Stagnant on the plateau

Fitness is something that I do -- like going to work every day. Like going to work every day, fitness can get stale, boring and ineffective.

Sensing a need to go to something different than the "Body for Life" workout of Bill Phillips - designed for Puffer, I invested some money with a personal trainer from studio 212 in Hartsville. Brianna, owner of the business, and I got together three mornings a week for about a month as you introduced me to the chapter of fitness (also in Phillips) called change. She showed me some new exercises but probably the more important revelation was mixing the cardio with the lifting in the same time frame. I left every session drained and drowning in sweat. An hour at Studio 212 was different from the four mile walk, which also lasts about an hour in the morning. There was more happening metabolically from that workout than I had been letting myself experience for a year or two.

The current challenge -- how to keep up that intensity? I thought maybe the faddish 'boot camp' would be the little nudge but Brianna thinks maybe it needs to be something different from that and this morning I spent another hour with a trainer who works in Studio 212 who is fondly known as Russell. For some time the refrain around the fitness area in our small part of the world was the question, "Have you met Russell yet?" I have met Russell. I knew as I was trying to eek out those last eight push ups this morning (to reach 100) that this must be my introduction to Russell. I thought that because his words were, "Let's start with a hundred push ups." Start? The immediate thought was that 100 push ups are an entire workout -- not a start.

So, what have learned so far with this foray with some personal training advice? Two main lessons are jumping out. The first is that you need to vary the routine and you need to vary it daily. The variety keeps you mentally interested and physically challenged, which is the major combination you want to find in the gym. The second lesson, and one the guys at the Y have been hammering me with often, is that form is far more important than weight. We (I) started on the second exercise this morning -- a back thing on a machine. The 35 pound plates on each side were not all that hard to handle, even at the increased reps from my normal count. It was after two sets that Russell said, "Now, let's add some weight, it looks like you have figured out the right way to do it." I am not sure the form was quite as good, especially after the fourth set, with the extra 50 pounds we added.

Working out is something I do. Generally I have committed some kind of exercise six days a week. The question, "Is it something I do right?" Well, I am guessing there is still some learning to do. As a result, I will probably invest a little more money in some personal training with Russell. He is a smooth multi-tasker and this morning he was keeping six people moving in different directions while taking personal interest in a couple of Coker basketball players -- and the sweat was pouring, the sounds of exertion were loud and nearly every--- body -- was understanding they would not be doing this much good for themselves, if they were exercising alone.

I have been on the plateau for awhile, maybe as I meet a little more Russell on these early Tuesday and Thursday mornings I can start moving up the path to a new level of being in shape.

Back and shoulder exercises primarily this morning with some light military lifts, some back machine and some not-too-heavy dumbell extensions and front lifts of the dumbells followed by light curls, which got harder and harder and harder.