I really didn’t think I was that difficult of a person. I’m content with minding my own business, giving a friendly “hello,” opening the door for someone, using my turn signal, eating without complaint at restaurants, reading The Hungry Caterpillar repeatedly, cleaning up endless amounts of crumbs and stickiness, laundry, meals etc. But when it comes to personal training, it’s a whole different story.
You might remember me writing about training with Tyler awhile back (Tug of War with a Trainer). Well, we have started training again on a more regular basis, and frankly, it’s not pretty. I guess you could call me a little stubborn . . just a little.
In one of our first sessions back, he made me do walking lunges with 25 lb. dumbbells. Again, not pretty. So the next session I was finishing my warm-up on the bike, and he says, “Ok, let’s start with walking lunges.”
“No.” It came from the deepest part of my psyche. No way, not those again!
“Walking lunges.”
“No, I’m not doing those again.”
“Yes, walking lunges.” And so my tug of war with Tyler began again.
This scene has played out many times since. Just last night he wanted me to run on the treadmill.
“I don’t run.”
“Run, 2 minutes.”
“I’m not a runner, seriously.”
“2 minutes.”
“I’d rather do hill climbs. No running.”
“Ok, hill climbs . . . running, ” and he cranked up the incline and speed. NOOOOOO!
I don’t seem to ever win at this tug of war. No matter how hard I try. I can be difficult and I can be stubborn, but Tyler is there to meet me with even more stubbornness. To me that’s the mark of a good trainer. He knows when to push me and when I really need to stop. He has my best interest at heart. He is not only helping me build strength and flexibility, but focus, confidence, endurance, and mabye even the ability to say “yes” someday. I see this happening at Miracles each time I am there. People are doing things they really don’t want to do, but they trust that their trainers know what is for their good (and I never see them protesting as much as this difficult redhead-something to work on for sure).
For the record, I did end up doing those walking lunges. If I would have just listened, I would have realized they weren’t as difficult as I thought-no dumbbells this time. I also did the “running” circuit 5 times (after being caught a couple of times lowering the incline and speed!). I am as sore as can be and didn’t sleep well last night, but I did it. Maybe this stubbornness can be turned into tenacity or endurance? Nah, that wouldn’t be as much fun. ; )
