New Trainer

Today marks a new beginning in my training program. I will be under Michael’s tutelage as Satish has left for Fitness First. Tentatively, we are looking at a 4-day schedule but he has not thought given the combo much thought yet since I was only festooned upon him yesterday afternoon. And so it looks like we are coming back full circle since Prabha started me on the 4-day thingy. I’m not too fussed about this since I do want to put on a bit of muscle weight or grow bigger after losing the 5kg in 2008. The downside to this is his schedule which is fairly compact and the only slots for me are the 6:30 am ones. I will just have to adjust my running and cardio schedules accordingly.

Since it was our first “get-together” and to assess me, Michael took me through a series of superset workouts for all the major muscle groups.

1. Lat pulldown with BB rows
2. Seated row with single arm DB row
3. Wide legged squats with jumping jacks (apparently the explosive movements would help in my running; I was flippin tired doing this after the squats!)
4. Life Fitness leg press with static lunges
5. Nautilus chest press with shoulder press
6. Abs – a combo of crunches and leg raises

I had planned on completing this morning’s workout with a 20-25 minute cardio but was forced to scrap this as the water supply went dead (again!). I was freaking cheesed off since this happened last week as well! Since the takeover by Celebrity Fitness, the gym and level of service has been deteriorating (rapidly, I may add).

Michael (and most people) was “bewildered” when I tell them I am vegan. A strict vegan. [insert more wide-eyed looks] Everyone wonders how I can manage to train, run, pole dance and yoga with a meatless and zero meat byproducts diet and is still able to develop defined muscles and remain lean. Beats me too! I guess it’s all down to the Buteyko. As with Satish, his advice was to load up on the food intake (especially carbs) and have the protein shake twice a day even on my cardio-only days.