Joy and pain

Five words you don’t want to hear your personal trainer say when you walk into the gym:

“I’ve been reading Jillian Michaels.”

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Jillian, the trainer from “The Biggest Loser” who pushes her contestants to their limits and beyond. She’s notoriously tough. And a little bit scary.

So last Wednesday when I went to my training appointment with Jessica and she told me that she’d been reading Jillian’s book, I was terrified. Jessica told me that my body had gotten used to our typical workouts and it was time to step things up.

She wasn’t kidding.

We’ve started doing circuit training. Basically I’ll do short bursts of cardio—a minute of jumping jacks or step-ups—followed by a strength exercise with weights. And then we intersperse abs among everything else. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I know that my body needs to be shaken up in order for my workouts to be effective. I know that it’s hard because it should be hard. But still, it didn’t stop me from actually getting a little teary yesterday. I guess because I’m used to my workouts, they haven’t seemed super challenging lately. So now that they are challenging again, it makes me feel like I’ve regressed, not progressed. Which, of course, is the opposite of why we’re stepping up these training sessions.

I’m excited to see how this new way of training will increase my stamina and strength levels. Hopefully I’ll start to see a real difference in the next month.

But for now, my first goal is to not cry while doing lunges. It’s a baby step.

P.S. To all of you who read the title of this post and immediately started singing the follow-up words, "sunshine and rain...," you are my people.