And it hits. The wall.
I signed up for personal training about a month ago. I was gung ho. I was totally into it. I vowed to give this my everything. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but I was going to follow through and at least try.
It’s hard. It’s real hard.
My arm has not gotten better. Trainer dude told me to stretch it. I have done so. It still hurts! I can see mobility is sometimes iffy. On Saturday I was in my Zumba class and we were doing a song with all arm work and I actually did half of the song with only one arm. I knew that I had a full day of work at home and I honestly knew something was going to have to be sacrificed. The Zumba song was heavily modified so that I could still move my arm later that day. So yeah…..not feeling all that much relief from the stretching. Admittedly, the stretching seems to help at the moment, but the pain comes back with a vengeance…maybe even a bit worse afterward.
The arm thing makes me want to quit! Big time.
Trainer dude is ok. I have listened to his advice and his comments and I have followed them. But I am questioning the cost that I am paying and the value that I am receiving.
Why? Well let me list the reasons. (And let me say that he came highly recommended by some of the gals in my Zumba class.)
- Trainer dude ‘forgot’ to put my ‘in between’ workouts…my ‘homework’ into the system. So the first week went by and the workouts that he wanted me to do never appeared. We had our second session and boom…..he knew that there was nothing there and said that he would have them in there shortly. I was muddling through my OWN workout on Wednesday when he walked up to me to say hi…….I pointed out that they weren’t uploaded yet. 10 minutes later he got them uploaded. He claims it was system glitch and he did it…believe what you want. Let me also say that this is not the only time that he has said, “I’ll do such and such and you’ll have a message in a day or two”….and I hear crickets and have to reach out to him or wait until my next session.
- I don’t think he is listening well. He wants me eating 1600 calories…..I have NEVER been able to lose at 1600….even when I was really active. I mentioned it to him and he brushed me aside. He did say that month one would not be a month of losing but that it would pay off in month two onward. I feel as if he is giving me his rote answer…..telling me the calories that his software said that I need to eat and there wasn’t a lot of back and forth. His way or the highway. And honestly, I would LOVE to be able to eat at the 1600 mark. SOOOO…it’s month two. I’m waiting!
- The arm thing. I mentioned this issue that I have had in the past with my arm. When it happened, he didn’t do anything to adjust my workout …..other than I lowered my weights and then still struggled with it. So, whatever caused it is still out there lurking in the shadows. (In fairness, when I told him that it was bothering me, he offered to cancel the session and send me home……but he had already postponed the session once….and I knew that he had cancelled the next TWO sessions because he was going to be out of town.)
- Yes, let’s talk about his vacay. Everyone needs a vacation…. but when we started looking at make-up sessions his schedule and mine don’t mesh…only on the weekend. So, I am down two sessions. Who knows if I just lost them or if we will ever make them up. (And quite frankly at this moment, if we don’t make them up, I am not worried about the loss of his supposed knowledge….and only about the $72 I paid for that hour!
- Oh yes, let’s talk about the hour. My last session…which he cancelled /postponed until the end of his day (He stayed late to get my session in that day…. ruined my day but well…. I needed to get it done because of the whole vacay thing and I didn’t want to be down three sessions). We started the workout …and we had run through my workout….and he ‘released me’ as done after about 40 minutes. Hmmm…. but I paid for 60 minutes. (in fairness, the other two sessions were the full hour)
- The workouts, let’s talk about them. There are circuit machines/area at the gym. I am basically doing a circuit. Broken down into legs, push, pull. Three different workouts. I leave the circuit area once or twice in all my workouts. I am doing what I did myself all those years ago when I was going to the gym and doing the circuit workouts. I am paying him to tell me to do what I have previously done on my own. During my training sessions with trainer dude he is basically just standing beside the machine and counting my reps. ($72 bucks worth of counting apparently) What’s wrong with this picture?
- I have not seen one smidge of progress with my mobility….yet. It’s month two, shouldn’t I be seeing progress?
So let me give credit where credit is due. I had been going to the gym for a few months before I decided to bite the bullet and sign up for a personal trainer. In that two months I had been to the gym 3-4 times a week. The first night I went in and asked at the counter “where is the Zumba being held?”. They pointed me to the area I needed to go and I went. And that is what I have done. I check in and walk back to the fitness room ….when Zumba is done, I tuck my head and walk out of the gym. I have not investigated. I go to my class and that was it. The trainer made me a bit more comfortable in the gym. I at least know where the circuit area is. (Ok, I have been all over the gym now.) It got me comfortable enough to actually go and use the circuit of machines. For that, I am happy and thankful.
But long term? What will happen with trainer dude? The jury is still out. Right now I am leaning toward giving my notice at the 2 month mark… (I need to give a 1 month notice….and I am committed for three months) As I said to a friend last night, “He has a few more weeks to prove his worth, but right now I am not seeing a $72 value.”
