Personal training has started

First off, thanks again to all my friends and family who contributed to my very nice tenure gift. I have started with my new personal trainer this week.

Being at a university, there is a really good gym on campus and it is the most convenient place possible for me to work out. Teaching at a university means that the gym is crowded with undergraduates who know who I am which is a bit weird at times. Like the change room when I am naked. Please don't talk to me now. So, it is no surprise that my trainer is indeed, an undergrad in my department, in one of the programs I teach in. Lucky for me, she has never actually taken a course with me but the whole professor-student thing is still a bit odd. She does add on "you probably know this already" to a lot of the information she provides but I just say "Oh good to know" even if I do. I don't know everything and its better she tells me.

The first week was some fitness assessments and apparently I am much more flexible and have better mobility than she expected. I have a stiff rotator cuff that she needs to work on but mostly, I am in better shape that I thought and she expected. It was good to hear "Wow! that's great" during my assessment.

This week, I am learning the work out plan. Cardio for 20 minutes 2-3 times a week, upper body weight training one day a week and lower body weight training one day a week. Surprisingly, I have been doing too much cardio and for too long. She has me doing interval training which turned out to be wicked harder than I thought but cuts my workouts shorter, which is greatly needed on some days. The weight training is tough and I am very sore for the next day or so.

Part of this is sorting out what I can and can't do. On Tues, I dropped a weight on my head because I had too much weight for a shoulder press. The trainer grabbed it pretty quick so I didn't hurt anything, just a slight, glancing blow to the head (sounds great, doesn't it?). Clearly, too much weight. Yesterday, I was doing squats and ended up sitting down with the weight instead of coming back up and I swear I had the sensation that my legs were jello after many lunges. But so far, she has been very smart and planned a workout that leaves me sore but mobile the next day. She completely gets that I can't be in immense pain the next day.

I can see already that the trainer will be very helpful in planning my workouts and figuring out what I need to do in the gym. I'll have her do a travel workout for me too, so I can transition to Sweden and still work out. Thanks!!