It’s All About the Money
I went to the gym today to meet with the trainer who seemed so willing to help me. I found him, and he told me to hop on a treadmill while he talked to me. He talked to me about the importance of stretching, strength training, flexibility, and exercises to work on balance. I was polite but I felt like telling him he was preaching to the choir. You don't remain oblivous to these things when you're an ACL statistic.
When he was finished telling me what I already know, he launched into his sales pitch. Been there, done that. He told me when I was ready to sign a contract, he'd be happy to help me. So much for that.
I spent an hour doing my arms work-out before heading out. If it wasn't for a ridiculous initiation fee to get into the program, I might actually consider it. Until they agree to waive it though, I'm not interested in giving them all my hard-earned money. I already paid to join the gym. A friend recommended another trainer who charges a lot less and I'm going to give her a call to see what she has to say.
I feel like writing to the owners of the gym to tell them their approach is shady and a big turn-off. I feel like not signing up for a contract just for spite. You shouldn't tell someone you want to show them an exercise that will help and then hang it over their heads until they sign a long contract. Plus, the sales pitch guys with all the so-called experience just turn you over to a less-experienced trainer for your actual work-outs.
Plus, I'm sure I can find some exercises on my own that will help my knee. That's what google is for people; and google is free.
Back Off
I was seriously trying to talk myself out of going to the gym today. I kept making excuses. Then I talked to Mr. BBM. He told me I should just go. It's going to be uncomfortable working out there until I get used to it and there's only one way to get used to it. Drag my butt there; just go.
Part of why I didn't want to go is because after two sessions with a personal trainer, I was getting the hard sell, and they were trying to convince me that I needed to pay a fortune to work out with a trainer on a regular basis. As much as I'd like to do that, we just bought a house. I don't have money growing on trees. In fact, I have no trees. Hell, I barely have grass as this point.
Today was the first day I had to see the trainer since I didn't call him back. Of course, he was right there as I walked in. I told him money is tight and I'm waiting to see how much of a credit I have at karate from my year on hiatus until I make any decisions. He shrugged it off and said he was there if I needed his help.
So, I got right to it. Today was legs and I spent time working on PT like things and also doing some weight lifting to build up the muscles in my legs. I had spent about 40 minutes working my legs and abs and then walked on an incline for 20 minutes on the treadmill.
When I was finished, I saw my trainer and thought I'd ask him if he could help me hook up some kind of weight lifting harness so that I could do some exercises that my physical therapist taught me. He and about three other trainers started scratching their heads. No one had a harness. They just had these stretchy bands. It wasn't working. At one point, there was one band wrapped around my waist, another wrapped around me being held tight by a trainer behind me and a whole mess of trainers watching.
The one trainer, who always seems a little sour asked me why I wanted to do that exercise. I told him it had really helped me get my leg stronger when I was going to PT. He asked me what I had done and when I told him I had surgery for my ACL in December, he started getting on my case. "You should be doing deep squats by now on that knee. You're babying that knee too much." He wouldn't shut up. He had some company.
Since I always take the high road, I fired back, "How many trainers does it take to hook up one harness?" I told him that my surgeon doesn't want me doing deep knee bends and that I had an overuse injury. I'm anything but a slacker when it comes to getting my leg back in shape. I resented his little comment that quickly began to feel like a public stoning. Here were a bunch of guys with leg muscles the size of my whole body, telling me and my stingbean leg that my PT doesn't know anything, and they want me to sign a long-term contract so I can take this kind of abuse weekly?
At one point, the out of line trainer asked me how I had hurt my knee. "At karate while sparring," I said. The trainer I had worked out with last week shot the guy a look that told him I'd probably be more than happy to snap kick his head off. He would have been right.
During the debate, one of the trainers disappeared and came back with his own personal weight lifting harness. He handed it to me. "Try this," he said. It worked perfectly. He began asking me about my injury and what types of exercises I was doing. He told me that he's a trainer who trains athletes, many who've had ACL reconstruction. He was rattling off statistics and talking about the differences between women and men and why this happens to women more often. He told me he could teach me some exercises that would really help strengthen my leg to prevent it from ever happening again.
Unfortunately, the KidZone was closing and I had to go grab Lil C. When I was putting her shoes on, I realized he had followed me. He told me he'd be happy to show me some exercises later this week, so I made an appointment with him. It's free. I'm just hoping I don't have to endure 30 minutes of post work-out pressure to sign a contract again.
Enter Pain
I had a personal training session today at my new gym. I expected to be tortured, and I was tortured sufficiently. My legs have felt like rubber for much of the day, and I can pretty much guarantee that tomorrow morning is going to suck, even though my Mom hates that word. There's just no better word for how it's going to feel to try to make these legs work tomorrow.
My trainer had ACL reconstruction surgery himself, so he has been in my shoes. We spent 30 minutes talking about my goals: to not be in pain anymore, to feel normal again, to be able to return to karate and return strong, etc. etc. After our talk, we got right to work.
My trainer had me do some interesting things that I think are really going to help me. I held weights and used a step to do toe touches. I balanced on some impossibly wiggly ball thing on one leg. I sat in mid-air while leaning my back against a wall long enough to make my legs burn. I did squats with my back pressed against one of those giant exercise balls that was up against a wall. I did some crazy calf exercises while balancing on some round wobbly thing. I also did some leg extensions on a machine that allowed me to use different weights for each leg. After working on extensions, he had me flutter kick on the machine slowly. That was killer, but everything he had me do made complete sense. My leg muscles burned; but my knee only protested a bit.
