The Fit Test

This week I joined the Gold's Gym near my house. I went to Gold's in Augusta when I still lived in Georgia and enjoyed it. Their facilities are nice and usually pretty solid

Pros

• Seems to have a good free weight section that is laid out slightly better than Augusta was.
• Has an actual free ROOM for body weight exercises, throwing medicine balls around, kettlebells, bands, boxes, etc. There wasn't as much room or variety of resistance equipment in Augusta
• Monkey bars with alternating heights!
• Sauna and steam room!

Cons

• No climbing ropes
• Uses a huge amount of space as a t shirt display
• No open concept, eveything is sectioned off while Augusta was one huge open space with high ceilings
• No assisted pull up machine
• More expensive. I had the deluxe membership in GA so I could bring a friend ($19), however their membership here is $18 biweekly so $36 a month. Not killer but I was expecting to pay $9 a month for their basic membership

So on Friday I went to the gym to do my HIIT strength training session. I had been seeing signs all over the gym about the Fit Test. Basically you take the test to see how fit you are and where you stack up vs others. And I gotta admit, I was really curious to see how I would do. So I did my 5 minute warm up run and instead of doing my workout I spontaneously decided to ask if I could do the fit test. I walked on the treadmill for 10 minutes while I waited for their trainer to finish with his client. He came over and got me so we could get to work.

As many reps as possible in 1 minute

• Squats - The trainer seemed pleasantly surprised at my ability to squat. Not sure what he's used to seeing but he seemed impressed and said my form was good. 45 in 1 minute.
• Push Ups- This is where I think I blew him away. A goal of mine is to get good at push ups so I've been working really hard on them. Last time I did them I maxed out at 20 (but then did 2 more sets). Today I did 30. 
• Sit Ups - I never do these, in fact I can't remember the last time I did them. I do other things to work my abs and core. A bit out of practice but I managed to get 43 reps.
• Bent Arm Hang - This was hanging from the pull up bar with a wide grip and arms bent at the elbow. Wide grip is something I rarely work on and it's the hardest grip. I got 31 seconds, looking back I think I could have held on just a little bit longer. If it was regular pull up grip I probably could have gotten close to a minute.
• Step Up Test - Step up onto a 12 inch box and step back down with both feet. This is a test of your cardiovascular health and it really sucks. I got 60 steps per foot so 120 total per minute.

I think I really surprised the trainer. He said I've done better than most of the other women who have taken the test so he put me on the leader board. Wasn't expecting that at all. Evidently I'm one of the fittest chicks at this gym. Of course this is out of those who have taken the test but apparently alot of people have taken it. I would think if you really care about being in good shape you'd be curious to see where you're at, right?

I'm at the bottom... Second place in a few areas and even beat some of the boys at a few things. I guess I could work on sit ups and squatting faster. The gym manager who signed me up came over and said "...You did 30 push ups?" Heck yeah. 

This made me feel pretty awesome. Not long after the test ended I proceeded on to my workout, followed by a 20 minute incline walk on the treadmill. It made for a great gym session.

Yesterday's long run proved to be slightly faster than my previous runs - including the fact that I had to slow down for half of it because there was slush and ice on the trail. And today I'm resting up after a week of hard effort in the gym and on the trails. 

Lazy on the blog, hard in the gym

Whoops. I kinda stopped blogging for awhile.

I haven't been on here but I have been working very hard. 

About a month ago it occurred to me that while I have lost alot of fat since that fateful day in 2012 when I began my weight loss, it seems the fat loss has stalled and it's even been creeping back on in certain areas. I'll admit my focus in 2014 was not even on fat loss - it was on racing, running trails, and more recently lifting in the gym. But lately I've been feeling like I want to try and get rid of some of the last bastions of fat left on me. I want to LOOK like I do all the crazy shit I do. 

Medically I need this to happen too. I still struggle with PCOS, and as a result I am trying to manage my blood sugar and blood pressure. Having abdominal fat, an "apple" shape, whatever you wanna call it is not healthy. Therefore I need to minimize the pot belly that genetics has given me. 

The solution - I'm in a cutting phase. Started it 2 weeks ago, already seeing some results...

