Train for Fun

As you may know, my knee's been bugging me again, and as much as I hate to admit it, I know that running a bit less and strengthening my "core" will help me avoid this little overuse problem I deal with over and over again.

Because apparently, I just need to calm down and admit that I'm not built like a runner, and not everyone has to run a marathon and I should just enjoy exercising as a hobby.

As if. The idea of running 26 miles in.a.row. makes me throw up in my mouth a little. Just sayin'.

So anyway, I'm doing a little trade with my friend Luann Abrams, a personal trainer who just started her new blog: Training for Fun. She swore to me that I could get a good workout with her, that I'd see some real results in a few weeks, and that it would be fun.

It was like a dare, really, so I had to say yes.

So this morning I went to her lovely training studio, which is in a room in her lovely house, featuring cheerful lemon yellow walls, a few hand weights, a treadmill, a yoga mat and some big rubber balls. I saw a Kettlebell in the closet and I almost had an anxiety attack, but thank goodness, she didn't make me use it. She probably will next time, now that I said that.

Dang it.

She did make me use one of those Bosu Balance ball trainer thingys, which is like a big rubber ball cut in half that you have to balance on. She's demonstrating how to use it in this picture. I tried it, and my legs shook like Jello and I almost fell over. That thing is evil. Just sayin'. More on that later.

So we did our first workout. And it was actually fun. And I'm not just saying that.

The thing about Luann is, she's funny and cheerful and all positive and stuff, but she's also smart. In fact, she's so smart that she was actually an aeronautical engineer for a long time before she took some time off to have her little boy, who's a toddler now.

This means she knows about physics and things, which makes it very difficult for me to cheat on exercises. Trust me on this. She'll say stuff, when you're on your side, balancing on your elbow like, "Okay, now raise your arm up like this," and then I'll say "But, that's impossible!" and she'll say, "No, actually, it's not." And you can't really argue with her, because she's right.

Sheesh.

I have to admit I went in to the session thinking it would probably be fun but, you know...light. As in, I'll do a few sit ups and stuff but I should go running afterwards. Turns out it was a full body workout, despite the lack of obvious jumping jacks or running in place, or those other obvious cardio things I've been known to dread at bootcamp type workouts.

Luann's all into "functional fitness" which means you do cardio while you're working on muscles. Translation? I was sweaty and tired at the end. But I laughed a lot.

And it was fun. I'm not kidding. And now I have to go back on Tuesday. Which is a good thing. Because I like Luann. But I'm going to pretend I'm allergic to the Kettlebell.