Week 1 Hours 16:30
I started my Internship this week at Matt's place, It feels good to be back here and be able to help train people the way Matt did for me.
This first few weeks I will be mostly just be cleaning the equipment as the day goes, and following him around to listen to his advice on training clients and for their goals. Since Matt is a private gym he doesn't have a large number of clients to train. So I figured I would mention one per week to keep entries more interesting. One guy here is trying to get ready for a body building contest so I have been trying to pay close attention to what he is doing so I can some day learn how to train to become cut one day. I am looking forward to the many weeks to come and Matt seems happy to have me back in the gym.
This first few weeks I will be mostly just be cleaning the equipment as the day goes, and following him around to listen to his advice on training clients and for their goals. Since Matt is a private gym he doesn't have a large number of clients to train. So I figured I would mention one per week to keep entries more interesting. One guy here is trying to get ready for a body building contest so I have been trying to pay close attention to what he is doing so I can some day learn how to train to become cut one day. I am looking forward to the many weeks to come and Matt seems happy to have me back in the gym.
Week 2 Hours 18:00
Week two at Matt's is going smooth for the most part. I was in here Monday -Saturday for a handful of hours each day. I worked for my dad all week as well so I am a little worn out. This week and probably all of next week I will be still just watching over Matt's shoulders as he is training clients. This week the focus person is a women in her mid to late 30's who is trying to tone up and stay fit. She works out 3-4 times a week and Matt has been putting her through a workout that focuses on 2 body parts per workout such as, biceps and triceps are together. Back and chest are together, legs and shoulders are together on the other day. She mostly does high repetitions per set anywhere from 10-15.
Week 3 Hours 15:00
This week was another good week. This week I was here Monday - Friday. I am starting to get the hang of things here, I am not overly confident in some of the purposes in some of the workouts so I still ask questions, asking why we are doing this particular exercise. The example that sticks out to me this week was doing single leg exercises instead of squatting. I found out that if you are always doing two leg exercises then you are not really maximizing the ability to gain strength in your legs. Once you get both legs strong individually, then they will be able to push more weight when you go back to a barbell squat.
Week 4 Hours 17:30
This was week 4 at Healthier U. It has been a crazy week but still a good one. When I am done training with Matt, I am able to get in some time to lift for myself and being in the atmosphere of a gym really does make a difference in my motivation. I have noticed that mostly everyone that comes in to train or lift, has to the motivation to better themselves. It makes the gym an exciting place to be at because people get to experience and see their progress on paper, in the mirror and on the scales. The program Matt suggested to me was a 12 week program that is broken down into 3 phases and each phase has 4 weeks in it. This is the end of my phase and I have put on 8 pounds of hopefully muscle. I decided to write about myself and progress in this journal because it was just another example of what hard work and proper instructions from someone like Matt can do for someone.
Week 5 Hours 9:30
This week I was not able to be in the gym the entire week because my sister got married in Destin, Florida and I obviously had to attend that. I was only there Monday and Tuesday this week but I tried to be in there for at least 4 hrs each day. For the few days I was in there I helped Matt train a man in his 50's get back into shape. His goal was not to get bigger in size, but to just stay healthy, fit, and lose some weight. Matt does a lot of high reps with him. We will take him out in front of the building to run while pulling some tires, he also will take a sledge hammer and swing that on a big tractor tire. This exercise is great to engage the core and burn a good number of calories at the same time.
Week 6 Hours 16:00
This week it is starting to get hot and muggy in the gym. There is no air conditioning so all of the clients are wore out and thankfully drinking more water during their workouts. I was in the gym Tuesday - Saturday because we didn't get back from Florida until Monday. This week the person that I got to focus on and also learn from is an Ex marine who has become a powerlifter and also transforming into a body builder. I got to witness him squat over 700 pounds for 2 reps. He is on a very strict diet that includes 6 meals a day. He eats 6 egg whites and 1 full egg in the morning with oatmeal. He has a protein shake in between breakfast and lunch. For lunch he has 6 oz of lean meat, with vegetables, and some form of good carbohydrate such as rice or sweet potato. In between lunch and dinner he will have another protein shake. For dinner he said that he will eat another portion on lean meat or fish with brown rice, vegetables. Right before bed he will have another shake. He also mentioned to me that he will drink amino acids during his workout to help his muscles recover. It was nice to talk to another person to find out what it takes to achieve some of the goals that he has accomplished.
