One Year in - A different perspective on picking stuff up and putting stuff down.

The following a guest post by Cat, one of my partner's friends who started training with me in August of last year more from happy accident than any other reason. - Marc

According to my training journal, I started weight training one year ago today. To some, this might be the time to take some progress photos, a few measurements and a body fat calculation. Well, yes, I’ll probably do those too, but I wanted to write about a different kind of progress I’ve observed over the last year.

I’ll give you a quick bit of background first: I had previously been slightly overweight then lost ~15kg through portion control and some low-impact exercise, mainly walking 45 minutes a day to university. After a year of maintenance, I started weight training on the advice of my friend Laura’s partner, Mr Marc Keys himself, when I told him that having a six-pack was now on my bucket list. I wanted to be a bit firmer and ‘toned’. I believe I may have even uttered the old chestnut “but I don’t want to get bulky”. Thankfully, Marc forgave me for that, and got me started on his beginners programme, and although having done very little exercise in the previous 5 years since high school Physical Ed, I was quickly hooked and enjoyed the challenge of our sessions. Laura started training with us early on too, and the addition of a training partner has played a large part in our training consistency.

So what’s happened since starting? The first change I noticed, before any physical change, was my mood becoming steadier throughout the day. I stopped having the mid-afternoon slump and started looking forward to my early evening training sessions. I felt less of a tendency to get stressed out and friends commented how consistently cheery I was. After a few years of difficulty sleeping I was now having long, refreshing sleeps and waking up feeling ready to get going with my day.

I noticed a gradual increase in my confidence as things progressed. I started chatting to other regulars in the gym and making new friends, something I wouldn’t have had the guts to do previously, but I was also feeling more confident away from the gym: speaking to doctors and patients (I’m a med student) became easier and I worried less about sounding stupid. The truth was, I was starting to feel quite strong. The physical strength I was becoming more aware of in the gym was somehow transferring to my mind and I felt more emotionally resilient and capable.

Perhaps the most important change has been to my immune system. In the past, I caught every throat and chest infection going: at least once per month, missing uni, struggling to study when I was sick, feeling sorry for myself and probably not being the most ideal future doctor. In this past year of training, I recall being sick twice. That’s it. For someone who has been plagued with recurrent tonsillitis, that’s a big deal. I’m not missing teaching so my grades have improved. I’m performing better in class, so my confidence improves. Do you see where I’m going with this?

More recently, I took part my first powerlifting competition, quickly followed by another. I’ve never competed in any sport in my life. My focus has shifted from wanting to be a bit firmer (which I am, anyway) to wanting to push my body to be as strong as it can possibly be. I want to know what my limit is, and then I want to work as hard as I can to push beyond that.

Friends of mine complain that going to the gym 4 times a week is excessive and my structured approach to training on certain days (so that I have adequate rest between) is overly rigid. I’ve been told to stop, I’ve been asked why I’m still doing it “because you’re really slim now” and I’ve been laughed at because “girls should just stick to the treadmill and do crunches” (insert expletive here). But when your confidence, stress levels, mental and physical health have done an about-turn, would you want to cut back on that?

I’ll conclude by thanking Marc for being the keystone in all of this, I am forever indebted to him. I encourage anyone this resonates with to give it a go, or get back to the gym and think beyond six-packs and biceps to the change in physical and emotional health weight training can provide.

- Cat.