Tag Archives: Snap Fitness

Personal Training Story

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If you’ve been reading my blog for the past six months or so, you know that I used to belong to a gym and completely loved it!  Because we moved away from the convinient location, we decided to stop our membership, buy a treadmill and just workout at home.  It was a simple enough decision because it’s what I had been doing for the past two years on St. Paul Island.

Yes, that is a giant paper clip to keep the Kindle from shakin from my thunderous strides.

Yes, that is a giant paper clip to keep the Kindle from shakin from my thunderous strides.

Some friends of ours joined a new LA Fitness location and invited Dan to play basketball on several occasions.  I toured the LA Fitness and was hit my Cupid’s arrow!  MUST JOIN GYM!

LAFitnessOldTown7-12-1024x679

It would be a slightly larger investment than when we were members at Snap Fitness, but this time there were more perks added to the pot:

  • Group fitness classes
  • Locker rooms with showers
  • A lap pool
  • Sauna
  • Seven times more space
  • Personal trainers

The last bonus was what really caught my eye, that and the group classes, which I am sporadically taking advantage of.  Remember my early Spin Class days?

Spin

Anyways, when you sign up for a membership, included is a free, one-hour assessment.  I went in and talked to a very nice, former-Marine named Dion.  I explained my fitness history to him:

  • Former fatty turned runner
  • Know basics about weight loss, but not muscle gain
  • I can squat and lunge until the cows come home, but can’t get rid of my damn jiggle.

After putting me through the ringer, we both decided (with Dan’s blessing and $) that I could sign up for a personal training package.  It’s definitely a bit of a splurge, but Dan and I have our reasons for why it is worth the investment at this point:

  • I’m not starting from scratch – AKA not completely ignorant of what to do, but need some help
  • I am just enough aware to be dangerous in the gym = INJURY AND INCORRECT FORM
  • Motivation to keep it up
  • A happier wife = a happier life

The same day as my assessment, I was paired with my new gym best friend, Celeste.  I honestly was against working out with a woman.  Call me sexist, but I just felt at the time that I would be more comfortable working out with a guy.  Here’s why:

  1. I’m 5’9″ and around 155lbs.  All the female trainers I had watched were all 5’3″ and 110lbs.  Intimidate me much??
  2. I thought the bigger the muscles, the better the trainer
  3. I’m 31; the female trainers are all 21.

Despite my fragile ego, I began working out with Celeste with the backup plan that I could always request someone new.  I am glad that I didn’t protest too much because Celeste is great!  She’s motivational, supportive, a great personality, and she has been kicking my butt for the past four weeks!

I meet with her three times a week, and will be dropping down to two for the month of March.  In those sessions over the first month, I have seen a lot of growth in muscles that I never thought I would see again/ever.

Here are some of my favorite exercises that we do and have far I’ve progressed:

1.  Leg Press

Leg Press

I started out with 70 lb. and when I maxed out on Thursday of last week, I was at 125 lb.

2.  Dead Lift

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I started at a wimpy 25 lb. and am up to 85 lb.

3.  Bicep Curls – 21s

21s

I do each of the exercises above seven times.  I complete each set 3 times through with a 30 lb. barbell.

4.  Yates Rows

Yates Row

It’s an underhanded grip applied to a row, and I love it!  I perform 3 sets of 16,12,10 reps with a 40 lb. barbell.

5.  Hang and Clean Press

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I asked Celeste how to do these moves because I had just watched the 2012 Cross Fit Games over the weekend, so she taught me the form, and now I do 4 sets of 12 reps with a 30-35 lb. barbell.

6.  Back Squats

squat

These are my absolute favorite!  Most likely I favor them because of how much Celeste pumps up my ego by telling me that my form is perfect when I do them.

I started out doing 16 reps with a 45 lb. bar, but now I’m up to 90 lb!

Tomorrow I go in for my one-month progress update.  I will for sure let you know the results.

