New routine in training

My personal trainer switches her trainee's routines on the first of the month. That meant that the old routine, the one I was just getting to be able to do, is mostly out the window. I was a little apprehensive and a lot excited about the change, just looking forward to something new.

Of course, the first exercise this morning was almost my last. Hold a ball (10 pounds? I don't really remember) and squat. At the top of the squat jump a little, raise the ball and thrust it over your head; catch the ball and lower while squatting. If you're picturing this correctly, you see a loose ball hovering over my head for a second or two. Further, you see the loose ball slipping through my fingers and clonking me on the forehead. Ow. At least that part only happened once, in the middle of the first set. Still, ouch.

Superset these with traveling lunges. That means climb the stairs, lunge along the walkway, climb down the other set of stairs. Be very careful of the bad knee. Watch your balance. Don't knock your trainer over the railing. Avoid other people doing their own workouts in the same area.

We're sticking with push-ups. I've been doing them on the bar railing and doing them well (ok, I've been doing the first couple of sets well, the third set notsomuch). I decided to see if I could now do a girly push-up on the floor. Bended knees and lookie there! It wasn't pretty, it wasn't totally down to the floor (... or close to the floor) but I went down several inches and back up, 10 times, before I collapsed. The next 20 repeats were back with the bar, and I did 3 sets that way. My goal is to ace the modified girly push-ups, get to true girly push-ups, then to modified real push-ups, then to a full set of real push-ups. Maybe by the end of the year.

Along with those are the twists with the 10 pound medicine ball. It's the one place on my body where I can actually see a small difference since I've been working out, so I'm glad to continue with them. But boy, that ball gets heavy and I get dizzy after twisting for a minute.

But that's not all! In the challenging to me department, Katie introduced another floor exercise. Lie on my back, arms and legs extended, hands holding big ball. V-up, switch ball to feet, lower arms and legs to floor. Repeat and switch ball to hands, lower. Yup, there was ball droppage involved here too. At least this big ball wasn't painful when it landed, just frustrating. I was not able to complete full sets of those without modifications so I'm looking forward to August 31st when there's been improvement.

Oh wait - somewhere in there were mountain climbers too. I can do full sets of those now without falling on my face, but when she extends the time on them there's still a chance of collapse. Hopefully I'll get strong (and balanced) enough that I'll improve quickly.

As a last treat there was running up the stairs and coming down. People who know me well know that stairs are not exactly my forte. This is a coordination and balance thing, along with a bit of vertigo. But I'm tough! I can do it! There was no grace or delicacy involved, probably looked like a drunk elephant lumbering upward, but I got it done.

I don't think you can convince me that this workout only lasted 50 minutes. Sky-high heart rate, trembling limbs, flushed and drippy face. Jeez, no wonder I never wanted to work out in public. (Note: running in public is different; I don't care in the least how I look when, or after, I run.) This whole gym-going, personal training thing is eye opening (especially when a ball is dropping on said eyes) in many ways. I'm glad I'm doing it.

Now I need a nap.