The gym chronicles: Week 6

Today at the gym, I nearly died. Between the third set of bosu ball push-ups and the next set of switch lunges (fancy footwork added to a regular lunge, making me look like the Monster dancing in Young Frankenstein), I went quickly from 'ready to keep pushing' to 'dizzy, panting and worried that I haven't updated my will.'

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. But I really was feeling dizzy and like I might see stars if I did another…well, anything. Now, this might seem like a discouraging occurrence after nearly six weeks of working out on a regular basis, but actually I'm feeling oddly upbeat about it (could that be the endorphins talking?). The first 45 minutes of my workout were solid, and I was taking instruction from my trainer successfully enough that he'd praised my work (I've warned him that excessive praise makes me suspicious, so he's been sparing with it. That makes it all the better when he says "God damn it, that's it!").

So, I'm not that worried by my sudden inability to do anything but lie down and breathe. Here's how I figure it: My trainer has been pushing me pretty hard, introducing new and definitely more demanding exercises for the last week or two. So hitting my limit was inevitable. Plus, I was smart enough to know I couldn't go on, and my trainer made sure I was okay and talked me through it.

And nothing puts my own situation into perspective like the guy who works with my trainer right after me. He only has one good arm (one is shriveled), and I can only imagine how hard it is to do one-armed push-ups and whatever else our trainer gives him to work on. This morning I ran into him in the locker room after my session ended (a few minutes early due to all that gasping and whatnot). Seeing me all sweaty, this guy cheerfully said "Uh oh. He's being rough today, huh?" I explained that I'd hit the proverbial wall, and he said "Well, that's good right? It means he must be moving you to challenging stuff." So, yeah, I got out of breath and got a pep talk from a guy overcoming much bigger challenges.

Oh, and the tally as it now stands: 39 days, 11 pounds, 1 mid-workout collapse. Not bad at all.

Need more motivation? Try these workout classes.