I have been going to the gym and riding once a week for about four months now. For the past two weeks, I’ve been going to the gym five days a week, sometimes after work at around 4:30pm (I finish work at 4pm and work about two minutes away), but more often at 6:30am or 7am before work.
At the gym, I’m doing a variety of cardio and weights, but mainly it’s cardio (interval training).
Most of my sessions are with my personal trainer, Josh. I’ve had a few people ask me how much I pay, and then they’ll say “Why are you paying him that much?! Pay me and I’ll train you!”
I pay for the sessions because at the beginning of this whole regime, I was the most unfit person on the planet and needed someone who knew how to push me to get me to a level of fitness I needed for the cycle through Vietnam. I think that by now, I can probably train without Josh and survive Vietnam, but he does make a difference. I work harder with him, I sweat more with him, and I definitely have more fun with him.
I continue to pay Josh now less for his knowledge and expertise but more for his motivation and company. He is the one who continues to push me to that extra level, that extra weight, and for those extra five minutes. I am now using the cross trainer and bike at higher levels than I did at the start, lifting heavier weights, and holding the plank position for (slightly) longer amounts of time.
Personal training isn’t for everyone, and not everyone needs a personal trainer. But I know that for me, it’s Josh that makes me enjoy the gym and exercise as much as I do. I think that if I didn’t have someone I tell everything to, someone to joke with, someone to have stupid hypothetical-question conversations with, and someone to train me at 7 in the morning, I might have stopped this exercise business about three months ago.
