T and Me
I started joint Personal Training (PT) sessions with my girlfriend, Teresa, partly because I wanted to support her and I do enjoy doing activities with her.
We cycle together, we go to classes together and now we even run together via Great Run Local.
It made sense to train together. Especially with our trip to Australia only 11 weeks away (eek). Plus, I enjoy any opportunity to train.
I do my own PT with the brilliant Scott Devenney PT and have great fun crawling around, hanging about and playing with bars and sticks (this is great fun and tough). If you want to improve your movement and feel stronger mentally and physically (and feel like a kid again), I really can’t recommend Scott enough.
My sessions with Teresa are with Christine Docherty and they are different. I absolutely love her Kettlecise class (and Zumba, but don’t tell anyone) and when Teresa said she was doing personal training I didn’t have to be convinced to sign up.
With her, we play with Battle Ropes and Kettlebells. We spar with boxing gloves (Teresa enjoys this, just a little too much), we sprint (oh, the sprints) and we squat.
Whether it is Zumba, Metafit or Kettlecise, it has become clear that Christine likes squats.
She combines these lethally with stair sprints and stair jumps.
Jump
And it is fantastic. Not just because I’m with Teresa, but because Christine, like Scott, provides a great variety of exercises and knows both our weaknesses and our strengths.
We train in a park and watched classes of people simply sprinting up a hill. Again and again. Yes, it may be effective, but how quickly would you tire (no pun intended) of that?
Having both Scott and Christine encourage and challenge us (especially about our food diaries) is complementing and enhancing what we do throughout the week. It is making us feel fitter and stronger.
And this is the point of my ramblings. I often advocate that we should find and do activities we enjoy. This is still true, but we should also fill our days with a variety of activities.
Personalise how you exercise.
Try not to focus all your efforts on one activity. Be, as I ALWAYS suggest, a Try-Athlete. If possible find others to train with and with whom you can be accountable to.
Blend your approach to exercise and you will have a smoother journey to fitness.
Think not just about classes or running but think about all the little changes you can make to your day. From using stairs more (you don’t have to jump them four at a time) to gardening and investing in a good personal trainer (they DO make a difference), everything you do should make you feel healthier and happier. Do any of us really need more than this?
The Activity Pyramid
