Project Madonna Arms

I recently read that really busy people make time to work out by getting up super early every day--like 5:00am.

Ick.

My answer to the time crunch that doesn't allow for exercising has been not exercising. (Now you know my time management secrets.)

But a few weeks ago, a friend of mine who is a professor in the sciences sent out an e-mail asking for volunteers to help her exercise science class by signing up for personal training sessions with one of her students.

And for some inexplicable reason, I replied and said I'd do it.

So now I have an undergraduate personal trainer, and I have to commit to exercising on campus with my trainer 150 minutes a week.

This is a recipe for total embarrassment.

But I'm totally cheating and doing it during some of my office hours because I'm on campus anyway and that is when my trainer is available.

Today was our fitness assessment. My trainer (a dude I'll call Chad) has to type up my results and send them to me, but he totally knows how old I am, how much I weigh, and how many push ups I can do, which is generally information I deliberately do not share with my students. So that's weird. Thankfully, I've never had Chad in class so I only know him in the context of being my personal trainer, but it's still kind of weird.

Some things I learned:

* I can walk a mile in 13 minutes (Takes me 14 when I'm pushing a double stroller, takes me 18 when I'm dragging Cooper's lazy butt).

* I don't use proper form for push-ups (even modified push-ups) because using proper form makes them really effing hard. (Your chin is supposed to touch a book on the ground!)

* My lower ab muscles are virtually nonexistent; hence, my goal: improved core strength. (My other goal: make my arms look like Madonna's.)

* I feel naked when I'm wearing workout clothes on campus where I'm likely to see students I have in class.

Training starts for real next week, and I know I'm going to whine about it.

Chad has his work cut out for him.