Last night I established a new personal record of 100 push ups during our workout. It was significant because when you started our (Terry and my) training in August 2015, I couldn’t do a single push up. You identified my numerous weaknesses and developed a training program to gradually strengthen my weak and strong muscle groups.
You never asked me to do anything I couldn’t do, but you always asked me to do more than I thought I could do. So training became a matter of trust. You know what you are doing; I don’t know what I’m doing; but I just have to follow your instructions.
You could write the workouts on the board. That would have told me what exercises to do, but not how (the proper form) to do them, nor would I be able to correct my own form (or shut myself down if my form was incorrect). It took a lot of time and incremental practice for me to slowly put the pieces together.
I have “eureka” moments every week, which is a credit to your patience and training. I can do the exercises, but good (and safe) exercise form is counter- intuitive to me until I can do them correctly, and then I see the ‘method to the madness’.
Without a firm, knowledgeable, and patient trainer to teach me and guide my strength development, I would have repeated my training mistakes which I developed before I started training with you. You saved me from myself.
When I trained myself for cycling, I couldn’t accurately evaluate my daily progress. I didn’t have any perspective. As a result, I either under-trained and got nowhere, or over-trained and ended up injured.
You have helped me with cycling injuries (left and right rotator cuff; lower back pain; IT band strain, and bad knees), but I’m proud to say I have had no injuries working with you. That’s a credit to your methodology. You know when to push, how hard to push, and when to back off. Your trainees are your top priority.
So, thanks! You turned my life and my health around, and you have been a great friend.