“Why did this seem like a good idea again?”
….seems to be my over-riding thought at the moment. After I called Potential Personal Training and spoke to Maxine it all seemed incredibly easy, she’s great to talk to and I very quickly felt at ease. We chatted away about what I was looking for and the changes I wanted help making in my life and I instantly felt like she was the woman to help me. We got on so well I found myself offering to document my journey in this blog, and she in turn offered to let me observe one of Ed’s sessions (with his permission) in the name of research. ‘Brilliant’ I thought, ‘I can be prepared for my first session’ I thought, in short I felt smug about my proactivity.
Well as they say; pride comes before a fall and I get the sinking feeling that after my first session I will be falling, thats if I make it that far in the first place. Off I tottered on Sunday morning with Finlay in his push chair, the sun was shining, and I was still feeling smug. Well that feeling left about 10 minutes into Ed’s session. Warm up involved him throwing and chasing a large ball, ‘This’ I said ‘seems reasonable’, this was followed by boxing; ‘slightly more daunting, but still achievable’ I thought. Then came what I called the “tree dangling” and this was when my smugness came back to haunt me.
Now I’d better explain what I mean by tree dangling, though I imagine some of you have already experienced it if you are existing clients. Basically it involves using straps hanging from a tree and using your own body weight to do resistance exercises. Ed used this technique to work both his arms and legs, and whilst it might look daunting to a newbie like me, he says its part of the reason he’s stuck with the program. “Not knowing what I’m doing one session to another is part of what keeps it interesting” he confides as he tries to take the lid off his water whilst wearing his boxing gloves, “and doing a variety of things over one session also means time passes really quickly” and with that the water is back on the grass and he’s punching away at Maxine with his tongue poking out from between his teeth.
They don’t stop with the banter as they go through the exercises, and I am slightly in awe of their relaxed nature as they exercise in a public park. I am self conscious in nature and the idea of strapping my feet to a tree and trying to exercise my arms fills me with dread. But Ed is pushing up on his arms like a pro whilst joking with Maxine about his dodgy knee which has lovingly been named Ethel. I find it best not to ask. So it was with a sinking feeling that I was about to have my inactivity come back to haunt me horribly later this week, that I made my way home. The upside, Maxine promises, is that whilst I may ache after sessions, very quickly I should find that my fitness will return and I will feel the benefits after just a couple of appointments.I sincerely hope that’s the case, after a c-section my stomach muscles have been left severely wanting.
The downside of this blog is that I’m now committed to going through with the training, which is I suppose why I volunteered to do it in the first place, so here I am, genuinely worried about my first session tomorrow and knowing there’s no going back. I get the feeling afterwards some of the smugness will return, but going by what Ed says there will be some achy muscles with it. But that’s the name of the game really isn’t it? There’s no gain without a bit of pain, and I’ve been so lazy thus far that the pain is unknown and the gain is all around my waist. So I’m going to do it and I’m going to give it my all, but I can’t help wondering if I would say the same if we hadn’t cut down that tree in our garden last year.
