lost.

I've been holding off talking about this past week, hoping that I'd have some changes to report. Something worth celebrating - heck, at this point, I'd settle for 'worth writing about.' It's not been a good week. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I think I can safely say that it was worse than the first week I worked out, and that's saying something.Becky's weights regimen is not working well for me. I've suspected this for most of the past week, but wanted to give myself at least through Monday to make sure that it wasn't just me bellyaching over new work. Sure, I am, to some degree, but that's not all it is.

Becky asked me to start all the exercises at three sets (see link in previous paragraph), with no instructions for increasing weight, reps, or sets over the next couple of weeks. It was just, 'do this, and if you can'd do it at this weight, drop down until you're able to finish the reps.'

I've left the gym each weight training day just exhausted. With the exception of the pushups (in which I struggled so much that it was impossible to go anywhere but up) I've seen no gains in strength in any of the load-bearing exercises. I thought maybe it was because it was the first week - you know the adage, what's difficult the first time is easier the second?

Not so. I'm still struggling on most of the exercises. Several of them get finished mostly by strength of will only. I think you guys know me well enough to realize that I'm not going to drop down in weight on an exercise unless I think I'm in imminent danger of hurting myself: I dropped down twenty pounds (260->240) in leg presses and still am not sure that I'm at the correct weight.

I don't know what's 'expected' for a woman my age to be able to do on that machine, but doing 45 reps (3 sets of 15) with my feet straight, another 45 with my toes pointed out, and another 45 with legs and feet together leaves my legs shaking.

I've never particularly trusted this new weight training regimen, and I'm quickly growing to hate it. It's almost impossible for me to make it through a weight training day without either a nap or a solid case of exhaustion. I'm willing to tough out soreness and tiredness in exchange for solid gains in strength or endurance, but I'm seeing no evidence of either.

My gut tells me that I should have started out with fewer reps and built up to what Becky was asking me to do, and that the reason I'm struggling so hard is that I'm pushing my body too hard each weight training day, without giving it any time to acclimate. (It's not hard to make the incremental move from nine to ten, but trying to go from zero to ten, while skipping all the numbers in between, guarantees that you'll be spending a couple of nights each week in the tub.)

I've asked Kat for contact information for her new trainer, Val. Kat has spoken highly of her each time the subject of trainers has come up, and right now, I could use the boost. I didn't feel any sort of connection with Becky like I did with Laura, and my frustration level has been steadily rising as I've struggled through each instance of the new weight training regimen.

Right now, all I've got is that my clothes are still fitting more loosely. My weight continues to refuse to drop, and it was impossible to tell if I've had any measurement changes over the past four weeks, since Becky's measurements were so different from Laura's that they might as well have been taken from two different bodies.

Perhaps Val will be better. If I'd worked with Becky first, I doubt I would've made it eight weeks.

Every day, on the elliptical machine, I see ads for diet pills. Normally I chuckle internally and go on. Today I just wanted to curl up into a little ball and cry.

I know this is the right way to do it, but right now, I feel so lost.

all tags: 
weight loss

Comments

On , margaret said...
Definitely go talk to Kat's trainer, at the very least you’ll get a second opinion about the regimen she has you on. It sounds to me like she’s having you overdo it.

On , heather said...
I know the feeling.

On , angel said...
You'll get there, I swear to you. Anyone who reads cat.net knows that you are a strong, determined woman who isn't afraid to work hard to achieve your goals. By all means find a trainer with whom you have a better connection. But also don't lose sight of the fact that you are doing all of this for YOU, and the hard work you do (whether you're working with a trainer you like or not, and even whether or not it is entirely appropriate for you) will eventually pay off. One way to see results (besides in your clothes) is this: go to the gym and do the exact workout you did the very first time you went. You'll be amazed at how easy it is. (Or, if you don't want to waste the time and energy on an easy workout, you can probably imagine it.) I know it's hard to keep going without solid proof of your results. The best thing to do is just keep reminding yourself that at every moment you are moving in the right direction. Maybe you're slightly off course, but you're still moving.

