My adventure for a personal trainer

My life since school has let out has consisted of one thing:
being healthier - for real this time.

I've tried many different things to try to get myself in tip-top shape and I just always seem to plateau around the 165 lbs mark. So I've decided to hire a personal trainer. My search started just after school went out. Here's how it went:

First, I hit up Divine Health, here in St. Albert. Overall, I was impressed with the location - situated in Riel Business part, an old paper company transformed into a yoga studio, massage therapy centre and personal training facility all in one. Oddly enough the one woman sitting in on my consult was familiar - a fellow st albert centre employee I had seen around quite a bit. They did my assessment (including weight, measurements, and body fat percentage) after our discussion about my limitations (mainly my knee) they got me to do steps to test my cardio endurance - something I ended up not being impressed by. After one minute or 56 steps my knee had enough. Upon reflection I realized that a trainer shouldn't have asked me to do that particular exercise given my limitations - maybe something else would have been more suited to test my cardio. At the end - prices came up. A WHOPPING $85 a session with the purchased of a package of 12 session ($90 otherwise) when I got home and crunched the numbers there was just NO way I could afford this. Brock strongly encouraged me to look for others - and wanted 3 quotes before I took anything seriously.

Kijiji was my second step - I found 3 people on there that I emailed. We'll start with the first

DNH fitness - Deena: one word: CHEAP. $150 a month, for a weekly session - all out of her location and she provides all the equipment in Riverbend. Sounds too good to be true, right? Of course it is. She trains out of what seems to be a daycare in a small empty room (obviously empty because she wasn't training anyone that day). At this point I had learned that there is one critical sheet any personal trainer will get you to fill out: PAR-Q And You It just seemed silly that this woman had me fill out NO paper work at the consult or before I came to visit her. Did I mention the daycare?! She didn't have CanFitPro certification, which seems to be the biggest certification around here, but was working on her masters in sports medicine but didn't tell me what her undergrad studies were in. Also - no follow up after a few days - which has now been a week. KEEP AWAY!

We move onto Ashley, training out of FiTTBODZ on Argyle Road. I had looked at this location a few times by itself - not from someone training out of it though. Really, the name of the location really put me off - its just cheesy. But Ashley knows her stuff (plus I think shes gorgeous) with her CSEP-CPT (through NAIT, perfect) she seemed wonderful. She went to grab a book and I laughed - told her I have the SAME ONE from my university Anatomy class just with a different cover. She seemed very excited that I would share her interest in anatomy. Overall, I got great vibes from her and loved the facility. But what about prices, this is one of the most important parts of my search. I figure 16 sessions for $896 ain't too shabby - works out to $56 a session and will take installments - great!

BUT there is one more person: Jen from On the go fitness. GREAT concept: personal trainer that comes to you! She likes to take advantage of what I have at my house without having to go to the gym, using the outdoors to work out and possibly attending a gym session with you. Today before she showed up I realized our 700-someodd squarefoot condo isnt built to train in. We dont have appropriate doorways for a TRX trainer - and its not always going to be nice enough to train outside. And as I discovered - servus centre are complete jerks about bringing in outside trainers - apparently most facilities allow outside trainers to come in for free if theyre with a client who has a membership - not servus because they provide their own trainers.

At this point I'm digging Jen - great woman. I'm liking the concept but there's a problem: the cardio she does is high impact so we cant fit cardio into my routine because of my knee. But she told me she had GREAT ideas for me and seemed to be eager to get started. I asked her what she thinks is going to work for me - and she didn't really have an answer - she said I should be good with volleyball, football, yoga and the gym (but I'm not) she also mentioned that she used to working with people at the other end of the spectrum: people who arent already fit. Which got me to thinking: what CAN she do for me? She doesn't usually deal with people like me. Is she going to be able to offer me everything I need? I really felt like she wouldn't. And before seeing costs I wrote her off (unless she came at me with a great deal). Pricing worked out to be $750 for 13 sessions. ($150 for the first 3 as a spring deal, and then $600 for 10 sessions or $65 individually).

So I'm glad to say that I just wrote Ashley an email hoping to get started next week. What worked for her: pricing. BUT her education was a HUGE deciding factor as well. Even if Jen had come in at the same price range - I'd probably STILL go with Ashley just because of her enthusiasm to teach me. I think it'll work out great and I cant wait to get started.

Here are the goals:
1. Lose 15-20 lbs: I want to sit around 150 lbs which is probably ideal for my height. With this comes the obvious decrease in my body fat percentage: between two assessments I'm between 23-26% body fat (better than I was anticipating.)
2. CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE: for both long runs but also for short sprints
3. Increase muscle mass, specifically in my upper body.

Today's assessment had me do a wall sit for 1 minute (easy peasy, c'mon I do ball squats like its no bodies business), 8 pushups (REAL PUSHUPS, suck it swoo) and I held a plank for a whole minute. OBVIOUSLY my lower body and core are sitting pretty good right now.
Here's hoping! The next 16 weeks are going to kick my ass.