190.  The whole experience was very awkward.  I’m sure it was my own self consciousness but I felt the whole gym was gawking at me and listening in while I clumsily ran (I had to hold on the bar in front of me which reported the heart rate).  It was weird.  Maybe you had to be there.  Just be happy you weren’t.

So, my heart rate was back to resting after two minutes which he said was great news because it means I’m healthy and he can push me really hard without having to worry.  Oh great!

My next session is on Monday and that’s when he’s actually going to make me do exercises.  He said we’ll start with plyometrics.  That’s where you jump over and over again until your legs become like jello and give out.  I can see why people get personal trainers.  He’s totally pushing me harder than I would ever care enough to push myself.

Good thing I only have three sessions with him  🙂  I was a little unimpressed with my apathetic attitude towards fitness so I am going to commit to my 3 mile goal and try to take it a little more seriously.

P.S. McKay cried for 15 minutes and Jax cried for 10 on this day.  Let’s hope they start to like it a little more.