Let's Get Down To Fitness

Commit, Get Fit and Get Rid of All of It

by Annemarie Davin

Winter is right around the corner and it's a great time to do something good for our bodies and our health. I started an exercise program in September at Gurney's Ship Shape Fitness Center. I signed up with a personal trainer and it's really paying off. My health is the number one reason I did this and of course the other benefit is looking good. Candice Monte, the Fitness Director at Gurney's Inn, did an initial evaluation on me and to no surprise, there was plenty of work ahead for me to do. I have been training with my personal trainer, Bob, and he's been keeping me on track. We usually do a warm up and stretching exercises and then concentrate most of the work out with the weight machines.

When I first started out on the weight machines I would do two circuits of 12 reps per exercise and the weights were on the first or second bars. Recently I have increased to the third bars on the machines but do 8 reps per exercise. I also started out doing 12 crunches per circuit (2 circuits total) and now I am up to 30 crunches per circuit and have added on an exercise for my lower abs where I do 20 of those per circuit for 2 circuits. I also switch between free weights and machine weights just to mix it up and keep my muscles from getting into a stagnant routine.

My trainer Bob tells me I have good form when doing my exercises and this is so important when you're trying to work out the individual muscles. I have seen people do it the wrong way where they aren't working out the muscle that they're intending to work out. That's a waste of time and energy. This is one of the top reasons I think you should start out with a personal trainer. They are with you every step of the way and will correct you when you're doing something wrong and also they motivate you even on days you don't feel like working out.

Every week I would see about three other people in the gym at any given time and now I see three times as many people. This makes me think that since it's cold outside, they're coming inside and are doing something active and that's a good thing. Getting started into a routine can be tough because you've tried it so many times before just to get discouraged and eventually stop all together. I was the same way. This time around is different because I finally got so sick of looking at myself in the mirror, feeling tired all the time and not wanting to do much of anything. I'm not sure exactly what it was but one day I just snapped out of it and decided this was not going to continue. I needed to get my health on par and I had to do it the right way. A personal trainer was exactly what I needed. I was making a commitment to myself and my body that was not short term but rather a lifetime commitment.

Forget whatever you knew before. Start with a personal trainer even if it's only in the beginning but take the first step and get to the gym. Even on those days that you don't feel like dragging yourself to the gym, just picture what you'll look and feel like at the end result. Then tell your body that you control it, it doesn't control you. The next thing you know, you're in your car and on your way to your work out. Commit, get fit and get rid of all of it!

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