Days 5 & 6: "A Different Person"

It's been a great week so far in terms of the workout program. Things are going great in the gym with Ronn, who pulled me aside after our last session Tuesday night and said, "I'm really proud of you, Ken. It's almost like I'm training a different person than I was last week. You come in and you get right to work, and the changes are very noticeable."

This was, of course, good to hear. God knows I struggled with my fears about working out and "not measuring up" for so long, there were times when I was certain I would never be able to overcome them. But in just a week's time, after only four workouts and one day of hiking in Runyon Canyon, I felt suddenly confident and energized by my newfound commitment to improving my health, body and life.

Monday's workout was by far one of the best we've had so far. It consisted mostly of cardio work and some light resistance work. The night got off to an OK start. Ronn put me on the scale and I was just a little bummed to see that I'd not lost any weight since starting the program a week ago, but Ronn immediately put me at ease by saying, "That doesn't mean you haven't lost weight. If you've put on muscle from working out, that weighs twice as much as fat, so it would balance out what you've lost." OK. I guess I can deal with that.

Then it was upstairs to stretch me out (gotta say, this is still my least favorite part of my time at the gym; Ronn really knows how to "go deep" with those stretches), and then Ronn put me on the floor and had me do several different sets of crunches. Then he had me do 25 jumping jacks, walk backwards like a crab, do several squat-thrusts, and hold my stomach in real tight while he dropped a heavy ball onto my abdomen. That was a little weird, but he said it was a good exercise. I'm not arguing. During the squat thrusts, Ronn became excited. "Your energy is way up tonight," he said. "Who is this guy?"

Downstairs we did some work on a few of the weight machines. He had me lift myself up with one leg onto one of the workout benches, an exercise that is apparently really good for my butt. This is a pretty strenuous task, but I managed to eek out 15 on each leg. Ronn kept shaking his head with a smile on his face. "Do you notice that you have more strength than you did just last week?" he asked. I really hadn't given it much thought until then, but it hit me that I wasn't tiring as quickly as I had just several days before. After the workout, I did 10 minutes on the stair machine and 20 minutes on the treadmill at a 5.0 incline, and then called it a night.

On my way home, I swung by Target to pick up another pair of workout pants, and saw a bunch of other clothes that I liked. I went into the dressing room and tried them on, and for the first time in a very long time, I didn't have the same sense of digust when I saw my body in the mirror. Even though there wasn't all that much different about it at all, I began to envision how I was going to look very soon, and I saw my body in a whole new light. I felt good, sexy even, trying on those new clothes. I ended up rewarding myself by buying all of them. When I got home, there was a text message from Ronn. "Tonight was your best session yet," it said. I had to smile.

Tuesday night was another great session. I started with 30 minutes of cardio work on the treadmill and stair machine. Ronn came over toward the end and had me increase the speed on the stair machine and take every other step. This was pretty intense, and I tired quickly, so he switched back and forth between faster and slower speeds so that I did several "sets" of taking every other step. Back upstairs we went for more stretching (ouch! ouch!), and then back downstairs to put me to work on weights. There was a lot of dumbbell work to be done. Mostly Ronn focused this session on my my arms and shoulders, and I surpised myself with the amount of weight I could lift as he increased the amount with each set. In between sets of reps on the machines, Ronn would have me do more jumping jacks or stomach crunches. I like his style of mixing things up. I never get bored of doing the same things over and over; there's always a new exercise to learn or try, so that keeps me interested, which is good.

I had to attend a film screening tonight, so Ronn and I didn't work out together, and in the middle of the day I suddenly realized that I was a little bummed about it. This was a bit surprising to me. Me? Wanting to be at the gym? Wanting to do physical labor? Unheard of. But it's true. I missed working out tonight, and I'm looking forward to getting back in there tomorrow and seeing what else I'm capable of doing. Onward and upward, as they say!

(Pics by Kevin Cazares)