Hitting the Wall

 

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.)

 

1. 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.
2. 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! 
3. 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.)
4. 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!
5. 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)
6. 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? 
7. 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.

 

I don't want to quit on something though.   So I'm riding this thing out.....and I will continue to go......remaining hopeful that something will change!

 

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.”

Two steps back

 Training is going well.  For the most part.  I am still exhausted.  I’m still sore a lot of the time.  I’m still occasionally  taking advil to knock the edge of the soreness off at night so that I can sleep.  I’m still not giving up.  But seriously, it feels like I take one step forward and two steps back!

 

But, there has arose a problem or two.  

 

The first thing is my knees.  I have mentioned them in the last few posts….and the trainer dude and I are really trying to attack the knee issue.  Right now my worst knee is my left one.  That is the one that just aches and aches. (Ok, hurts and hurts….cuz it’s not exactly an ache, it’s a little more intense.)   But yesterday at work I made the situation worse.   I was in my office with a client and had to walk out to complete a task for the client.  I came back into my office and sat down on my chair.  I scooted my chair in so that I was in position to continue my work with the client and WHACK….I rammed my GOOD knee into the drawers of the desk.  OH.MY.WORD!   It was bad.  Tears coming out of my eyes bad.   Take your breath away bad.  I laid my head down on my desk (forehead) and tried to regain my senses.   The poor client was an elderly man and he was so nice.  When I finally lifted my head and tried to get back to business, he kept saying “Take all the time you need.”   I managed with him….and for the rest of the day.  But lets just say that it’s been 24 hours and that knee still hurts!  (Let me also say that I didn’t let it get to me last night and I STILL went to Zumba, but did have to tone it down a wee bit!)

 

I didn’t make it to do my planned strength workout last night.  It really wasn’t m fault though.   We had one person out on PTO and two people called out sick.  I stayed to help close…..and then we had to pick up the car from the mechanics shop….and well, I had just enough time to get to my Zumba class.  

 

Ohhh the car?   It died on me on Saturday.   Luckily it was just a battery issue.  So my baby has a new battery and fresh oil!

 

So last week I completed my scheduled workouts.  I have three workouts to do each week. Push day,  Legs day, and pull day.   Push and pull days are both pretty much upper body.   No worries. I had it!  I was sore after the fact, but not worrisome.  I expected to be sore.  It wasn’t under I was in the shower on Friday morningwhen I realized that something was wrong.  I went to wash my hair and brought both hands up to my head to massage the soap into my hair.   The left arm was GREAT!  No soreness!  I had recovered.  The RIGHT arm however.  OUCH!  It hurt worse than it had all week!  Furthermore, I struggled to actually move the right arm up above and behind my head.  NOT COOL!   I wasn’t recovering, I was getting worse!

 

Years ago, I had something similar that happened.  (May 6, 2019 post )  It started out as a pain reminiscent of muscle pain, just a twinge here or there when I stretched (like to reach a top shelf in he cabinet).   In 2019, it progressed to the point that I was in some serious pain, I had numbness even down to my fingers and I had lost almost all range of motion in that arm….my dominant arm.    I ended up going to an urgent care and they told me it was a pinched nerve that was affecting everything.  The gave me RX strength Advil and muscle relaxers.   The meds took the edge off and it slowly got better….somehow, someway.

 

So when I noticed this pain in the shower this past Friday I knew that it was most likely the same issue.  What to do…what to do.   On Saturday, I was scheduled for a leg day at the gym.  Perfect!  Legs wouldn’t affect my shoulder.   When I don’t work on Saturdays, I go to a Zumba class…..I went and did that.  And made it through somewhat ok.  On Sunday I had my session with the personal trainer.  I talked to him immediately about it……and we started my workout.  It was a ‘push’ day.  So arms.  JOY JOY.     The discrepancy between my arms was CRAZY.  Where my dominant arm just a few days earlier was the strong one, now it was the weak link.  Furthermore, the amounts that I could lift diminished (not that it was anything fabulous previously, but still!).   YIKES!  I literally went backwards!   The pain in my bicep was no fun at all!

 

The trainer worked with me and he watched like a hawk.   A few exercises in he looked at me and said “it’s not your bicep, it’s your shoulder that is the issue.”  

 

Soooooooo……we spent some time with him showing me some movements to help with stretching and mobility and movement of the shoulder.  And they are things I can do at home!  So here we go, lets get this arm fixed and back on the forward progression!

 

I have about 2 weeks until my next trainer session as he is going on vacation….so hopefully I will be back to normal by the time he returns.  In the meantime, I’ll be getting in as many training sessions as possible, even if the arms may be a less weight than they were capable of last week!

OUCH

​I am sore!    Is it sympathy pains or is it real soreness!  I don’t know but I’m cranking up the yoga!! 

Jason has been struggling with a shoulder pain that extends down his arm a bit.  He has been miserable.  It seems to be slowly getting better…but it’s been a long haul for him.   I swear, the guy can’t get a break.  First his foot and the great axe accident in October that brought mo the of pain and now this.  I knew it was bad when he said ‘I’m going to urgent care’.  He has a huge aversion to doctors!   So I’ve been worried about that.  But in the midst of talking to him he mentioned pinched nerve and I was like ‘oh, remember when I got that and it totally messed up my arm?’.    The urgent care told me it was a pinched nerve.  I struggled with it for a while and found that the best ‘medicine’ wasn’t medicine at all but movement…specifically yoga is what helped!   I did yoga religiously for a while…but then slipped up and stopped doing it quite so regularly.  So I recommended yoga to him. I’m 

The problem started a few days later when my arm started acting up….reminiscent of that pinched nerve pain.  Really?   I didn’t even want to mention it because it feels like I was trying to be an attention whore!   But honestly….I was struggling.  So I took my own advice and started doing yoga!

Then a few days later my trapezius muscle on the OTHER side of my back started to tighten up!  I had issues with that in the past also!   In the past the medical professionals had told me that I had a seized muscle in my back.  That pain was now back.   Really?  What is happening to me?

So I honestly half way have wondered if I am having sympathy pains.  But then again, I know that it’s real pain.   What sparked it?  It could be trying to corral a 70 pound puppy.  It could be the immense day of yard work that I completed last weekend….which included moving a huge pile of rocks!  Maybe I just slept wrong!   But it doesn’t matter…my upper back is sore!   (Ironically enough it used to always be my lower back that got me….it has moved upward with age!).   So I am still doing my normal exercise stuff…but cutting down the time a bit so that I can fit in a 10 minute quickly yoga session for shoulders neck and upper back!    Fingers crossed that it will help me…and fast!