me as personal trainer

I made a commitment this month to join a friend at the gym three times a week and "train" her. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could help someone else get in shape without being insanely pushy. I don't think I'm going to end up in a career as a personal trainer, but I feel like I do sometimes need more social contact, since as a writer I would tend to stay in my own house 24/7. The friend I am "training" is also a writer, so we get to talk books while working out.

We had talked a few months ago about the possibility of me doing running and biking with her, but I didn't think that would work out. I also wasn't that keen on the idea of meeting someone at the gym to run on a treadmill since I have one at home and I like to watch my shows while on it. So this was the compromise. We meet and do weight training and yoga and whatever I think she needs that isn't cardio.

Two weeks in, I think I have been successful at not killing my friend off. That was one of my main goals. I still think that the main reason people give up an exercise routine is because they set insane goals for themselves (listen, Mette, to yourself here). And also, they don't actually enjoy it, either while doing it or afterwards, if they are in pain. I think of humans as basically animals, and you have to get yourself to do hard things by giving yourself a reward of some kind so that you think of it fondly, as something you want to do again. You have to *like* it to keep doing it.

We've done three circuits of various machines and balance moves. One of the things I have learned is that when you're working with someone who isn't in shape, you want to focus on the machines that do the most muscles at once. So that has meant overhead pull-downs, chest presses, and chin ups. Then I've focused on doing things that mimic real life motion, lunges, wall squats, and planks.

It has taken me a while to figure out what kinds of abdominal workouts are good for someone who has core strength issues. I remember trying to do situps and hurting my back and finding crunches not much better. The best exercise we've found is holding a big exercise ball between your legs, raising it to catch it with your arms, setting arms and legs down, and then raising them again and doing the motion backwards to get to the beginning again. Does that make sense?

So, we'll see what happens after a month of this, see if we want to go on. I love racing, but not everyone does, it seems. Maybe that's not the only way to get in shape, setting that kind of goal. And it's funny to me to see that even though I have tried not to set goals for myself this year, I'm setting them for other people now. I guess the goal setting just leaks out, eh?