Start - 

173 lbs

26.8% body fat

Last monday (1 week in) - 

172 lbs

25.2% body fat

Goal? Maybe 165 lbs, but what I am really looking to hit is 23-22% body fat. Minimize my belly fat, also get rid of my arm/upper back fat that's hiding all my muscles. I have alot of muscle and I am looking to lose fat while trying to avoid muscle loss, or at least minimize it.

Here's what I am doing ...

Diet - around 1500 calories a day, back to using Lose It again for tracking purposes

• Aiming for 170g protein a day, however that is a HARD number to hit, so I'm just trying to get the most I can. 
• 40-50g of fat
• Carbs ... my nemesis... trying to keep them under 150g a day, it's freaking HARD!!! Y'all know I love my carbs, but I've been good about reducing my carb intake and resisting SWEETS! My main sources of carbs are oatmeal or fruit an hour before my workout, half of an english muffin with eggs and cheese, a Chobani yogurt (searching for something with less sugar), then the rest comes from veggies and fruits, with the occasional small serving of rice or pasta with my dinner
• Saturday I'll have a cheat lunch after my long run and a cheat dinner :)
• Supplements are simply BCAA and protein. If I'm about to have a crazy day at the gym I might pop some pre workout.

One of the benefits of this cut is that it will retrain me to eat healthier as a whole. I have really fallen far over the past year and was eating so much crap. 

Exercise

• 3 strength training sessions a week
• For the next 3 weeks I am focusing on HIIT/power strength sessions because I rarely train that way. They are 20 minutes, 5 heart pounding high intensity exercises back to back, then with a couple minutes of rest before repeating the circuit 2-3 more times. 
• After my strength training I am walking for 30 minutes - trail, treadmill, elliptical, or treadmill on an incline. Anything low intensity. This helps burn some extra fat
• Running 3 times a week. 2 runs are HIIT - all out sprint for 30 seconds, then walk/jog to recover for 2 minutes. Repeat this circuit for 20 minutes. HIIT is best for fat burning. Then my long run is Saturday which is currently 5 miles, looking to increase this to 8 or 10 over time to get ready for racing season

I have been so consistent for the past 2 weeks and it's been pretty easy to maintain. It's all about having a set routine that can easily become a habit, and of course having will power. 

I am going to start posting here consistently again. I missed having an outlet for all my fitness crap that my normal friends don't want to hear about. Right now it's time for me to go to my new doctor to get refills on my meds, and maybe talk some PCOS concerns with her. 

At Home Workouts

For the past week I have been trying to get back into my workout routine after more than a month off. It hasn't been easy. My muscles are sore from things that normally wouldn't phase them. While I am really wanting to get back into the gym and lift heavy, I have managed to create a few challenging workouts that I can do at home. 

I don't have any weights heavier than #25 at home so I have upped the difficulty by performing many of the exercises on my stability ball, or at least in a position that is unstable and requires me to recruit more muscles to stabilize myself. The result is a great workout that leaves me feeling like I did some good hard work.

#1

This was a good workout for my first day. I could have probably done more - heavier weights or an extra set.

10 reps of each, 4 sets

Goblet Squat #15

Pushups with shins on the stability ball

Skullcrushers on ball #10

Overhead presses on ball #10

Pullups, 3 or so per set

30 second plank

Burpees

#2

Holy crap. A leg and back breaker! 

10 reps of each, 4 sets

Single leg Romanian Deadlift #15 (had to downgrade to 10's by the fourth set)

Bicep curl on ball #15 (in a low sit, with lower back resting against the ball)

Rows from Plank #15

Ball Crunch

Push Ups with shins on stability ball

Front and Lateral Raises #10

Burpees

#3

A great all over workout. I'm having fun practicing snatches!

10 reps of each, 4 sets

Ball Bench Press #15

Ball Arm to Leg Pass (for the abs)

Dumbbell Snatch (practicing these) #15

Bicep curl on ball #15 (in a low sit, with lower back resting against the ball)

Goblet Squat #20

Ball Skullcrushers #15

Burpees

I am about to head out to my first day at the new job! Excited, nervous, hoping it is a smooth first day... !

Wow, that was fast!

So I've been in my new house for a couple weeks now. All moved in, our services are set up and house repairs are complete for the most part. That means - time to start job hunting!

This week I spent some time recreating my resume to fit my new profession. I figured since I don't have a job/obligation at the moment, and this is a profession based on putting yourself out there and trying to forge new relationships... why not just go around to some gyms and introduce myself? That's essentially what trainers do all day long - approach strangers, introduce themselves and try to sell their services.

