Yesterday, I probably had one of the hardest workouts I have ever done. I worked out with A.T., a personal trainer. He is a really cool guy and definitely kicks your butt – but for a while I thought I was in hell. For a while I also thought that he felt like being in hell, because he got really annoyed about my bad performance….But let’s start from the beginning.
We started to work out at the stairs near the Fort Mason Center, it was only our second session. Next to the stairs is a steep sand hill and with a wall at the top of the hill, so it’s a great workout location. We walked up the stairs carrying 2x 15 lbs kettle balls and started with some kettle ball swings. We ran down and sprinted up the hill in the sand. Followed by more kettle ball exercises. Ran down, sprinted up in the sand again. Did 10 wall jumps. Ran the hill again. More kettle ball exercises, more wall jumps, more hill sprinting. I am not exaggerating when I say my legs were burning like fire, it was painful and jumping up the wall gave me the rest…I was breathing really heavy (oh well, not a surprise, right?) and he kept saying “Shut your mouth!” and “Your panting like a dog, shut your mouth!”. I didn’t even have the air to argue but I REALLY NEEDED TO BREATH through my mouth, my heart rate was up to 200… A. got really mad at me but I got really mad at him because I needed to breath or otherwise I would have collapsed; but he thought I am “breathing the wrong way” and that I was panting... people passing us listening our dispute gave me this pitiful look shaking their heads (like “girl, why the hell are you doing this…?”). When we ran up the sand hill another time I tripped and fell. He said “Stop touching the ground” (hey, I was falling on the floor, I didn’t touch it on purpose!) and as I was wiping off the dirt he said “and stop touching yourself! Shut your mouth, you are panting again.” Jesus Christ! And the one that was the hardest to take was “You are not a trainer, aren’t you?” Great. No I am not, but I am working so hard to reach my goals. That was a slap in my face. But guess what, I am not giving up because I know that I have it in me! I need some time but I will make my dreams come true. I thought he might jump in his car and take off, he was clearly annoyed (not to mention that I messed up almost all kettle ball exercises… I guess I was more focused on my breathing and on "not touching anything" rather than on holding a perfect squat with a straight back…).
We worked out at the Marina pull up bars afterwards. He showed me an exercise that I couldn’t do – I don’t have the strength to do it (it was something similar to an upstart on a horizontal bar). He made me try 30 times before he allowed me to stop… As he got mad again, I said “Look, I am trying, do you see this??? I am trying! But chances are, after trying 20 times, it probably won’t happen because my muscles are getting weaker with every single attempt!” and he answered: “Look around – everybody is trying, everybody! Stop trying and start DOING it! JUST DO IT!” *Sigh* (later he admitted that he stole that slogan from Nike...I suspected that anyway...). We did push ups, crunches and exercises for the legs, it was the most serious and crazy workout I have ever done. At some point he wanted a "Yes or No answer" from me but I needed to say more than "Yes". As he wouldn't let say more than "yes" I started to get really frustrated so I started yelling "Can I actually say something PLEASE???". He started laughing and said "Is that how people communicate in Germany?" Haha. Sure, we are usually yelling (just like in WWII movies...).
When you read this post it is probably hard to believe that I tolerated all the insults and actually paid for it, too. I wouldn’t say it was exactly fun but I definitely felt great afterwards. I felt (and still feel) every muscle of my legs, my backand my arms. And I truly believe that he can push me to the next level. After the workout, I told him that I don’t want to feel like I am constantly failing and annoying him because that doesn’t feel too great. He said that he is not my friend, he doesn’t like email, facebook or all that kind of stuff, his job is not to be nice,we won't go for coffee, his job is to kick my butt and bring me in good shape. His mission is “to transform me in a Munich beast”… hahaha, that sounds a little dangerous! We left on good terms but I definitely have to get used to his work ethics – I don’t think I had someone talking to me like that before but I also think that this was one of the hardest and most efficient workouts I have ever done! It sounds a little sick but I am already looking forward to our next session on Tuesday!
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