I have had 2 sessions in the gym with Tommy in the last four days …. and I can feel it! But I am making progress, albeit small!

I can now hang from the pull-up bar and pull myself up a couple of inches! You may laugh, but this is progress. Initially I could not lift myself at all. I practice at home (I’m sure it is all down to technique). Either Sam or Simon lift me off the ground and hold me. I then put all my effort and concentration into pulling myself up. I think I did one complete pull up yesterday (Sam said he did not lift me, just held me ….). 

Helping Hand

 Tommy is away for a couple of weeks; I am determined to be able to do at least one when next back in the gym! My shoulders are very sore today, so I feel like I must have managed one.

In my current 6 week gym programme I have been using a 15kg kettlebell in an exercise which involved 20 double arm swings followed by 20 squats, repeated three times. When I first did this little routine I was nearly sick. I’ve kinda got a love hate relationship with kettlebells. In the second session I had this week Tommy gave me a new routine. The good news is that I use a lighter kettlebell – only 8kg. The bad news is that I have to do five reps of the whole exercise. I have to do 8 single arm swings with each arm, followed by 8 snatches with each arm, followed by 8 press-ups! The secret is all in the hips, get that right and the movements flow … lol. There is a Ladies Challenge on the board in the gym. You have to do the five sets as quickly as possible. After my first attempt I am 4th on the leader board (out of 9). My mistake was losing a bit of hip technique, and trying to get full tidy press-ups. I think I can knock at least 30 seconds of my time by going for outright speed, rather than style – not that I am competitive (much!)

I have a Greg Whyte fitness day tomorrow, hosted by Glacéau vitamin water, at Bisham Abbey. We have been told to take warm coats and gloves as we will be going into the altitude chamber, which may be a little cold (zero deg Celsius). Not as cold as the Arctic then …. but least a start with some kind of cold training. Then on Saturday I have the Sussex Stride, a quick 50 mile walk on the Hilly South Downs. You have to agree this is certainly more effort …

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