It's a Workout Nirvana

Sometime in April or May, I thought about going to the Fitbloggin Conference in Portland and began looking up roommates. I stumbled upon Suzanne. We formed an email friendship. Unfortunately, I just couldn't make the conference, but I found out that Suzanne is a Virtual Personal Trainer. Her wonderful site is called Workout Nirvana. Isn't that a catchy name? Yeah, I thought so, too.

I made it a big goal of mine to strengthen my back after the initial injury, but I couldn't start right away. She was patient with me and then finally, I signed up for the six weeks program when my back felt great. I looked at all the packages and decided on the one for $150. This included a 30 minute Skype session to talk about personal goals and where my body was at, unlimited email interaction, the program itself, and food and nutrition help. There are other packages for cheaper, but this one suited my needs. I knew I would be a needy client!

After the Skype session, she got my program ready within a week and I was good to start. She sent me a Clean Eating Guide, Workout Guide and the Exercise Guide, and all of my worksheets for each week. Suzanne had links to how to do the exercises (properly) and encouraged me to join her youtube playlist and create my own playlist. The exercise links came in handy when I just couldn't remember what to do for that day.

My program was for three days a week focusing on back strengthening and stability; one day was arms heavy and one day was legs heavy. I also had a warmup and a cooldown, which I thought was important. Each program will vary depending on the person and his or her goals.

At the end of each week, I would send her my completed worksheets so she can evaluate what I did or maybe ones that were difficult. What I loved about Suzanne was that I could email her at any time to say that this exercise didn't work for me and she immediately came up with replacements. When the doctor said that he didn't want me doing squats or lunges, she was ready with new ones that were just as effective. She would get on to me about my diet, but not in a way to make me feel bad. She would get on to me about trying too hard to fast. For instance, I felt like the warmups were too easy when I started, but she said they are just supposed to warm you up. Suzanne always found a balance between not letting me walk all over her and not being too drill sergeant about things where I was discourage to continue.  In the process, she became a friend and I now look forward to talking to her about mundane life stuff. I can't promise you that the same connection will happen, because I'm pretty awesome, but it could.

I saw improvements after a week or two by being able to lift 10lbs instead of just 5lbs or 5lbs instead of no lbs. I felt stronger and signed up for Phase 2. Unfortunately, my back took another tumble through no fault of her exercises; it was a combination of things, including me getting too aggressive too quickly. We even talked about plans for a workout, while I'm down for my surgery. Yes, you read that right...surgery for me again on October 2 to remove the bunion on my other foot. I'm not looking forward it since it was the most painful recovery that I have ever experienced, but it has to be done. I will need some encouragement!

Anyways, I totally recommend Suzanne at Workout Nirvana. Plus, I really love her blog posts.

Have you ever tried a virtual personal trainer program? I loved this program the best. It worked for my crazy schedule.

Have you tried a regular trainer? I have tried them at the gym, but I feel like they are too pushy as if they can be salesmen. Although, sometimes, it is nice to have someone there to count so I can focus on breathing.

Random question...how do you get your dog to bring the ball all the way back when he is 10 years old, never really played before, and can get barky? Also, encouragement doesn't work and neither does just waiting there until he brings the ball to me.