So I just had my first official training session at IronPlate with the lovely, talented and slightly evil Caitlin. When I got her e-mail suggesting that we start our new routine at 6am, I literally checked the calendar to see if it was April Fool’s Day—much to my chagrin, it was not. I thought long and hard and reasoned that maybe being in a dreamlike state would make the workout less hard (wrong), so I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and replied “Okay, see you there.” Yikes! When my alarm went off the next morning it literally felt like I had just gone to sleep minutes before. But right as I was about to slap the snooze button and roll back over, something stopped me, and I threw off the covers and hoisted myself out of bed. After banging into both my dresser and the door while trying to get dressed in the dark so as not to wake my very comfortable looking husband, I was ready to go.
I arrived at the studio just before 6 in the pitch black, and proceeded to become winded simply by walking up the stairs—my first of many realizations of just how out of shape I am. Caitlin greeted me a few moments later, and laughed as I asked if the climb could be considered part of my workout—it couldn’t. So off we went to the office, where I got weighed in—talk about a wakeup call, and had my measurements done, then we got down to business.
We started with some jump roping for 1-minute segments and then we then moved through some interval training that included pull downs, planks, burpees, squats and chest presses—all of which were made infinitely more pleasant by the 90’s party beats station Caitlin had pumping through the speakers. Unfortunately no amount of Ja Rule and Nelly could soften the intensity of squat jumps onto the dreaded wooden box, but I gritted my teeth, pushed through it and survived.
Despite the challenge, it felt good to push my body and before I knew it, I had relaxed and was actually enjoying the challenge of seeing what I was capable of.
Caitlin has a very unique ability to work you to your fullest potential without leaving you feeling defeated or like you never want to come back again. She is extremely skilled at finding a perfect balance between when you’re doing something at the hardest level you’re capable of, and when you could potentially do more.
The greatest part about working out at IronPlate was there was absolutely no judgment. I didn’t have to worry about how uncoordinated I looked or if the person next to me was faster, stronger, fitter, etc. (which by the way she was), which made it so much more manageable and honestly gave me the confidence boost I needed to finally start feeling like I might actually be able to do this. In fact, I’m booking my next session online as we speak. Till next time.
