January 12, 2011

First Responders

A couple days ago, Mr. BBM was talking to me in the kitchen when he said, "Your butt is small." I turned around and glared at him. "So, what? You're telling me my butt was big before?"

"No!" he yelled out, "I'm saying your butt is tight."

"Wait," I said, "so now you're calling me a tight-a$$!?!"

"No!" he said laughing. And then he made some comment about trying to give me a compliment. I've been working out and I've been extremely committed to it. I'm also a woman and am therefore skilled at turning would-be-compliments into insults.

I've been noticing some changes in my body too since I started working out with my trainer again (and started "Dance Dance Revolutionizing" at home with the Wii). It doesn't take long when you have someone seriously kicking your butt on a weekly basis. These initial changes always seem to be my "first responders." While it's awesome to see things changing and know that you're progressing, it can be frustrating when other areas lag behind.

Here's what happens with me. It doesn't take many workouts for my butt to respond. But what frustrates me is that the very upper part of my legs don't right away. In fact, I can't think of a time when I've ever really been satisfied with that little ring of stuff around my upper thighs. Back when I was in high school, I had toothpicks for legs. I liked my upper legs then. So the other day I told my trainer I wanted to concentrate on knocking those suckers down a notch. He looked surprised. Apparently he has a lot of girls come to him who want to bulk up their butt and upper legs. I am not one of them. I want nothing to do with "bulk."

The other first responders for me are my arms and shoulders. I swear that after just one workout, I start seeing changes. This is what happens when your arms are toothpicks. The other day, Mr. BBM grabbed my arm and said, "Woah, you've got muscles." Damn straight I do. The other day, during a brutal upper body workout, my trainer gave me that devious look he has when he's contemplating really killing me.

He walked me over to one of those power tower things and showed me what he wanted me to do. A former football player with plenty of bulk and years of muscle strength, he easily lifted himself up, tucked his legs underneath himself and started doing perfectly formed dips. He jumped down and I raised an eyebrow at him.

"For real? You think I can do that?"

"I'm gonna help you," he said.

So, I stepped up there and raised myself up, which was an accomplishment right there. As I tucked my legs up, I felt him grab my feet and lower legs. "Alright girl! Do it."

And I did. I'll be honest, as I approached 10, I was putting a whole lot more weight on him than I should have been. It was HARD. When I finished that set, we both laughed. My arms were shaking and I was sweating something fierce. We went onto my other two sets and came back to the dips. Instead of putting me back up there, my trainer said, "let's do them on the bench. We were both just surviving over there." I laughed. It had to be a funny sight. Me just trying to hold myself up and him eventually taking on more and more of my weight. 

I started doing dips on the bench a couple weeks ago and tried with my legs straight out. It wasn't possible. So, I pulled them in closer and did them like that. After my ridiculously hard set yesterday, I pushed my legs out straighter and made it through two additional sets of dips.

I've identified a new goal: dips on the power tower by myself.

The good news is that my arms, shoulders and butt are responding well to all these workouts. The even better news is that I told my trainer that my upper legs and abs are frustrating me a bit and he's going to help me concentrate on those areas. Despite the fact that I'm noticing little lines of muscles on my abdomen, there's still extra stuff there that needs to go. And it's gonna go, because I have never been more motivated to succeed.

So far, my New Year's "goals" are working out just fine. How are yours going?

When you're finished here, stop over at The BBM Review for a chance to win $100 on the Jimmy Dean review.

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Posted by on January 12, 2011 in Work it out | 7 Comments

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