I cried tonight

When I had to say goodbye to my personal trainer tonight I actually started to cry. It was our last session together. Since the end of August we've been workout buddies. She taught me how to use every piece of equipment in the gym. She taught me the correct way to do lunges and use free weights and how to do a cardio blast on the treadmill and how to do chest presses and dead lifts with the big boys' barbell. She taught me an ab routine that brings tears to my eyes. I adore her. She's sweet, caring, funny, and I'm honored that she calls me her friend

I loved hearing the stories about her five children, ages 6 months to 10 years. I loved hearing about her husband, the contractor that builds houses, smokes cigars, drinks beer and swears like a...well, like a contractor. She's a tiny 5' 4", 120 pounds of muscle to his 6' 2" brawny 220 pounds. In spite of their different views on health, they're a perfect match.

She made me laugh so much that sometimes I'd be in tears, unable to complete an exercise as I was literally falling over laughing. Like the time she did the imitation of me running on the treadmill, with her arms flailing in the air. Apparently I run (or make that "use to run") like the Elaine character from Seinfeld dances. She made me cry in pain by pushing me harder than I'd ever push myself. 

She even made me angry sometimes. Like when she'd put my treadmill on 6.0 and after three minutes I'd try to move the speed down to a more reasonable 5.5 and she'd slap my hand away (she was on the treadmill next to me doing 6.0). Or the time I was doing a chest press with the big barbell and she pressed down on it as I was pressing up (she insisted she was trying to help me, but I know she was pushing down on it). Or when I was happily doing my reps of bicep curls with ease using 15-pound dumbbells, and she said it looked too easy for me and made me use the 20-pound dumbbells.

Hiring Debbi, also known as "Sargeant Pain" at the YMCA, was absolutely one of the best investments I've ever made in myself. Now when I walk into a gym, I feel like I own the place. I'm 100% comfortable there, I finally belong. I'm one of them now, one of the gym rats. I love it!

I would advise anyone thinking about hiring a personal trainer to stop thinking about it and do it. The trick is finding a personal trainer that you like, one you enjoy working out with and that takes a personal interest in you and your health. I knew Debbie from my Friday cardio variety class at the YMCA, where she teaches spinning, step aerobics, boot camp or whatever routine she comes up with every Friday. I knew she was good, enthusiastic, and I knew I liked her.

I had previously checked out the trainers at Bally Total Fitness, my other gym. None of their trainers seemed like someone I could work out with, or even stand to be around for a couple of hours a week. I'm sure some Bally's have perfectly good trainers, just not the two I go to.

As far as cost, the YMCA only charged $390 for a ten-session package. Compared to Bally's where it was over $1,000 for ten sessions (I live near Seattle). Most trainers will let you buy just one session. If you don't know the trainer, it would be a great idea to try them out for an hour before you're stuck with them for ten sessions.

Bally's was a really hard sale, to the point that they annoyed the hell out of me. They told me one session was a complete waste of time, three sessions wasn't much better, ten sessions sort of okay, but to really get in shape I should buy 20 sessions, or $2,100. Um, let me think about that for half a second...no.

Debbie has made a huge difference in my workouts and how I feel about the whole gym experience, and most importantly, how I feel about my body. I even stand differently now, I can hear her saying, "shoulders back and down, abs in". I can't even begin to tell you what a positive influence she's had on me.

The only problem is if you decide to hire a trainer and if they're really good at their job, just be prepared to cry when you have to say goodbye.

Exercise 10/30/2008:

40 minute cardio blast - jump rope/treadmill/stair climber

20 minute ab routine