Thankful Thursday

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Three days in a row of practically passing out asleep for this “Welcome back to the school year” teacher.  After being away from the grind for two and a half months, then thrown into a brand new school with 100+ student names and faces and learning abilities to memorize…I’m not ashamed to say that I’m crawling into bed at 8pm.

6:00pm dinner:

 

7:30pm:

8:00pm:

But it’s all for the greater good!  I’m exhausted because good things are happening in my classroom; my voice isn’t gone because I’m hollering at students to get back in their seats, to stop talking while I’m talking, or to pay attention and stop catching up after a summer of being on vacation.

1.  I’ve got A LOT of readers in my classes.

There is a heavy percentage of readers spread throughout all of my classes, and it simply makes me giddy!

There’s nothing more precious to me than hearing that my students devour their books, and the demands that my loaning library needs to be replenished ASAP!  This might be a close second:

2.  My workouts have maintained their consistency despite my aforementioned appetite for extra sleepage.

Lots of this:

None of this:

3.  The three most important doors in any teacher’s life are a mere 10-15 feet away from my classroom:  the teacher’s bathroom, the teacher’s lounge, and the copy machine!!!!

Triple Tangent Tuesday

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I’m getting to be an old pro at this whole “First Day of School” thing; I’ve only done it seven times in a row now.  I’m sure by the 7th class period, I was starting to sound like the teacher from the Peanuts cartoons, if not to the students, then at least to myself.  I only have one more day of intensive procedures and expectations in my lesson plans, and I’ll be VERY happy to switch roles and let the students do more talking than me.

 

1.  Call me crazy, but I really love my students already.  First day and everyone is on their best behavior yada yada yada.  But these kids seem like they have good hearts, some of the more bold ones engaged in conversation, and even the ones that wanted to test the waters a bit seem like good kids overall.  I showed them the video that showcases that lifestyle of St. Paul Island, which was created and narrated by three of my former students, and everyone was totally intrigued.  In the back of the room, while watching along with my new classes, I beamed with pride for my former students and school.  What a lucky lady I am to have been able to work with SO many amazing students.

 

2.  Tonight I am attending my first workout class at Snap Fitness.  I received an email last week that the gym would begin offering three different classes for it’s members for FREE!  You had me at “Zero Dollars.”

Here are the three classes that they are offering:

Group personal training –> 45 minutes. Each session will incorporate cardivascular, strength and abdominal exercises, to help you reach your health and fitness goals in the shortest amount of time possible. Beginners, advanced, all levels are welcome. Learn proper form or some new exercises to switch up your current routine with our certified personal trainers! You would usually expect to pay $25/session for group training. For now, it’s on US! 

Circuit Training – 45 minutes. This is a form of body conditioning training resistance training and high-intensity cardio. It is designed to be easy to follow and target strength building as well as muscular endurance. An exercise “circuit” is one completion of all prescribed exercises in the program. When one circuit is complete, one begins the first exercise again for another circuit. Traditionally, the time between exercises in circuit training is short, often with rapid movement to the next exercise.

Power Interval Training – 30 minutes. High intensity hour workout in 30 minutes. A total body workout! This class alternates between cardio, machine intervals, muscular strength and endurance exercises. It is a simple yet effective routine guaranteed to get your blood pumping! Discover the fitness benefits while working your body into better shape!

I went with the Group personal training because I’m not coordinated enough to try and do anything “high intensity” in front of other people.

 

3.  The focus of this blog has taken a slight twist, mostly because we’re back in school and my attention just seems to go in that direction.  While I know that most of the things that I talk about here don’t have a central theme or thesis statement, there I go again with English teacher mumbo jumbo, I don’t want to have to label Fancy Oatmeal as any one genre.  My friend ShannonJoe asked me what I would call this blog: teaching, reading, or running.

So for right now, I can tell you that even though Fancy Oatmeal is going more towards my life in the classroom, I’ll still blog about running, books I’ve read, and other nonsense that comes into my peripheral vision.  That’s just life, and that’s just me.