Guinea Pig Workout Week 3 - by Carrie Adamson

According to Alan I made a rookie mistake during my training session this week.  I only had two workouts this week, I missed Monday because I was still suffering pretty badly from my cold.  I even missed work that day.  The first time I worked out was Wednesday and it was also my first time having Corina has my trainer.  Alan had another commitment that morning.  Corina and Alan work as a team and I knew my workout wouldn’t be any less hard or different with her in charge.  I noticed a difference with my warm up stretching as I think she used her body weight as the resistance.  It felt good, probably partially because I hadn’t worked out for five days and because it felt like a deeper stretch.  Since Corina was following Alan’s training notes I also got to do the side stretch on the ball, one I hadn’t done in a while.  I like that one because it feels like my body is tight and I am getting the stretch that it needs.  I am still working on the same leg exercises, but this week Corina upped the weight on my squats.  After the first set she added 20 lbs.  I made it through the remaining three ok and the rest of the exercises.  The last one that I do on leg days is balancing on the exercise ball.  To make it more challenging, she was throwing a soccer ball at me and by the last set I was able to make four catches before I rolled right off.  Luckily I haven’t  face planted yet on the floor and hoping my legs and core get strong enough before that happens.  

Friday was upper body day and this is when I made my rookie mistake.  I got through most of my workout with Alan and Corina and when I said I wasn’t feeling the burn as much in my arms as I was my legs.   I think I was on my second set of raises while standing on the Bosu ball and made the comment that my legs were getting tired before my arms were.  Alan’s reply was, “oh yeah?” He then proceeded to give me heavier dumbbells for the following two sets and this time for sure I was feeling the burn when I got to the last reps.  Even though I made a rookie mistake I am glad I did because if I don’t speak up about my training and push myself, who will?  Alan and Corina can only guide me so much, I am the one who has to do the work.