Day 2 of HPC

The week long pain after my initial training session ended pretty much a week later. It was pretty awful -- couldn't bend my arms properly and my lower back was killing me all week. Some stretching, a back-walk massage, some tylenol and a week of rest later and I was back in action.

I slacked off Monday thru Wednesday in terms of gym (absolutely unacceptable), but Thursday, I forced myself to do some Cardio like the old days in preparation for session 2 with the trainer today.

Thursday's cardio was 15 minutes on the elliptical (Resistance 7), 15 minutes on treadmill (speed walking at an incline while auto-maintaining a HR of 156) and then 7 minutes on the bike (legs just gave out). Finished with some foam rolling back stretches, and the tradition 4 hip flexor stretches.

Session 2


Took my baseline measurements. I'm at a 263lbs...pretty much 100lbs off my goal. Height and weight recorded. Then George (Trainer) took a measurement of my forward flexibility, sitting on floor and trying to push this tab on a machine (which gave a quantification of flexibility I guess), finished off by a body fat composition reading (34%) and a test to see how many push-ups I could do in proper form in 30 seconds (a pathetic 3).

We then got right into doing four pairs of 2-circuit exercises:

Circuit 1
3 sets of 12 reps of Single Leg Dead Lift (Each leg) with 20lb weight
3 sets of Chest Press (dunno what weight was) 12, 10 and 8 reps

Circuit 2:
3 sets of 12 reps of Stepping on Platform and lifting knee to chest and back down (both legs)
3 sets of 12 reps of shoulder press (12.5lb weights each arm)

Circuit 3:
3 sets of 12 reps of pulling weight - rows with rope
3 sets of 12 reps of bridge
3 sets of 8 reps of single leg bridge

Stretched back with foam roller
Stretched back with Sphinx pose

Circuit 4
3 sets of 12 reps of tricep pull down
3 sets of 15lbs of bicep curls (each arm)

--
Reviews: so the first half of the workout was geared to work on flexibility of my legs. George said everything is very, very weak and not firing properly. Exercises that are supposed to stretch my hamstring are instead working my lower back muscles (my lower back was KILLING me the first 2 circuits which is why I needed that random stretch in the middle). Exercises that are supposed to work my glutes are causing my hamstring to cramp. And then exercises for my hamstrings also cause my hip flexors to be really tight (Single leg dead lift).

I randomly asked him whether my lift (not that my weight has anything to do with it, cough) is affected by the weakness in leg muscles, particularly my glutes. He pointed out that the glutes are the strongest muscles in my body and if they dont fire with the strong fibers and fast twitch fibers, that you'll lose a lot of burst in jumping

Mark noticed and jokingly jested at how much of a challenge it is to simply get up and down from a seated position with the aid of my arms (we were at a sporting event where the stupid people in our row had to get out like 15 times...ugh). Well Mark, its cuz of my glutes-hamstrings-hip-flexors...NOTHING works!

Nog's (Former trainer) focused mainly on my hip flexors as that was the primary linkage to my patellar femoral syndrome. We did do a lot of the exercises I did with George today, but it seems George wants be more active on getting the muscles working better.

The next session (3) is on Monday evening where I hope I'm not dead (i'm starting to feel soreness in my upper legs, especially glutes right now). Also, he is going to give me a workout routine on my own so I won't get bored with just elliptical and treadmill.

I also want to look into swim lessons and yoga classes that they have their during the week.

Random note: I didn't vomit this time, but towards the end I kind of wanted to, but resisted. It definitely wasn't as high intensity as my first one (lots of breaks between sets), but I still had a nauseated feeling. I think its because of the random break I took to stretch...the whole lying down while my HR is high and then stretching and then getting back up makes me a little light headed....and then thats where it starts. Hopefully this will subside....

Cheers!