On , petrilli said...
Ok, that's some wacky regime she has you on, especially as a starting point. I'd highly recommend you try and find another trainer who is more interactive with you. 45 reps on a leg press is not going to be helpful at increasing your strength. First, the pointed toe exercise is aimed at your calves, which are better served by doing calf-raises seperately. In addition, a combination of different exercises, like wall-squats or hack-squats are going to actually be much more effective at building a shape that you're likely to prefer. Honestly, I'm not sure what your trainer is thinking.

On , domesticat said...
Heather (solarmax) - what's going on? Angel - thank God for stubbornness. I don't know what I'd do without it. Chris - I've wondered about the leg press exercises for a while. It's hard to go straight from the leg press machine to the calf raise machine. The third set on the calf raise machine is just ... brutal. Meanwhile, we wait for the contact info from Kat. :)

On , Chris said...
It sounds like your new training setup is designed more for endurance type work than actual strengthening. Normally you don't have to do an insane amount of reps (45 on leg press? A few weeks in? I rarely did more than 40 but really jacked the weights up) to get the same benefit. Granted, your going more for an overall workout than just strengthening certain areas but...it still doesn't sound right. I'd check out the other trainer. As Margaret said, another opinion wouldn't hurt.

On , Todd said...
Keep in mind that the scale really means nothing. Life is all about how YOU feel and if you FEEL more healthy then it doesn't matter how much weight you've lost. I've struggled with it all of my life and I still do today and I play Ice Hockey and ride my bike 100+ miles every week (I haven't lost a pound in the last 3 weeks). Something to keep in mind is that when you're working out that hard, it really does take more than 24 to 48 hours for your muscles to recover and as part of the healing process your body is going to hang on to ask many fluids as it can. Not to mention the fact that your muscle are sore because they're swollen(sp?) meaning that you have excess fluid in them. If you're going to continue to work out that hard as often as you do I would suggest creatine (it does help you retain lean muscle mass but it doesn't really help you gain it, so it won't help you bulk up on it's own.) Creatine prevents a lot of the muscle breakdown and allows you to recover quicker. That means that your body doesn't have to work as hard to repair itself and the next time you go into the gym your energy isn't already down. I've been taking EAS Betagen, it has a light dose of creatine but also has a lot of other vitamins and minerals that your body already needs, it helps you keep from getting dehydrated, helps you recover quicker and keeps your energy levels up. Talk to other people about it, but look into it. Doing the research on that would be worth your time, it's helped me out a lot.

On , John Wilson said...
Gah, sounds like you need to muck that new trainer. I started a new fitness regimen a few days ago. I'm doing (gasp) Pilates. Yes yes, I know, Pilates is so painfully trendy I can hardly stand it. And I'm sure you're saying to yourself "How can you call it a 'regimen' when you do the entire routine laying down?!!'" But I have a different problem: my weight is okay, but I have a severe lack of flexibility. What finally pushed me over the edge and convinced me to get going was a conversation I had with a friend recently. He went to his doctor a couple of weeks ago, to ask his advice about starting a new exercize program. The doc had him try to touch his toes, and do a few other things. At the end of the exam, the doctor said "Your flexibility is pathetic. In fact, it's so bad I'm prescribing five sessions of physical therapy, and you have to come back and see me before you start." After he told the story, we compared how far we could respectively stretch, and he's 20-30 percent more flexible than I am, (and he hasn't even started PT yet.) To give you an idea of where I'm at, standing up straight and lifting my leg up, keeping my knee straight, at a 30 degree angle is a stretch for me. Lifting up my leg and sticking it on a chair (45 degree angle) is possible but I can't leave it there for any stretch of time. Sticking my leg up on a table is completely impossible if I try to keep my knee straight. If I try to touch my toes, my hands don't get much farther than my knees. This is what you get when you sit in front of a computer for 8 years! So yeah, I've been doing Pilates semi-regularly for the past four days and I'm already seeing an improvement. I'm hoping to get to the point where I can maybe start running sometime this summer.