We had our original appointment scheduled for last Tuesday
but the Pensacola ice storm of 2014 prevented that. As well as our rescheduled
appointment for Thursday that was canceled as well. Since I was in lock down
mode last week I kept active by playing the Xbox Kinect at E’s house and
building the world’s smallest snowman. We also took a short walk but the icy
roads and sub-freezing temps were a bit too much for us so we hurried back home
and proceeded to go back into hibernation mode.
Thankfully, we live in Florida so after three days of crazy,
cold (to us) weather we were back to the 60's and 70's and everything felt right
with the world.
Anywho…back to the assessment.
The fitness center here at the university offers personal
training sessions which is awesome, especially since they are very affordable. Lita,
who ran the boot camp class I took last semester, is a personal trainer in
addition to being a group fitness instructor. Once I found out I would be out
of commission for a substantial amount of time post surgery I knew I would need
some help getting back into shape and asked her if she would be willing to work
with me. I wanted a way to build back my strength and cardio endurance and
jumping directly back into boot camp would not be an option for me. Thankfully, Lita was able to work around my
schedule and agreed to meet with me every Monday for the next few months or so,
as long as it takes.
Before we can start with our training sessions I first had
to undergo a personal fitness assessment. This assessment consisted of six
components; body fat percentage, push-ups, back flexibility, blood pressure
(which is actually broken down to systolic and diastolic, resting heart rate
and aerobic fitness. I was tested in each of these six categories and from
these results an overall fitness score was calculated.
These were my results:
Overall, I was definitely surprised. Some areas I felt I
would have performed better in (aerobic fitness and back flexibility) and some
I expected to perform worse in (push-ups, body fat). It was clear to me that I
didn’t have a very good gauge of where I was physically, heading into this
evaluation, but truth be told- I thought overall my results would have been far
worse.
My body fat percentage is 25.8% which is at the high end of
the fair (average) range. The report given to me that explains each criterion
in depth said that the loss of only two pounds of fat would get me into the fit range. Wow! That makes me
super happy. I would love to get to 22% body fat but I will be super happy if
at the end of my training sessions I am anywhere in the fit range, 22-25%.
My 18 push-ups (from my knees) put me in the fit range. I
think this is probably skewed because they were assisted push-ups but I am ok
with this. This was the first time I did push-ups since the surgery so I wasn’t
even sure if I would be able to do one. 18 felt like a huge victory to me!
I think my back flexibility was severely diminished due to
the surgery and a slight lingering back pain that’s been hanging around since
Saturday. This test is a seated forward fold. 45, the point I reached, was
about a half of a hand’s length past the bottom of my shoes. I know once my
flexibility returns I will be able to for sure get this one into the fit range.
I may not be very strong but I am flexible, for sure.
Both of my blood pressure measurements were deemed
excellent- 112/72 and my resting heart rate of 77 was deemed fit. My blood
pressure was right around my normal readings but my resting HR was much higher.
Usually I am in the 60s. I think even surgery day mine was in the 60s, dipping
down into the 50s. I attribute this change to my lack of physical activity for
the last 2 months. I plan on this being much lower the next go around.
The final criteria is the aerobic fitness which was my worst
score by far. This test was a bike test. I rode a standard stationary bike
while wearing a heart rate monitor with the resistance increasing throughout the
test. I thought I was doing pretty well. I was talking with Lita the entire
time. It was a little tough towards the end when the resistance was at the max
but I was able to maintain a set speed, start to finish. Apparently my heart
rate gets too high compared with how low my resting heart rate is and therefore
I fell down into the ‘needs work’ range for this one. Not great but hey, it’s a
really good starting point- nowhere but up to go from here.
My overall score was 56 which put me in the fair range. The
fit range runs from 60 to 80. I am happy that I was still pretty close to the
fit range, overall, and hope to be well into the fit range when we conduct the
final assessment.
Next Monday will be our first real training session. Knowing
Lita, it will probably be a fun mix of strength and cardio. My main goals while
working with her are to build strength/muscle, reduce my body fat percentage,
and to get back to where I was pre-surgery and build from there.
I also want to get back into running so I am going to start
couch to 5K again. I want to make running part of my weekly activity but I want
to ease back into it. I loved this program the first go around so I thought why
not do it again?
Warm weather is (somewhat) right around the corner and I
plan on making weekend bike rides a regular activity again. I am so looking
forward to everything this spring has to offer. I feel very optimistic
especially since I have a trainer to work with and friends to run with. And who
knows, maybe E will buy a bike and we can ride around the beach together.
A girl can dream ;)
Love and hugs,
“fair-almost-fit”
Dacia
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