My trainer hearts me!

So, last week started the new camp time of 7am with my new favorite trainer. In fact, I got TWO of my favorite trainers because the camp got so huge. Am I a lucky girl, or what!?

The first week, I'm rocking out with the noobs and perfecting my technique. I missed some of this being in the evening camp, so I was super happy to learn a few things. First day at camp was the 60 second assessment. Pushups, squats and sit-ups. I freakin' hate sit-ups. I can do them, but my core is still weak and I hate how low of a number I get on those. I managed to do okay and get some decent numbers. I'll post them at the end of this camp, so we can measure my success together! (Yeah, that totally sounded like a PBS special. Sorry.) I was happy to tell everyone that would listen that I was a returning camper and how much I loved it. I'm pretty sure they all thought I was crazy, but they saw what I meant the second day.

And that's where the awesome came in! That awesome would be me! We went over some more basics like kettle bell swings, squat high pulls, wall balls and slam balls. And the dreaded body rows. Those are the hardest damn things to do right. It's like a pull up, but you'll lying down and you pull your body up to be parallel with the bar. It's hard, it hurts my hands but I can rep 'em out if I do them in small increments. So, we start off with some weighted bar work. Nothing fancy, but I did get the heavier bar to work with. The thing felt like a feather in my hands. After all the non-progress from last camp, that was the LAST thing I expected. This is turning out to be better than I thought!

Onto the kettle bells. Okay, I have a confession to make to you. I. Love. Kettle Bells. Love love love them. I don't know why. Maybe because I love how they make me feel afterward. They are cardio just as much as they are weight training. I love that efficiency. I really do. We're doing swings and I ask trainer S what weight I should try. She cocks her head and points to one. It's a 25 pounder. Alright. I'm game. Let's go. I pick it up and start to swinging. Oh. My. God. THIS is how kettle bell swings are supposed to feel. This is great! I can feel my core. I can feel my lower back engage. And I'm not knocking myself over or hitting myself in the hoohah. (Not a fun experience, not fun at all.) Let's try the 25 lbs one for the squat high pulls too. Even THAT feels great. I'm really starting to like this morning camp. I already feel challenged, but in a good way.

We move onto the medicine balls and S shows us the slam balls and wall balls. All easy stuff. I move up a little on the weight from the little 5s to the 12 and 15 lbs. It feels pretty good and I'm throwing higher than ever on the wall balls with the 12 lbs.

Now it's time for the body rows. My other favorite trainer, J is running that exercise and tells me to hop on in there. Then he instructs all the newbies to watch me.

*gulp*

Really, J? ALL of them? I get under there and I get all positioned. "Alright, rep 'em out!" And off I go! I dig my heels in, get my hands positioned and lo and behold I got my chest all the way up to that bar. All. The. Way. Never done that before in my life. I repped out five of them super fast and I hear all the newbies around  me. They're actually going "oooh" and "ahhh". I stopped and sat up and told them, "If my fat ass can do it, so can all of you."

You know what happened next? Get this. They clapped. They freakin' clapped. I'm pretty sure I've never been clapped at in my life. That went down in the history books, folks. It really did. Later, I went up and thanked J for letting me look like a rock star. He told me, he didn't make me look like I rock star. I did it all on my own.

And that people, is why I'm in love with my 7am boot camp. This week all bets are off as the harder workouts come into play. I'm ready to go, but I'm going to try to focus more on my form and less on "finishing". I'm going to set a goal each workout and if I meet it, great. If not, then I know what to shoot for next time.