Yesterday I went on my mission around noon. The targets were -

Lifetime Fitness - Very nice gym in my area that has TONS of services. It's a wellness destination really - all the gym amenities, 2 pools, spa, cafe, hair salon, and probably more stuff that I'm forgetting. They are not hiring until January, said they would call me.

Gold's - My second choice because I'm familiar with Golds, worked out there in Augusta and liked the fact that it was "down to business" - it's not flashy or gimmicky, just a good place to go work out. This Gold's was not as nice as Augusta's - smaller, treadmill and elliptical dominated with not much of a free weight area that I could see. Hell, half of the entry way was taken up by tshirt stands and other stuff they were selling, kind of a waste of space in a gym if you ask me. The manager seemed like he was ready to hire me, he said they needed trainers especially a female. He said to go and apply on the website and then he'd get me in for an interview (he was in the middle of a training session otherwise he said he would have done it on the spot) I left feeling pretty good about it.

Anytime Fitness - Found one near me so decided to give it a shot. It was in the lower level of a townhouse complex which was weird to me. Again not hiring until early next year after they complete an expansion. Manager seemed interested but asked if I had a "niche", so maybe he was looking for someone who isn't newly certified like me. Still, very nice and said he'd keep me on file.

At this point I was feeling pretty confident about Gold's being the one for me so I almost didn't even go to my fourth place because it was in another city, but I decided to go anyway just to have more possibilities on the table. The last gym was Fitness 19, a smaller-chain gym I was not really familiar with but I found it during my internet research and it seemed like a good place. Walked in and met the manager, and we instantly hit it off. We sat down at his desk for an "interview" but really we were just talking about stuff. He told me about the packages available to the members and how training works. Asked me a few things about myself and my resume but not anything technical. He said some of the staff would assist me with learning how to sell training. The hours are very flexible too. He invited me to the staff meeting next Saturday and said I could start Monday! I was pretty stunned, only an hour and a half and 4 gyms and here I am with a job? I'm excited, I think I've found the right place for me because everyone there seems like a big family. This was definitely a personality hire, the manager is super friendly and laid back. He said I have the right kind of energy and that is what is important to him.

So on Monday at 3 I'm going in to get started. He penciled me in to work split shifts for now (morning, go hom for a few hours then come back) so I could get an idea of how the gym functions during its peak times. I told him I prefer mornings but wouldn't be opposed to the idea of working evenings since that's prime time.

I'm nervous as this is a whole new type of job in a whole new field. What if I'm bad at it? What if I don't know enough? I keep telling myself that the staff seems supportive and I don't think they'll just throw me into the fire on the first day. They'll probably spend some time showing me how they do things. I shouldn't worry this much!

A new chapter begins for me. This is such an awesome opportunity, for the first time in my life I'll be doing a job that actually helps other people. No more sitting behind a desk helping some corporation make a buck. Yes, I'll be helping a corporation make a buck but in doing so I will be enriching and even transforming the lives of others. I'm really excited to see where this takes me.

Maryland - The Beginning

Well, here I am. Posting from my new home in Columbia Maryland. It hasn't quite been a month since we left our home in Georgia but so much has happened since then. Living in a hotel for 2 weeks while we furiously tried to find a house. It's hard up here. Lost out on 3 houses before we got this one. I'm happy we were able to secure a place after so many failures... and just in time for Thanksgiving, sure as hell didn't want to spend that in a hotel.

We ended up in a pretty nice house and it's in Columbia... So many running trails here! It's definitely not Georgia. But it's not bad, I expected it to be very metropolitan but it's really not. There are alot more large office buildings and huge townhome complexes than I'm used to. I am also not used to having so many amenities around me. Just 2 minutes from my house are 2 shopping centers with pretty much everything I could want (DICKS SPORTING GOODS.) and there's also a huge mall in a nearby city that just blew my mind. One of the biggest malls I've seen, Casino, Medieval Times, Dave and Buster's, a super tasty brewery/restaurant, plus an Egyptian themed movie theater that looks like something you'd see in Vegas. I'm not used to stuff like this, haha. One day I took a trip to Annapolis because my bank was located there - it's very much like my hometown (that's Williamsburg, VA) in the sense that everything is very colonial and historic, except it's on the water and it's way harder to drive there. Yet despite all the "stuff" there are enough areas "without stuff" to appeal to this nature loving girl's heart. My neighborhood is quiet with plenty of mature trees, plus the network of trails throughout Columbia! This is a huge reason why I wanted to live here. I have also heard tell of Patapsco Valley State Park - supposedly it has 170+ miles of hiking trails. Yeah buddy. Only problem is it doesn't open till 9am. Unacceptable, I am out there by at least 7am in the summer. Then again, that was in South Carolina. Praying it doesn't get that hot here.

