Training again, I am training again! (in Boston ;) )

So I haven't done any personal training for close to a year. While I always loved training, I hated the "business" aspect of it.  I just really love helping people change their lives and find their "inner athlete".  Putting a dollar value on that was hard.  But now that I'm in a different career, I find myself missing that part of my life.

I'm so excited for a new opportunity that has literally jumped right into my lap.  My beautiful, wonderful, adorable crash pad roommate and dear friend has set a goal of doing a 5k, and realized that strength training will help her meet that goal.  She asked me to help her since she's never lifted weights before.  YES YES YES!  Super excited to be helping her!

Here's the workout.  This is a great workout for getting started.  It focuses on proper form, which is critical in injury prevention.

For this workout, if you are a first timer, do 10-12 reps, and 1 set, 2-3 times the first week.  Then the next week you can move up to 2 sets.  You should feel sore from a workout, but not debilitating pain.  Keep the weight low while you learn form and then slowly increase weight.

Squats: feet shoulder width apart, push your butt back like sitting in a chair, and the goal is to sit low enough so your thighs are parallel to the ground and put the majority of your weight on your heels as you stand.

Lunge: biggest mistake in a lunge is keeping that back leg straight as you lower your body.  Bend that back leg and drop the knee down to the ground. And push back up through the front heel.

Back row:  this can be done with a resistance band or cable machine.  As you draw your elbows back, pulling the resistance towards your body, squeeze your shoulder blades together, hold and release slowly.

Push up: If you are unable to do a full push up on the floor, rather than dropping to your knees, stay on your toes and put your hands on a bench. This way you go through the full range of motion and engage your core as you build your strength, use shorter steps or benches till you can do push ups from the floor.

Shoulder press:  start with light weights, standing upright, squeeze your butt, draw in your abs. This builds core strength and protects your back.  As your raise the weight over head, don't allow the weight to fall forward.  Rotate your arms back till you can barely see your biceps in your peripheral vision. Biceps should be in line with your ears when arms are fully extended. Lower back down to shoulders.

Laying leg raise: laying on your back, start with legs up in the air, tuck your hands under your hips and pull your lower back to the floor, lower legs to the floor and raise back up.  If you cannot go all the way down, lower as far as possible so that you can still raise them back up without losing control.

And last of all a 60 second plank.  Hold your body static in pushup position.  Adjust your body into the above pushup position if holding the plank on the floor is too hard at first.  Keep your back straight.  Think of your joints and draw a straight line through your neck,  shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.