Week 7 Hours 19:00
Week 7 has already come and I think that I am in the groove of things around here. The main thing I took away from this week is that my relationship with Matt is much stronger and it is always nice to hear how he got to where he is in life and his advice on what life after school is like. His road to a successful business really started when he was well overweight and wanted to change his lifestyle. He got healthy and pushed himself to become a body builder. Once he decided that this was something he loved, he turned it into a business. It started in the basement of his house, to an airplane hanger, to a building. He may not make a ton of money, but i know that he is very happy with what he does and that is what I think I need to focus on when I am done with schooling.
Week 8 Hours 15:30
It is hard for me to believe that I am almost done with my internship hours. A few more weeks and I will be done but will still come in to get my workouts and hang out. This week is also the last week of the second phase of my workout regimen that Matt put me on. I have gained another 8 pounds! The person I thought I would focus on this week is a man in his 30's who they call Thad. He is big into power lifting and strong man lifts. For his strong man lifts, he will incline press logs that have bars on the ends of them to add extra weight and have handles in the middle of them. He also is into lifting the large concrete balls that they use in strongman competitions on TV. I asked him why he does it, he explained that it was a good way to keep his muscles guessing. What that means is, if you are always doing the same exercises over several weeks, then your muscles will get use to it and not grow as often as they did at the beginning. It is cool that I can also get advice from someone other than Matt sometimes.
Week 9 Hours 19:30
This week I was able to get off of work early so I was at the gym a little bit longer. I was able to get more hours in which will help out. Since I was here longer this week, it also meant that I felt like I was in a sauna the whole week. I don't mind sweating when I workout but I am not a huge fan of it when I am not. This causes me to also have to clean the equipment twice as much when it gets to be this hot in the gym. The guy I previously wrote about in my last weeks journal also has a daughter who is a softball player. He will bring her and some of her teammates in so Matt can put them through a good workout every once in a while. On I believe it was Wednesday they came in. We had them do some explosive stuff with the hips because baseball and softball players need to have a strong core to hit. They also did some cardio leg exercises such as jumping onto boxes, jump rope, and pushing and pulling a weight sled. The major exercise that I personally wish I would have went through as a middle school/high schooler, is rope swings. That is where you take a heavier rope that was used to dock large ships and tie it around a pole and swing the rope up and down. This helps your fast twitch muscles in your shoulders and also burns them to make them stronger.
Week 10 Hours 19:00
Week 10 was probably the slowest week so far, nothing new really happened but I am still learning something new all the time. Probably the new thing I learned this week in a new workout program for someone who is serious about putting on size. Matt calls it the 5,3,1 method. The first week you find out your max weight your are able to lift for the main lifts, such as squats, bench, dead lift, and shoulder press. Some other lifts are used in the program but the main ones are the most important during the program. After the first week, you will take 75% of your max effort and shoot to do it for 5 reps. The second week you bump up to 85% of your max and try to do it for 3 reps or more. Last your will do 95% for 1 rep, but with this 1 rep, you know you should be able to do it so you will aim to get 2-4 reps of it. After the 4th week you will re evaluate your max numbers and start another cycle. This will keep pushing your muscle to force up some heavy weight and build muscle.
Week 11 Hours 16:00
The last week has come!! It was a great experience to be able to learn many things, not just lifts and nutrition, but about life and some of the stories that are priceless. I will still be coming in just about every day to keep up with my workouts, so it is not like it is goodbye forever which is a good thing. This place has pushed me to work hard and to appreciate experiences that happen daily, weekly, and monthly. I can't thank Matt enough for the opportunity to feed off of his knowledge in the gym but about life. It has opened my eyes to show me that putting an impact on people in a positive way feels great.