Last week I had my first Personal Trainer session. Dear lord. I thought I was going to spew big time. Let me explain:
As I previously have explained, I work in a sedentary job working a helpdesk for 8 hours a day. We had a 15min break either side of a 30min lunch break however the remainder of the day I am basically stationed at the phone. Needless to say I don’t move very much if at all during the day. Having over a year of this everyday, to then be thrown into a Personal Trainer session was a shock to my system.
First off the bat was the bench press, my old home. At my best I was benching 110kgs 3 set of 10 reps. This day I managed 10 reps with relative ease with 50kgs. We then bumped it up to 60kgs and I managed to get to 6 reps before my arms gave. I was shocked, stunned, and frustrated at how far gone I’ve become. Had a 60sec break and only managed to push out 4 more before giving. I hope you can understand how angry I was at myself by this point and we’re only 1/3 through this training session.
Next up was the Dead Lifts. I’ve never worked too much with this exercise but I remember being alright at it. After having my trainer figure out how best to tackle this and adjust my stance into a “Sumo Stance” rather than traditional I pushed out 10 reps Dead Lifting 50kgs. During each rep I thought I was doing well with guidance from my trainer, it felt good and comfortable. Got to the 10th rep and stood up. Suddenly I felt a bizarre sensation of blood rushing to my head, I felt woozy, dizzy and my vision blurred and his voice became fainter. I thought I was going to spew. I have not felt anything like this for years. I told him I need to walk it off and get a sip of water, that felt like the longest wobbly walk I’ve had for some time that didn’t involve copious amounts of alcohol. I returned and had to wait it out to calm my body down as I could tell it was shitting itself. I eventually managed 2 more sets and boy-o-boy was I shattered.
Stiff Leg & Sumo
Next up we had Weighted Squats. At this point my trainer realised the inherent danger of being covered in my own vomit so we took it easy here and just worked on form rather than applying weights to the bar, which I was appreciative of. After having a play with my form we were done for the day and we went over to the table and discussed our next session times and a plan for that. By now my world was spinning and the imminent projectile attack was a true fear. He was talking to me but I didn’t really hear most of it. He gave me his card and shook my hand for some reason, so I took that as my time to leave for home.
I got to my car and just had to sit there and have a drink of water before I felt safe to drive as my head was pounding. I just thought about what just happened and just how real this situation is. I am completely out of my depth, far from what I used to be capable of. If anything, realising just how much of a wuss I’m being sitting there in my car just strengthened my resolve further.
I was sore for the next 2 days and could my body trying to cope and recover, which is a good sign. This means it’s getting through the initial shock and will get stronger from here. I’m on my way to being a better me!
– Chunt