Last year, I finally signed up for my very first gym membership. I chose 24 Hour Fitness since I can walk there from my apartment, and because they are open 24 hours a day. I opted to also sign on for the training, since I had no idea how to begin using all the equipment. So, I took the three, fifty-minute sessions package, and was assigned a good trainer named Amanda who I really liked so I signed up for an additional 10 sessions. Unfortunately, Amanda left Hawaii, so I ended up with a different trainer for a few sessions which I didn’t feel were as great of a fit for me. I ended up taking off some time to travel and also due to injuries, but am back to use up my remaining sessions (I had 3 left).
I’m back in training as of this morning, and have a third, new trainer named Kirstyn, and she’s pretty cool so far. We had our first session this morning, and I learned what burpees are. They are no joke. I did a lot of squats, lunges, rows, shoulder presses, chest presses, step-ups, etc. with mostly 10lb weights, and sometimes 5 lb weights, or no weight… and scattered between were my new dreaded exercise: burpees. I did 3 sets of 12 burpees total throughout the 50-minute session today, and my legs felt pretty wobbly afterwards. But it was a really good workout, so I’m really satisfied.
Burpees:
Image from Dashingdiva.net
Kirstyn recommended I take BCAAs before and after workouts. Amanda had me taking whey protein powder instead. I’m gonna start using BCAA powder to bookend workouts instead. Will note if I can sense a difference or not. I’ll probably keep the protein powder around just as a supplement on days when I don’t have time to eat, etc.
In the 3.5 months I was injured, I really didn’t exercise much at all, and I can really feel it now in my weakened cardio, and during today’s PT session.
I’m food journaling again. I show it to Kirstyn when I go in for PT, and it helps keep me in line. I don’t know why I need the supervision, but I seem to. When left on my own, I rarely update the food journal, and almost never feel motivated enough to go to the gym… (although that was also due in part to my avoidance of the second trainer I had between Amanda and Kirstyn because I really wanted to switch, but decided to let some time pass while I healed up and traveled then called the main office again to get someone new)…
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