The 3rd and final PT session

So last Thursday I had my final PT session with Active Newport. I was pretty excited to be training with Sherrie, partly because I know her already and she is so lovely. And partly because I have seen her in a kettle bell class and that girl is a machine! If I could be half as fit and look half as great as her I would be happy!

I turned up for the session at 6.30pm and hopped onto the treadmill to warm up. I walked for a few minutes while we chatted and then jogged for the last couple of minutes. Although I had already been set up with a gym plan from Kris, Sherrie wanted to try a different sort of workout today and had put together a circuit plan for me.

The plan consisted of 10 exercises:

• Wall Balls
• Kettle bell upright rows
• Kettle bell swings
• TRX Squats
• Lunge and twist with ViPR
• Punches
• Kettle bell alternate swings
• Kettle bell twists
• Vipr Flipping
• Step ups

Sherrie demonstrated each move for me and I had a little practice, then she explained we would be doing this circuit 3 times. The first time I had to do each move for a minute with 10 second rests in between. The second time I would do it for 45 seconds and the third time would be 30 seconds for each move. I liked this set up, get the long durations out of the way and have the 30 second ones to look forward to.

As Sherrie demonstrated the moves I started to get scared. I’m crap at lunges so doing them whilst holding a 6kg ViPR seemed pretty hard and the step up box was so high! I was worried I’d get vertigo!

We started off with the first round. Wall balls is basically throwing a medicine ball at a high up target and then squatting as you catch the ball. The hardest part of this move was trying to do it in one fluid movement, rather than catch then squat. Also, I’m am so ridiculously bad at throwing and catching I kept thinking I was going to drop the ball on my foot or throw it too hard and have it land on my head! Luckily neither of these things happened and I completed the minute without injury.

We moved onto kettle bell upright rows. These were so much harder than they looked. I had to hold the kettle bell and lift it up leading with my elbows and sticking them out. I swear I was getting out of breath while doing it which doesn’t usually happen to me doing kettle bell moves.

The kettle bell swings were fine until the last round where my hands were getting pretty sweaty and I had switched to a heavier kettle bell (I think from a 4kg to a 6kg?). I was convinced the kettle bell was going to go flying out of my hand and smash the mirror in front of me. (is it just me or is it the worst fear in the world in a kettle bell class that you are going to drop or let go of the kettle bell? When my hands get sweaty I always picture it flying out of my hands and taking out the poor sod stood in front of me!)

TRX squats were fab, new favourite exercise right here! The benefit of using the TRX to assist your squats is that you can get much lower than usual. The main benefit I noticed was during the last 30 seconds I could use the straps to literally drag myself up again. I would never have been able to do as many squats as I did without the help of the TRX.

Lunge & twist with ViPR was not actually as bad as I thought. I really struggle with my lunges, always feel a bit wobbly and can’t get very close to the ground. The ViPR didn’t really help with my wobbliness; in fact I thought I was going to fall over a few times. The last round of these I probably managed about 6, they were so hard!

Punches were fun and as before when I have done them, I found them such a stress reliever. They also really work your arms, I really need to track down a combat or kickboxing class I think and get rid of some of my stress/aggression.

Kettle bell alternate swings consisted of swinging the kettle bell up with one arm and switching hands at shoulder height. I am the most uncoordinated person in the world so sometimes even the simplest of moves like this can have me tangled in knots. Luckily I made it through all 3 moves without dropping the kettle bell (Yaay!).

Twists were my absolute favourite move. It consisted of standing still, holding a kettle bell and twisting from side to side. It felt like a nice break and got my heart rate back down after some of the harder moves. I might invest in a kettle bell and do this move every night for half hour in front of Corrie as I felt like I could do this for ages!

ViPR flipping. Another coordinated move. I had to lower the ViPR to the floor on one side and then bring it back up and flip it down to the other side, left to right. This actually wasn’t as bad as I thought, although the last round my legs felt so heavy it was a struggle to get down to the floor.

The step ups were good though putting them at the end was mean. The first round they seemed quite easy, challenging but not too strenuous. By the last 30 seconds my feet felt like they were glued to the floor and it was a massive effort to get up on that box.

The first round of these was good. The minutes seemed to pass by quickly and although I was grateful for the 10 second rests in between, I don’t think I struggled too much. By the end of the second set I was sweating. I wasn’t sure I could do the third, but, as Sherrie pointed out, the whole circuit would only take 5 mins now the times had dropped to 30 seconds. When she put it like that I thought it was silly to not do it, 5 minutes is nothing right? That was the longest 5 minutes of my life! When I finished the round I collapsed into a sweating heap onto the step up box and finished my water, wondering at what point Sherrie would see fit to call the ambulance for me.  We chatted for a few minutes as I caught my breath and she said how well I had done. Praise from people is great, always makes you feel good. Praise from a personal trainer is like the biggest compliment ever, when they say you’ve done well you really believe it, and I did feel really proud of myself for completing the 3 circuits.

I thoroughly enjoyed training with Sherrie and am so sad that was my final PT session. If I do become a member of Active Newport I will definitely be booking up a few more sessions every now and again for a bit of motivation, inspiration and a damn good workout!

Do you ever do circuits like this? What are your favourite exercises? Would love to hear from you in the comments!

Tasha xxx