Breakfast with some little ceramic graters I bought at the Broadstairs Food Festival a few weeks ago. The one on the bottom right has garlic and tomatoes pulped with a little salt for a delicious bruschetta topping. You can grate the garlic without removing the skin - an empty husk is just left at the end. Tomatoes are a bit more messy!
I'm the other side of my first session with a personal trainer.
It was great!
I did what they say about developing good habits - lay your clothes out the night before, make it easy. I was about five minutes early, perfect, and we got straight into it. Onto the treadmill for a warm up, the Trainer chatting away asking me questions conversationally, casually increasing the speed.
I knew what he was doing, checking what I could do, what speed I could manage and still keep talking, where was the point where I was getting slightly out of breath. I'd worked out my motivation in my post yesterday, so it was easy to tell him what I wanted.
"Your heart's in good shape," he said, "the rate's increasing gradually, no panic."
Over to the free weights - three lots of ten lifting to the front, sides, backwards, RDLs (go on, ask me 😁) and probably something else I don't remember. Some lunges (useless), some squats (not bad at all).
The great thing is that I don't need to remember, he's doing that bit.
Then over to one of the machines to develop the front of the chest, some pulls? (who knows) and a curious ski-ing activity which was good fun.
"You've good technique, strong back, kept it aligned all the time, even when you were getting tired."
A few stretches on a floor mat (I wasn't sure how I was going to get down on to the floor).
"Oh," he said, "that's good, your back's not tight at all, I thought it would be."
I think I may have missed out on a light massage there, but I'll take it.
All the while, in between reps, the Trainer was explaining what we were doing, exerting my body, stretching it, forcing it to adapt and get stronger.
Back to the treadmill, this time walking backwards. Four different things going on at once:
- cooling down after exertion
- checking my gait - slight twist in the left leg
- walking backwards - good activity for older people, gets their brain going
- and pep talk.
"Eat more protein, about 20 grams each meal, a portion about the size of your fist, especially for breakfast and before training. Two or three eggs are good, have the fats you need as well, throw in an avocado as you're a woman, you need the fats, keep it light, nothing too heavy."
"You'll notice some puffiness as you adapt, women get phased by this and rush to the treadmill (counter-productive, apparently), but it'll go within six weeks and you'll start to see lots of differences."
"You're okay, you're in great shape. See you Thursday."
Oops, I forgot the best bit:
"You're a slow twitch, a marathon runner rather than a sprinter."
How do you know?
"I can tell by the way you move. Your challenge will be building up speed."
I don't know if it was the best bit, but it made me laugh.
It was well-paced, I am already aching, the advice is to keep moving, go for a walk along the seafront, keep the blood moving around my body, that will speed recovery (and eating protein), don't sit around too much.
Plenty of confidence-building: "this is good, that's good, here's where we need to do some work, but you're in great shape". Plenty of time, too, for me to collect myself, re-orientate between activities, find my breathing rhythm.
"Forget about breathing," 😳, "that's Instagram rubbish, they're trying to get you to buy something, they don't even know what they're talking about."
He meant breathe naturally 😂
I used the breathing we use in Pilates - breathe in on the relax, breathe out on the exertion. It was easier to perform the action. The main thing is, I was able to find my own rhythm.
I did feel a bit wobbly afterwards and it took me a while to get down the stairs. I went round to my sisters for a cup of tea. They had no milk, so I was forced to drink green tea. Then I had to come home and eat a very large breakfast.
I reckon £42 well spent.
