Foam Rolling

After a quick jog on the treadmill to warm up, I told my personal trainer I was feeling stiff from running 6 kilometres the day before, so she had me start by rolling out my muscles with the foam roller. She actually gave me a bunch of different techniques for foam rolling that I have never tried before. Remember that “good” kind of pain from my first workout session? That’s what foam rolling is all about.

Then we got into the exercises

She started me off with some light-weight dumbbell walking lunges. I travelled across the gym in a square formation. Then she had me do hip thrusts, first with both feet on the ground, then one-legged hip thrusts. One legged ones were tough, because I had to keep my leg in the air in-line with my knee, and my hips constantly at the same height. If you have a weak lower back, like I do, this is a very tough exercise.

After that, we did what she called a Dead bug. I held a swiss ball between my knees and my hands while lying on my back, and slowly lowered and stretched out the opposite knee and arm, while keeping my back flat to the ground. It was great for engaging my core, especially the part about keeping your back flat on the mat, as the natural thing to do is arch your back, to make it easier. The last exercise in this set was what’s called a Superman stretch. Lying on my stomach, I had my arms and legs stretched out, with my chest and quads lifted off the mat. I had to focus on keeping my arms in-line with my ears, and held that for 30 seconds, then fluttered my arms and legs for another 30 seconds. That is one long minute, I tell ya! As usual, we ran through the set three times.

The next round of exercises started off with straight legged dead lifts using a light-weight bar. I was nervous about these, because I thought it would be hard on my back. Since I was using such a light bar, I didn’t have any troubles. After that, sumo squats with a light kettlebell. I had no trouble with this exercise, and my form was great, so in the next set, she bumped up the weight of the kettlebell. The next exercise I did is probably the reason I have felt sore for days: one-legged lunges, with my other foot on the bench. Three sets of twelve reps on each side. To top it all off, we finished with some cardio, doing a skating stride movement, on a low box for one minute. This was a really tough group of exercises for me, but this workout has reminded me of what it’s like to be sore from a good hard workout session. I’m starting to feel more energized from these workouts!

Assisted Stretching

To complete the workout, Mary did some assisted stretches with me to try to loosen up my muscles and increase my flexibility–particularly in my hamstrings, since they are always tight from all of my running.

After the workout, my trainer sent me some of the exercises to do in my Trainerize app, so I can feel comfortable hitting the gym on my own, but can still follow my workout regime.

Hold tight for next week’s diary entry!