Wisdom & Experience VS. Tenacity & Invincibility

Okay! So far so good...except for one area. He said he was gonna push me and get after me to dig deep....but, this week he's been letting me pick my weights quite a bit. I know, I know, all of you are saying "Chelsi, lay off the guy, it's only your second session." I know that we're getting to know each other, and that he's still figuring out weights on new things, just like when I switched from Brent to Adam...it took quite a while to find exactly where I was on everything. But, I really hope when it's all said and done that he doesn't give me so many outs. I wish I had the confidence in me that everyone else has in me. Tonight, as we were leaving, and I mentioned about getting to pick my weights so much, he said "But, I don't know how you are feeling and you aren't going to be lazy...I know better." I had this same complaint about Adam when I started with him. I was very worried that he wasn't gonna push me hard enough because he wasn't an in-your-face guy like Brent was. But, somewhere in our months together, there came a time that I would flat-out refuse to do something, and he would flat-out refuse to give in to me...because he knew I was perfectly capable of doing it.

I think that my problem is that I am so used to challenge that I really don't like to not be challenged. Brian is coming from a point of view of "When you push too hard, you get hurt, and if you get hurt, your career is over." And, my point of view is "If you don't push hard enough, you'll never know what you could have achieved. Nothing's easy, and I expect some very hard falls...but I'll get back up." I know he knows more and I know he knows all the potentials of what 'could' happen to put an end to my goals. But, I guess I've never been one to dwell on the 'could happens'...at least not physically. I always got yelled at when I went to camp, for not taking care of my legs the way I should...but they're fine..they made it through. :-) And no one would have expected me to bench 180 lbs., at the end of my first year...but I did.

I'm sure that we'll find our happy medium. I'm sure he'll learn how to tell how I'm feeling and when I probably could have gone 5 more reps when I didn't, or know how to read my face to see when I'm just nervous, but I probably could handle more weight. Even tonight, I started doing a wrong form because my chair was moving, and I realized that I had to tell him that's my reaction when I feel unstable...but he knew for the next set that as soon as my elbow dropped he had to steady my chair.

It's all a part of the process and I've been down this road before...and I know it will all turn out fine. I think this was the point about 7 or 8 months ago that Adam began to lecture me about doing it for me. One way or another I'm going to have to feel challenged, and if Brian is going to leave it all up to me, I'm just going to have to make sure I make decisions that I wouldn't have made on my own before. If I want it done, I have to make sure I get it done, even without someone coaxing me to push a little harder. We'll find our unspoken lingo, our own balance with reading each other. I'm just talking out the nerves, just like I always do ;-) (And, yes, Brian, I know you are going to check my blog. However YOU are comfortable with pushing me, we will make it work.)

Here's my workout everyone:

Barbell Rows - 70 lbs., 10. 75 lbs., 10. 80 lbs., 10. 85 lbs., 10 & 9.
Half-Pull-ups (from a lying down position, up to chest touching bar) - 5 sets of 15. We used a band across my chest to add more resistance.
Single Arm Scarecrow (these kinda reminded me of a backwards fly) - 20 lbs., 10. 30 lbs., 2 sets of 10 (this is the one that got a little unstable. But, we know how to fix it now...I actually TALKED to him about it right there...are you all proud of me?? lol).
Lateral Pulldowns - 80 lbs., 3 sets of 10.
Lateral Raises - 10 lb. Dumbbells, 10. 12 lb. Dumbbells, 10.
Dumbbell Curls - 20 lbs., 2 sets of 10 and a set of 8.
Hammer Dumbbell Curls - 20 lbs., 2 sets of 10.
Broomstick Twists for two minutes, twice.
Med Ball Circles (arms above my head) 1 minute, 2 sets of small circles and two sets of big circles.

He's really coming up with some good abs for me. I think that's one of the reasons that I like so much that he stays with me the whole time. There are only so many abs I can do when I'm by myself...and frankly, they were getting somewhat old. But, with him there, I was able to do the seated crunches on Monday, and I think he's gonna come up with some more as well. He's a good experimenter...not afraid of my chair...VERY good thing :-) We're getting there. Doing real well.