The dreaded (and revered) pull up

Good morning and happy Friday!  We've just about made it to the weekend.  Woo hoo!

I hope all of your weeks have treated you well.

Yesterday I hit up the gym for a nice upper body strength training session.  I had planned a bunch of the usual exercises plus some jump roping.   As I'm getting settled one of the trainers walks in, we make small talk and somehow the topic of pull ups comes up, so of course i say I can't do one, but it's a goal of mine, to which he says I can do one, to which I laugh. :)  So he invites me to work out with him, and of course I said yes.

He's a really good trainer.  He thinks outside of the box and uses tools that aren't available to the average gym-goer.

Going by memory I will try to explain what we did.

Remember the rope I mentioned here?  Well this was a shorter version and we jumped rope with it.  Definitely felt the burn in the shoulders.

Then it was over to push ups with resistance. (not exactly like this, but close)

      

Then it was pull up time, before my arms got too fatigued.  I did assisted pull ups (he did not).



This is exactly the outfit I was wearing too.  Ha!

Then Bicep curls, only coming halfway up.

Then we switched to a bunch of chest and back exercises using the resistance tubes.  I know I remember all of them, but can't write it all out right here.  Then we finished each of those sets with push ups.  Ugh!!

My arms felt like jello yesterday.  Actually, they felt stiff and fatigued, but still good.

Throughout the moves he was constantly telling me to tighten my abs and glutes (depending on the exercise).  I know that I should tighten my abs but when I'm working out alone I apparently forget.  This time he'd poke me in the stomach, which was a good reminder.  Today my abs are SORE, and I love it because I did not do one sit up.

Is there a moral to my story?  I'd say that maybe working with a trainer one or two times (if you can't afford more) is a great way to bust out of a rut and mix things up.  Try to watch the trainers before choosing one so you can make sure to choose someone who's style you like.  For me, that means out of the box exercises with fun tools.

Do you train?  If so, what do you think?  If  not, why?