Working with "Shy"

Tomorrow will be my 6th session with Shy, and I LOVE it. In the last 3 weeks or so I have learned so much about myself, and what I am capable of.

The routine that Shy set up for me is a series of 4 workouts that we rotate through. Each one is centered around a major lift--bench press, deadlift, military press (overhead press), or squat--and has 4-6 accessory exercises to go with it. It takes about an hour, maybe a little longer to go through it. If we get through it quick enough on the days we train together, he'll think of a few more exercises to torture me with. I can feel myself getting stronger with every workout.

So far working with him, I have figured out my one rep max on 3/4 of the exercises. The first week I blew my old squat record out of the water. Not only did I break through the wall where I had been stuck, but added at least 10lbs to my old record--I got 160lbs for 1 rep. I've learned proper form for deadlift, and my 1 rep max for that is also 160lbs. At 188lbs, I can squat and deadlift about 85% of my bodyweight!! There is something very exciting, almost on a primal level, about knowing that you have hidden strength that no one suspects. He seems to be gaining confidence working with me too. I've noticed that he is a lot more comfortable touching than he used to be. Last week there was actually a *situation* that I am not telling him about...yet. While we were doing bent over rows, he put his hands on my back, with his fingers kinda around my ribs. He was a fingertip away from his correction turning into an accidental grope!! If it happens again, I'll let him know, just so he doesn't inadvertently offend a future female client.

Shy also convinced me to clean my diet up a little, and sort of go on a cut, something that JC and Buff both tried to convince me to do, in their own way. I'm eating 2100 calories and drinking protein shakes daily. I didn't realize that since I had been working, I was probably only eating 1600-1800 calories most days.So for the last few weeks I have been drinking my "protein bomb" after my workout/before work, then around 3pm I have a protein bar. The pesky water weight I've been fighting seems to be coming off too, and I am optimistic that maybe I'll drop scale weight in the next week or so.

My March challenge for myself was to do 5 decline bench crunches. Friday I did 12, holding a 5lb medicine ball. My April challenge is going to be hanging leg raises. Maybe 10-12 with knees as high as I can.

Today a female trainer at the gym told me that she'd noticed me looking tighter in the last few weeks. That makes me smile. I'm actually looking forward to taking my April progress pics. I have a feeling they are going to look amazing.