My new personal trainer is new. I had to switch to her because of scheduling difficulties. And I mean she is new new. She is new to me and new to personal training. She was just recently certified. I convinced myself this was ok, after all, we all start somewhere. I had to be a student teacher and someone had to take a chance on me and hire me for my first job. The same is true here, right?

It does seem like I am always someone's guinea pig though. Once I was in urgent care for a terrible migraine headache. I had a resident, I am assuming similar to an intern in the medical profession. I needed a shot in the rump. I had already thrown up, I was crying from the pain in my head. And here was a twenty-something student, nervous to even talk to me. After she stuttered around for a few minutes she got to the point. I needed to pull my pants down for the shot. I knew this was coming and I was prepared. I was not prepared for what came next. Her advisor or manager was watching her every move, I wasn't worried about that. I was worried about her self-talk that I wish she would have kept in her head. "Ok, I'm nearing the upper left quadrant." Um, what? Ok, I'm not a small kid by any means, but my rear end isn't big enough to be described in quadrants. What was she trying to do, land the space shuttle? I squirmed on the table. "Ma'am you're going to have to relax your butt muscle." Really? My butt muscle? I tried to relax my fanny but it was hard with this woman calling plays like a high school quarterback. The shot finally came and I was thankful the whole experience was over. I wished her well on her educational journey and went home, swearing I would never have a beginner do anything with me again.

Back to my new trainer. She thumbed through my workout journal and I felt cocky. I had been regularly riding my bike, averaging 6 miles or so on weeknights, 10 miles or so on the weekends. I was also going to the gym regularly. I felt pretty good about this. However, I would soon come to understand what the phrase, "rude awakening," meant. Let's start by saying, it was evidently leg day. We started with the leg press and it went downhill from there, even if I didn't realize it at the time. Next came lunges, then sumo squats, and step-ups. I should have realized there was a problem when my legs were shaking as I walked to the parking lot. My brain had turned off long ago and I searched several minutes for my car.

They say the day after the day after is the worst day of soreness from a workout. This is absolutely true. As I type this, muscles in my legs and rear end are screaming, and I am seated in a desk chair. It takes me 5 times longer to walk up stairs. The inside and the outside of my legs ache, not to mention every inch of every quadrant of my behind.

Tonight I see my trainer again. I haven't decided if I should tell her to take it easy on me or to pretend there's nothing wrong. I think the former. I'm not as spry and athletic as I once was, that's for sure. But I am better than I was two months ago. I guess I will use the handicapped toilet with the handles to hold onto while my body adjusts to my new trainer. And that's ok. I haven't given up. Progress is slow, but it's progress and along the way, I am giving someone experience, it's a win-win. I will wear my soreness as a badge of honor and walk slowly but steadily up the stairs. I guess it's a lot like life....sometimes we're sore, sad, or upset, and we slow down. But we have to keep going forward -- upper quadrant and all.