During the wall sit/squat thing, my legs started to shake so badly that I told him I didn't know if I'd be able to get back up, so he offered me an arm and helped me each time. Otherwise I think I would have been stuck! I asked him if he'd provide the same service for me tomorrow morning when I'm struggling to get out of bed. He laughed. I think personal trainers enjoy torturing people sometimes.
After working my legs like crazy, we moved on to abs. Yes, I'd like to get my knee back to normal, but I'd also like to get back my pre-kid abs. I really wish I hadn't told him that though. He had me work my abs like never before. I felt like a total slacker and told him I was embarrased. It freaking hurt and tomorrow I'll probably have to roll out of bed.
After a good hour of working out, we sat down to talk. I felt pretty good and my knee had only protested a little bit. It was nice to have his help because he let me know exactly how I should be doing each exercise so as not to aggravate my knee.
He tried to talk me into a training contract with him. It is insanely expensive and I just don't think I can afford it right now. I whined about buying a new house and still paying off my surgery almost a year later, so he threw in another free session for later this week.
During the inbetween days, I'm going to hit the pool, strap on some leg weights and do some underwater walking and running. I have to get this leg back in shape. I have too much I want to do in my life to have this knee issue hinder me anymore.
A Work Out for the Faithful
We sometimes forget to get the mail (I also sometimes forget to check the gas gauge in my car and then end up having a near panic attack while driving Big I to school while wearing my pajamas, with no wallet, no purse, no cell phone, but that’s a story for another time). When we finally retrieved the mail after about three days, there was an invitation from my church to attend services this morning. Every year on this Sunday, they celebrate the baptisms that have occurred during the past church year. Lil C is one of those and we were invited to attend the service and pick up her baptismal medallion.
After a long afternoon at the zoo yesterday, Mr. BBM said he didn’t really want to go (The service I like to attend is at 8 a.m.), and so Lil C and I went by ourselves to church this morning. Once at church, I climbed about 30 steps to get up to the balcony where my parents were sitting. Lil C was great on Christmas Eve, sleeping through almost all of the service. Today, she was wide awake.
Lil C sang when we sang. She "talked" when the Pastor spoke, including during his homily. At one point during a prayer, she tested out her pipes and squealed at top volume. She also enjoyed dropping her teddy over the back of the pew and then remarking "Oh, OH, OH NO" which is her version of "Uh-oh." She also thought the wood floors were pretty cool, and especially liked how her shiny shoes sounded when stomping on them.
When church was over, I was perspiring and it’s possible that I pulled a muscle from all the bending to retrieve things she had thrown. Holding a 15-month old squirmer for an entire church service is exhausting.
We then walked back down the stairs, to the front of the church, and up to the parking lot which is not exactly a picnic in two inch heels with a child, purse and a diaper bag.
Because I felt like tempting fate, we then went grocery shopping. Lil C was an angel as long as I kept the constant stream of gold fish crackers coming her way.
In fact, it wasn’t until after I dropped off Lil C with Daddy, and attempted to bring the groceries in the house that my exhausted and weary body finally gave out. While attempting to carry in about 10 grocery bags at a time, I over-turned my ankle and ended up in an unbecoming squat on the sidewalk. Getting up from that squat in a skirt, with two inch heels, a sore ankle, a pulled leg and butt muscle (karate leftovers), and about 30 pounds of groceries was no small feat.
The agenda for the rest of my day involves my new TV, football, some ice, and some rest. Here’s to hoping Lil C is as exhausted as I am.
Round 2
Because I am a glutton for punishment, my husband and I sparred on Saturday after my testing. While in his basement office, he’s apparently been working some things out. For example, instead of leaping around and only throwing punches, he’s discovered kicks (or thinks he has anyway). I spent all this time between sparring sessions thinking about ways to defend against his punches and now he’s kicking. Great.
The good news is that I blocked most of his kicks. While at karate last week, my instructor and I were talking about the head of our dojo and his sparring techniques. My instructor was saying that he would often stand there sideways, and just wait. As an opponent would approach, he would throw out a back kick that would stop an attacker in their footsteps.
I thought I’d give it a go. So, instead of just throwing front snap kicks or roundhouse kicks, I threw in a side kick (I do need to practice these after all) and an occasional back kick. They seemed to do the trick and I will definitely try to incorporate those into my sparring in the future.
My problem with my husband doing a quick run by and bopping me on the head is still there. It’s his height. He has me by a good 6 inches. Last week in class, we talked about using inside, outside and knife hand blocks to defend against punches-that these blocks seem to be the most effective. With someone who is coming from so much farther above you though, it’s hard not to do upward blocks. And my upward blocks are not strong enough against his punches. I tried to parry and move out of the way. I tried to augment my blocks, but I have two problems: lack of upper body strength and I’m thinking entirely too much about what I want to do.
When I think too much while sparring, it slows me down. Speed is another thing I really need to work on. I’m quick when I play tennis, so why can’t that translate to karate? It’s frustrating.
I’m also frustrated with my husband’s lack of control. Grrr. He hit me in the nose so hard that I thought for sure I was going to have a bloody nose. I returned the favor with a shot that rolled off his head gear right into his eye. We have awesome sparring gear and I love it, but somehow I’m thinking we might have been better off wearing these. . .
So, as far as the BBM Challenge goes, I’m doing well with my goal of sparring once a week. I just need to concentrate on building upper arm strength. You’d think that carrying around my almost year old would help with that and it does sometimes. It’s just that now, Lil C much prefers walking/running around the house, and climbing the stairs on her own.
Look for Round 3 details later this week. Hopefully I can get some pointers at class this week.
If you’re interested in joining the BBM Challenge, it’s not too late. See here for details and email me for a coupon code for Everything Fitness once you’ve signed up.
The Carnival of Family Life is up here. Check it out for some great posts.
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