Confession time: I haven’t been hitting the gym anywhere near as often as I should and want! The fire department has had almost my full attention from dawn to dusk. Trying to get up before the dawn to get to the gym did not go well. Most definitely not a morning person!
However. Even when I was in the gym 6 days a week, 10 hours a day, getting in at least an hour workout in those 10 hours, there was one concern constantly in the back of my head:
What if I can’t do the movement I want my clients to do?
I’ve trained giants (they towered over me) and power lifters who were already stronger than me but wanted help with their form and/or programming. I’m not worried about people being stronger than me, but I am concerned with not being able to do a certain movement or lift at all – especially if it’s one that I used to do!
For example, this morning, and I will be bragging on my client for a bit, I put a young lady through one of my personal workouts. When I have a large tire – tractor tire – available, I automatically switch to this workout: descending ladder of tire flips; burpees; and Russian KB swings. I tweaked the numbers for this young lady’s level. She crushed it! I was so proud! It is a solid full-body workout that you feel no matter how frequently you do it so long as you are challenging yourself and upping the reps or weight appropriately.
She initially struggled with the tire flips, specifically with being able to get enough of a hold to lift. Kept trying to use one leg to get it up higher for a grip to push it away from her. I corrected her, putting an end to using that leg after the initial lift, but that concern started creeping it’s way forward in my mind.
When she finished one of her sets and started for her burpees, the tire needed moved back into the middle of the area, so I decided to try a flip, just to make sure it’s the weight I thought it was. Of course.
I did find that it was a struggle to get my whole hand under the edge for full grip, but was quite pleased that, using just the top 2 knuckles of a my fingers for the hold, I was able to lift up with enough power to completely flip the tire without pausing to switch my hands into a press (push) position.
While encouraging and getting her through the rest of her workout, I mentally laughed at and lectured myself for once again over-thinking!
Spotlight Item:
I’ve shared this item before, before I started doing spotlights, but I’m going to share it again because of how much I love and use this!!!
CAP has quickly become one of my favorite brands for fitness equipment. It started back when I got my very first Kettlebell, this one, in fact!
You can do so many exercises with kettlebells! I have actually packed them to take with me when house-sitting. One is almost always in my truck. They’ve come with me for work-outs in parks, in the fire station, and at gyms that don’t have kettlebells for member use.
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