Trainer Notes: Week One

It’s the end of week 1 and aside from some initial soreness and “jiggly” legs Steve is doing remarkably well. Ryan and I are still getting a feel for Steve’s strengths and weaknesses. We started the week off with a fitness assessment to get some baseline measurements of several aspects of Steve’s fitness level. The fitness assessment gave us a better idea of what Steve is capable of and how hard we can push him in each session.

One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced so far is avoiding low back pain during various exercises. Steve and I spent a lot of time focusing on spine alignment and correct activation of the core muscles to keep from exacerbating his low back pain. One of the main struggles Steve had was continuing to breathe while he contracted his abdominal muscles. While using core strength in all exercises is important, we came to the conclusion that breathing definitely comes first on the hierarchy of needs. With this invaluable lesson under our belts we are ready to begin week 2.