Training, Trainer, Trained

So, I'm back to working with M. the Reasonable--and from here on out I'm just going to refer to him as Matt, because I think of him more as a friend than a trainer--as of last week, and as is to be expected, it's awesome. Matt is the best trainer I've worked with. He keeps up with all the latest exercise modalities, he's a stickler for proper form, and he just knows what he's talking about.

Case in point: at my first appointment with him in over three years, I walked in to his garage gym (he's left 24 Hour and gone independent) and said, "I've been having lower back pain on and off since March. He told me to show him how I use the foam roller, gave me two knew places to target, and voila! My lower back pain has subsided a lot.

He's also the perfect person to bounce questions off of as I prepare to take the CPT exam. I have finished the book and all online presentations, so now I'm reviewing the gazillions of flash cards and taking the practice exam daily. I've even downloaded an app on my phone that provides different questions than the NASM practice test online. I'm not only determined to pass this test--I want to ace it.

So our appointments thus far have been an amusing mix of chatter about life, etc., and a down-to-the-nitty-gritty discussion of the concepts I'm reviewing before the exam. I interrupt poor Matt with a lot of questions, but he doesn't mind too much. He's getting in the habit of using term and muscle names, or prompting me to answer questions. Sometimes I will start and exercise and say, "This is in the...transverse plane?" He will affirm or correct as needed.

I'm really enjoying learning all of this stuff, though, as I say pretty much every time I talk to Matt, it's very wordy. The vocabulary demands alone are daunting, on top of knowing which muscles are which, where they are, what they do, etc. There are a lot of concepts (strengthen the under-active muscles, and stretch the overactive! Overactive adductors will cause the knees to rotate inward in a squat!), but I'm getting there. It helps to be able to do an exercise with Matt, and verbally walk through the muscles I'm using, why something might be going wrong ("oh, I see, my hip flexors are tight...") and apply it to what I've read in The Brick, as I've affectionately nicknamed my 644-page NASM text book.

Once my new school year starts, and I'm back to working full-time, I have to give up my morning workouts. I'm entirely adaptable, of course, but it will be easier knowing there's someone expecting me to be there a couple times a week for me to keep that routine going. Hopefully we can work something into both of our schedules that works.

But for now, I'm enjoying having someone to chat with while I train, and I'm feeling definite gains from my workouts already, in terms of muscle soreness. It's good to be back!