My theme for this journal entry on my journey to better health is, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” That’s not easy to do because, as human beings, all of us have opinions. I’m guilty of it, myself.
I recently recommended two friends check out Force Barbell and both freely admit they would have never stepped into the facility without my recommendation. I either accompanied or met them at Force Barbell. If they never came in, they would have missed out of some of the best trainers who tailor exercise to their particular needs. As Brad Collins, one of the staff at Force Barbell would say, “You bring the motivation, I’ll produce the results.”
I see improvements in how I walk and move every week. And the exercises the team has me do are completely different from walking on a treadmill or an elliptical. Right now, I’m into my second 8-week program. The bar has been raised, figuratively speaking, and I’m using muscles I haven’t used in years. Who would think that reaching out and holding the ends of a long, white pole, bringing it from chest height over my shoulders to waist high around my back would be so challenging. When one of the trainers demonstrated it, the movement looked easy… that is, until I tried it. That’s because I’ve been known to sit at a computer hunched over for years. My shoulder muscles don’t know that my arms are supposed to move forward and backward in a fluid motion.
And, I’m learning to side step while pulling a 40 lb. weight and keeping my knees bent. This motion keeps my hips moving fluidly, but introducing this motion to hip joints that are accustomed to walking forward and backward is not the most comfortable feeling while engaging in the exercise.
I’m happy to say that I’m feeling lighter and moving more gracefully, while seeing my curves whittle down a tad. Another change is that I’m eating three meals day, instead of one big one.
The heat and humidity of summer made exercising more challenging, but my week would not feel complete without coming in on Mondays and Fridays to work with one of Tyler’s staff. Thank you, Tyler and Force Barbell.