The Trainer

I have worked with a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness - Downtown and The Pearl Locations - for several years now.  It has worked for me.  The issues are complex and you need someone who is a domain expert in the field.  If you get sick you go to a Dr. and get professional advice.  If you get into legal trouble you hire a lawyer.  A good trainer understands body mechanics, nutrition, motivation, training techniques, and biology.  If they think The IT Band is a 80's Rock Hair Band get a different trainer.  The trainer must balance pushing you beyond what you think you can do and injury.  Like a great teacher they need to stretch you to make you better.  In working with a trainer provide them with feedback.  If an exercise hurts tell them.  Don't gut it out.  They want the exercise to be difficult in some cases but not painful.  Pain is almost always a sign you are doing something wrong.  It means you may get injured.  You want to avoid injury.

I value my trainer and have voluntarily written several as positive letters to her management and higher up the chain.  Yes, actual snail mail letters, not email.  It means more.  In future blog postings I will refer to this person as The Trainer.  Her name is not publicly important.  Since this is a public blog I would like to err on the side of privacy.  I do not want to make public their private life or interfere with it in any way.  The world is full of crazies and the last thing I want to do is expose this person to some unknown nut job.  For those of you whom I know I would be glad to recommend you to her.  At least you are a nut job I know. (a little humor folks)

The Trainer has been very diligent in the training aspects.  Very encouraging, pushes, checks up on nutrition.  I am not always the easiest to work with.  I have my foibles.  I do try to not bitch about the exercises.  After all I am paying for it and I would rather have her push me than bitch about it and still have me push me.  I want to encourage The Trainer to assist me in my journey.

How you do an exercise is very important.  I developed "runner's knee".  I was running and turning my right foot out too much.  This caused the tendon to take a sharp turn under the patella (knee cap).  It hurt. It hurt a lot.  I rested the knee for a week and tried again.  I got about .25 of a mile and it started hurting again.  I stopped and walked home. Again the rule is do not get injured. If injured do not make it worse.

I went to a GP and was told I had arthritis.  I went to a bone Dr. (not a surgeon) and he said no, you have runner's knee. Go to the physical therapist and she will help you.  I did (Providence Jel Wend Center where the Portland Timbers play).  I can only say positive things about the therapists there.  They gave me exercises to do, made sure I did them correctly, and communicated with The Trainer.  They , the therapists and The Trainer, knew their stuff.  Domain Experts.  It made a huge difference I am running again.