I hired a personal trainer this month. He is not my first and probably not my last. It has been a revealing experience on many levels. My first trainer back in 1992 changed the way I interacted with myself and the world. Geno Johnson was not only my first personal trainer but also my first coach. He refused to work with me unless I was willing to change the way I think, change the way I interact with people, and change the way I ate. I did and it changed my life! Thank you Geno. My second was Al McShepard in Milwaukee. He introduced me to inversion boots, stretching - really stretching before each workout, stop eating after 8:00pm and together we created this nifty way of monitoring weight routine progress in a way that propelled my ability and confidence at the same time giving me complete control over what I was doing with my body.

Now I have hired a trainer at the Minneapolis Athletic Club. This has been an entirely different experience. One with measurements, structure, and now heart rate monitors. I think I have made significant progress around goals and the heart rate monitor has helped this significantly, much to my surprise. This trainer has been working the science of the weight training, whereas the previous two have been the philosophy of human interaction and thinking. I don’t have the connection that I created with my previous two trainers yet, though I suspect this relationship will be one I remember.

What I find missing from this relationship is the discovery period of establishing relationship and camaraderie that I find with coaching and my previous two trainers. This is really important to any kind of co-learning. I have entered into this relationship based on trust - of others in this trainer and the vibe I pick up off of him. It is interesting as I type this, the others had to earn my trust, hence the extensive relationship building. With this trainer, I started with trust and I am finding that one level I am moving forward, on the other I feel like I have abdicated my responsibility.

This is where the heartrate monitor comes into play. I don’t use it during our sessions. Instead I use it during my daily aerobic activities. And WOW what a surprise - I actually like it. I’ve thought I have been a good judge on my body’s condition at certain exertion levels. Well, I think they more correlate to what my trainer is describing as anaerobic thresh-hold after my aerobic zone. We are far more effective at burning energy in this aerobic zone than anaerobic. When I used to row on my erg I would regularly burn out because as I have now found out I leapt straight into the anaerobic zone and virtually knotted up after 15 minutes. However if I keep within my aerobic zone I can keep going 20-40 minutes feeling like I’ve had a good workout, but not exhausted and in pain. I almost want to do more - we’ll see about that. With the heartrate monitor I get an extra bonus. I get to see a customized to me fitness and calorie burn count because it is linked to my exact heartrate, exertion, age and weight.

It has been fun this morning walking around the lake in a new way - with the monitor. My pace is a little faster, but more rhythmic than anything else. 2/3 around the lake I have discovered that I’ve burned 734 calories 55%fat - Wahoo! and I’ve got another third to go.