I already went out to explore the neighborhood trails a couple days ago, for my first run in over a month! The time off has been noticeable. It was not fast or long - somewhere in the 2 mile ballpark, really the purpose of it was just to make a comeback and to explore the trails. There are alot of turn offs that lead into various neighborhoods. I think I found the long segment that will allow me to go for longer runs, so when I go back out tomorrow I will take that path and see where it leads. Running and obstacle racing have made me quite adventurous. These days I don't worry about which path to take, I just kind of say "hey, let's go this way and see what's over here!" and use my memory and sense of direction to find my way back. I do always have my phone just in case of the highly likely event I do end up getting lost. My pepper spray is coming with me at all times. I don't know this area, all I know is it ain't Grovetown Georgia because there are definitely some shady looking characters around these parts.

Today I used my new gym room for my first strength session in over a month.

My beloved weights on the right side... desk is for water/phone/towel/etc, laptop for videos, red chair is mainly for dips, pull up bar, box full of jump ropes, ab wheel, resistance bands, etc. and a balance board! There's also a stability ball not pictured.

I finally have a closet where I can put all my fitness crap! In my old house it was split between several rooms, but now I have all my foam rollers, scale, BMI/BF meter, gym bag, the Camelbacks, pillow, yoga mat/block!

Today was largely a stability strength workout. Best to challenge my neuromuscular system after all the time off instead of trying to lift hard

10 Goblet squats
10 Push ups with feet on the ball
10 Overhead presses on ball
10 Skullcrushers on ball
3 Pullups
30s Plank
10 Burpees

Repeat x4

I also have a sweet space to display all my medals!

There's a big curtain rod that spans the length of our game room, so I used part of it for medal display! The medal rack has some of my more "challenging" pieces

Then on the shelf I have all my foam toys from Spartan Race, Warrior Dash fuzzy helmet, plus all the headbands and other non-medal trinkets I've collected! I have been wanting to display all this for awhile so I'm really happy I was finally able to get this set up.


So that's about where things stand right now. Getting settled in and ready to begin the next crazy adventure..

Priority Shift

I'm afraid I won't be around for awhile because I have alot of stuff going on over the next several weeks

We're moving on Friday... yikes...

I have still not warmed up to the idea of this surprise move. I love Georgia. We made our home here under the idea that we'd be living here for quite a few years. So I guess mentally I had really begun to settle in. Also I'm not thrilled about the idea of Maryland. I've never lived in the north, and while it's only one state above my home state, I am just not keen on the idea. Traffic. Townhomes. People everywhere. Quite possibly rude people at that. No thanks, I need the country. Although, our realtor has managed to find us quite a few homes with nice outdoor spaces and shady trees, so the odds of us feeling "at home" are pretty good. Besides, my time as a military spouse taught me to find the positives in every new location. There will be positives in this one too.

New state AND a new career. It's gonna be crazy..

So as you can imagine I've been quite busy with preparing for the move. We have several home projects going on and need to get rid of the junk we don't want to bring with us. All while maintaining a semi clean home for showings to prospective tenants.

My bum left leg is also angry with me after the Spartan races. I have resolved to get it checked out by a doctor ASAP once I get my new insurance. My healthcare and job situations here made it kind of impossible to get it looked at so I was putting it off. But now it's gotten to the point where I need to figure out what's going on. Between this and the fact that we are moving next weekend and my husband wants to make a quick stop in our hometown to see family - I had to cancel my registration for Rock N' Roll Savannah. Grrrrr. I really wanted to run this. But thank god for purchasing the cancellation insurance so I can get a refund.

I guess I'm kind of taking a hiatus on running and the gym until we get to our new place. Once I get there I'm gonna get back to it ASAP because I don't want to lose too much fitness. But for the next couple weeks I have other things I need to focus on.

