My sixth workout at Anytime Fitness was by far the hardest yet. I'm pretty sure the fact that Brian (regular trainer) was absent and that gym owner Anthony Hamilton took over had nothing to do with that. Rather, a total of 12 hours sleep over the previous three days was more likely to blame.
Fact is, I really had trouble completing some of the exercises. I don't think any of them were harder than those I'd done before necessarily, but insufficient sleep (work, kids etc) obviously hadn't been the ideal preparation.
It didn't take long for this to become apparent. The first five minutes on the elliptical machine went smoothly enough, but it didn't last. By six minutes I was ready to get off, at seven I did.
Not wanting to give Anthony the impression I was done for the day, I moved serenely into the first exercise - a squat and upward thrust with two 10lb dumbells. As you may know if you've read any of the previous blogs, participants do two sets of each exercise at Anytime Fitness. While the first went okay, the dumbells began shooting off in funny directions second time around as it was all I could do to lift the things above my head.
Those of you who have been in a gym and seen the size of some of the males, not to mention the size of the weights they're lifting, will have some idea how embarrassing that might have been. And it didn't get any better.
This just flat out hurt. I should mention here I have some arthirits in my back and this particular drill did a fine job reminding me exactly which joints/vertebrae are affected.
I should also mention Anthony was every bit as careful to monitor my level of discomfort as Brian had been. Having trained members of the Air Force, Anthony must have worked with some incredibly well-conditioned individuals, so one wonders what he must have made of a 6'3" man having trouble with a 4lb medicine ball. I doubt he was overly impressed.
Still, my goal is not to measure up to members of the US military or, indeed, any other country's. I'm there to discover first-hand just how effective strength training, cardio and stretching can be when looking to improve one's golf game.
But I can't really evaluate what impact the Dynamic Golf Training course has had on my scores yet as I haven't actually posted one since the middle of April. Added to which, I haven't yet finished the course. And even when I do, it will probably require several weeks of concerted effort at home completing the workouts I've learned before noticing any significant change in my golf.
Forgetting golf for the moment though, I just like how these workouts make me feel.
James Hiester, a member of the Bellingham High School team that won the 2A State Championship at Apple Tree eleven days ago, shot a 73 in the first round of the Junior PGA Championship at Tumwater Valley GC and is tied for eighth, five shots out of the lead.
