Today, I finally stepped off the elliptical and walked into the weight room for the first time in over 5 weeks. I felt ready but wasn’t sure what I should start with so I met with a personal trainer at the South End location of Boston Sports Clubs®. I trained for my triathlon at this location and love it for having a pool and child care in the city.
The BSC has been around since 1974 and was actually the gym where I met Katrina in 2006 (Watertown location to be specific). She was a trainer and I was member. I asked her to shoot some online videos with me and the rest is history.
Every location has tons of classes like Spinning®, yoga, Pilates, Kickboxing, Zumba® and UXF® which is sort of like their own take on CrossFit, offered throughout the day. You can also sign up to work with a personal trainer one on one or in a small group.
I worked with Master Trainer Pierre who is also pre and post natal certified. As a trainer myself, I’m very critical of personal trainers and was immediately impressed with Pierre. We chatted first about my medical history and then did a quick warm up.
I forgot to mention my marathon injury and he noticed it within 1 minute that I had tight calves. How quickly he earned my respect. He told me that we were going to go through a bunch of exercises that focused on me keeping my core tight the entire time.
We started with some basic body weight squats and then added in a black resistance band around my lower thighs for our first circuit. We did some body weight squats then band walks, followed by bridges and plank leg lifts. I do not remember bridges being so difficult! I either lost a lot of muscle or the black band really added to the level of difficulty.
Next, we added in a medicine ball. First we did medicine ball slams, engaging my core and then medicine balls wall hits followed by lateral lunges and single arm renegade rows.
Pierre ended our session by stretching out my lower body which felt amazing. He goes, “Has your right leg always been shorter than your left?”
Me: “Ahhh… I never realized it actually.”
He gave me the training sheet he created so that I could do the exercises on my own but I may be back.
What I loved about the session was how personalized it was to my needs and how it was challenging just enough given it was my first strength workout back. I’m curious to see how sore I will be tomorrow.
The best shape I’ve ever been in was after working with a personal trainer 2x a week when I was 25. I was lifting the heaviest and running the least. It was also the leanest I had ever been. I had just started SarahFit actually! Ever since though, I’ve missed the days of having someone to push me exclusively, tell me not to eat garbage and keep me accountable. Maybe a trainer is what my post baby body wants more than it needs.
If your New Year’s resolution was to get in shape and you’ve already defaulted, I strongly suggest trying a personal training session. It just may be the combination of personalized exercises and constant motivation that you need.
Overall, I was really impressed with my experience with Pierre at the BSC. It was clear he knew what he was doing and was fun to talk to during our session. Personality is huge when working with someone, one on one, on a regular basis. The current BSC social media campaign, #IBuiltThis, allows you to see the accomplishments and healthy lifestyles their tens of thousands of members have “built.”
The best part about the Boston Sports Clubs in the area is that they are very competitively priced. To check out current promos and get a free day pass visit MySportsClubs.com. You can also view the classes and times offered as well. You can schedule a complimentary personal training session.
I love how the South End location has a ton of natural light, parking after 5:30pm and on weekends (except Sunday during SOWA Food Truck Season) in addition to the pool and child care I mentioned already.
Be sure to check out the BSC on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter as well. These are always helpful resources if there is a snowstorm!!!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Town Sports International. The opinions and text are all mine.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Town Sports International. The opinions and text are all mine.