Oh, I do have a few official pics from Spartan..

Spartan Super - fire jump!

Spartan Super - Bucket carry

Super - Sandbag carry

Spartan Beast - Sandbag carry

I didn't have a bucket pic from the Beast and my fire jump picture was stupid looking. 

Anyway... guess that's all for right now. My next post will probably come from my new home....

I'm a Certified Personal Trainer!

As if I didn't already have enough going on in my life... today I took my NASM Certified Personal Trainer exam...

I passed!


Holy hell. The 2 minutes it took for the test administrator to go in the other room and get my results were excruciating. Then he came out and when he said "Congratulations" I almost collapsed in relief.

It's a hard exam. Especially for someone like me who has zero education in fitness and human movement science. I passed the practice exam a few weeks ago but not by much, so I was not totally confident in my ability to pass the real one. Today I was sitting there feeling confident on the first few questions, but the deeper I got into the exam the more I wasn't sure about. I took my time and went back through it once before submitting to double check and to readdress the tougher questions. By the end I was really sweating bullets, not sure if I had enough of the questions right to get a passing score. They don't tell you what your score was or what questions you get wrong, which irks me a bit because I am the type who wants to know what I got wrong so I can study it more. But hey, the important thing is I passed!

My only gripe is this - I purchased E Teach which is the 8 week online course where the instructors give you study guides, instructional videos on the chapter contents as well as demonstrations of all the exercises and stretches in an actual gym. There are discussion questions and quizzes too. All of this is based around the information that will be on the exam. Certain things that are in the book are omitted from E Teach, and as you go through it they say things like "You only need to know *blank* for the exam" Well, there were definitely some questions on there that were not covered in E Teach. I glanced over the material a bit during my reading but didn't devote much time to it because it wasn't covered in E Teach, and E Teach kept saying "This is all you need to know for the exam"  So - Study everything!!!
That being said - I would totally recommend E Teach for someone who is brand new to personal training. As I said I had zero experience in this field, or anything remotely related to it, so I can tell you right now there is no way I would have passed if I were just left to study the book on my own. The book is very dry and science-y. I appreciated the real instructors who explained everything in easy to understand terms. The book has pictures of all the exercises but seeing videos of them done in real time along with explanation of proper technique was so much more helpful for me. The discussion questions and quizzes kept me on point - I consistently got good grades so I knew I was headed in the right direction, versus studying all by myself and having no clue how well I am learning it all. The one thing I wish they would have added was maybe some practice on creating programs for clients.
I would say that someone who has a stronger background in this field may not need E Teach, but I sure as hell did.

Even with E Teach you still have to study your ass off. I devoted 1-2 hours every weeknight, sometimes an hour on Saturdays, and finished my assignments on Sunday.
Here are some study techniques that helped me

• They love their tables! For each area I struggled with I made copies of the tables in the book so I could have portable, easily accessible study material
• Memory techniques. Associate a key term with something that sounds like/reminds you of the words in the key term. For example..
• Abduction - To Abduct means you're taking something AWAY - Abduction is moving AWAY from the body
• Dorsiflexion - My husband is brilliant. He said "When you point your toes in the air, what does it look like? A Dorsal fin!"
• Plantarflexion - "Plant" your feet on the ground!
• Endomysium - it's the deepest layer of muscles - therefore it is the "End" of all the layers!
• Having someone quiz you. Practice assessments on them!
• When you're in the gym or even just going about your day, think about what is happening in your body during each movement.
• Flash cards
• Acting out various movements in front of a mirror (adduction, abduction, internal/external rotation, flexion, extension, etc) Quiz yourself - what muscles are shortening/lengthening when you perform each movement?
• Print out a chart of the muscles in the human body for easy reference
• For the acute variables I recognized similarities so I had to memorize less. They don't always change even when the type of training changes. 
• When in doubt, just think about which answer makes the most common sense.

I took the exam in Thomson, GA at the county airport. It's a small place but apparently they offer exam services ranging from personal training to post office. The test administrator said this is one of the hardest exams they offer and he doesn't see too many people pass. So I feel pretty damn awesome to have passed it!

I'm officially a Certified Personal Trainer. Wow. Now the challenge really begins - finding a job and diving headfirst into a brand new career!