What to Expect During your First Week at Achieve Fitness

This week we're going to talk about what to expect during your first week at Achieve Fitness through the eyes of a newcomer. If you haven't already, check out the first post on Maureen here: http://somerville.patch.com/blog_posts/and-the-winner-of-a-free-3-month-...

After going through her intial strategy session, our program design team came up with Maureen's phase one program. This program is comprised of two different workouts (Workout A and Workout B) which Maureen will alternate between over the next 4 weeks. These workouts consist of a warm-up, power development, strength training, and energy systems training. All together the workouts last about an hour.

When I first met with Maureen I asked her how often she expected to come in to workout. She responded that most likely she would do 5-6 days a week. This is a response we get quite often from members who are new to our type of programming. Maureen's previous experience in gyms was spending an hour a day on cardio machines (elliptical, bike, treadmill, etc.) With this approach, your body gets comfrotable very quickly and the workouts stop being as demanding as they once were, therefore you can workout 5-6 days a week without feeling run down. I explained to Maureen that most likely 3 days a week would be perfect to start. She was surprised, but took my word for it and agreed to come in 3 times in her first week. 

What Maureen found was that these workouts were unlike anything she had done before, and her body most definitely needed the recovery that I had recommended! When you strength train, you are causing small micro-tears in your muscles which then need to be rebuilt through proper nutrition and recovery. The rebuilding phase is where you actually make progress (create more muscle which replaces fat.) If Maureen had done this type of workout every day, her muscles would never have enough time to recover, and therefore she would not be able to make any progress.

After the strength training portion of her workout, Maureen finished on the heavy ropes (see photo) which is one of our many "non-traditional" forms of cardio. She did intervals of 20 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest for 4 rounds. This type of cardio is not only more fun than pedaling on an elliptical for hours, but it is also more effective! Short bursts of high intensity with longer recovery periods helps to elevate the metabolism and burn calories much more quickly and efficiently than steady-state cardio.

Maureen wrote up a list of things to expect during your first week at Achieve Fitness. So here it is from the perspective of a brand new member:

• Professional help - Lauren and Jason are both licensed professional trainers. When I arrived for my first training session with Lauren they had created a personalized workout plan that addressed my immediate fitness needs. They do this for all their clients, and then they support you as you learn (and sometimes as you struggle to learn) all the movements.  Great instructions, super support, and helpful advice about form and practice are standard around this gym.
• You'll feel comfortable - there are lots of different people at the gym, in various stages along their fitness journeys. They have all been kind, friendly, non-judgmental and supportive. Particularly my new work out session partner Emily - she's awesome (and can totally do push ups!).
• You'll sweat - I am working harder than I ever thought I could. I have been shocked every time that I've looked at the clock at the end of my workout and found that an an hour had passed. The workout has me so focused on developing skills and strength that I don't feel like checking the clock. The workout is challenging but engaging, so it keeps me involved the whole time.
• You'll feel strong - and you'll feel weak. And maybe a little sore in those muscles that you hadn't been using much. I feel amazingly strong, and I'm proud of myself, of my efforts, even though I have a long way to go.  

We are very proud of how far Maureen has already come in just one week and we look forward to seeing her progress in the coming months! Stay tuned for next week's post where we will talk about how nutrition comes into play at Achieve Fitness!

Your coach,

Lauren