This pretty much sums up the aftermath of my first session with Potential Personal Training, my legs are alllll over the shop. So Maxine arrived and we ran through the program, took all my measurements (gulp), and then gently *cough* put me through my paces in my front room. As I mentioned before I’ve recently had a c-section and as such I was incredibly nervous about how well my muscles would hold up, or not as the case may be. And whilst those nerves weren’t baseless, I could definitely feel their limits at points, a lot of it was learning to test those limits again and that’s where Maxine really helped. It’s a very alien feeling not knowing how far I can push my own body, not trusting it and having someone there to ask me questions and really think about the way I was using those muscles was great, thus making sure I didn’t damage the healing tissue. So to sum up this first session, it was all about learning, Maxine learning what I can do and me learning how far I can push myself without doing damage.
Here are some things I’ve learned today:
- The sticky pad for the body mass calculator on your foot hurts the most to remove.
- Cats are not conducive to concentration or exercise, especially not my two attention seeking moggies
- Just because going up the stairs after my first session was manageable it doesn’t mean coming down them will be.
- Naming body parts seems to be par for the course. My right arm now has two twin moles named Hannah and Sarah.
- My thighs hurt before Maxine even left and I’m dreading tomorrow.
- My Mum forgets that the baby monitor is on and whilst chatting to my son upstairs she kept calling him a wriggle bottom, this is incredibly funny when trying to do a squat.
- I need to hoover the lounge carpet more often.
- It’s not just my lack of stomach muscles that make me feel off balance, when my thighs feel this ropey it highlights how my inactivity has reduced any strength I may have had there previously and how important those muscles are at keeping me upright. I discovered this in Tescos as I wobbled down the aisles.
I guess that something readers of this blog might be interested in is how I feel mentally after my first session rather than physically. And the answer is more positive than I expected, though I reserve the right to update this tomorrow when the real aches set in. I feel like I achieved something, that I haven’t ruined myself beyond repair and I’ve got the menial strength to say ‘yeah, go on then, lets do this again’, which to be honest is a good chunk of what I want out of a fitness regime. Previously I’ve hated exercise classes with things like stretches and squats etc, and I can’t quite put my finger on why I genuinely enjoyed todays session. Perhaps it was the comedy duo that is our cats Booth and Bones, interrupting and demanding attention at inopportune times, perhaps it was Maxine’s encouragement (which never once sounded like the empty ‘well done ladies’ I’m used to) or the banter she has ready and waiting for you, or maybe it was the variety of exercises, I’m not sure yet, but i’ll keep thinking about it and let you know. But suffice to say, I’m going to keep it going, even if my legs feel like they’re on fire tomorrow. What am I saying? They already feel like they’re on fire.
Incidentally I believe a few of you have been asking Maxine who I am, and if I’m secretly already a bootcamp attendee – so I figured I’d help you all out with a photo…. What do you mean its not very helpful?!?! Don’t worry, you’ll be seeing me for real, very soon indeed.
