It still hurts

DD relentlessly hounded me into doing a workout with his personal trainer – The Warrior – on Sunday.

I was not keen AT ALL.

And I was still suffering yesterday – I could barely raise my arms.

When I woke on Monday morning, I was pretty cocky, feeling relatively pain free and limber.

But, as the day progressed my mobility regressed.

The Warrior has a backyard gym called Muscle Beach, which is full of torture instruments. DD heads there a couple of time a week to be brutalised and he thought it might be fun for me to have a turn.

I’ve been very grumpy lately and he put it down to lack of gym workouts, with my regular Pump sessions cancelled at Fitness First.

I put it down to being menopausal during a global pandemic.

I was NOT happy about being hassled into a personal training session. I’ve been making sure to get plenty of exercise walking.

That’s The Warrior and DD in the pic above.

By the time I got to Muscle Beach I’d already walked the dogs and perambulated with my friend Alice and then my sister. I’d done about two and a half hours all up and was fairly knackered.

That didn’t stop The Warrior whacking me on an exercise bike and making me pedal madly, in between various weight machine exercises and sit ups.

He kept assuring me I was doing really well, which I said was what he tells all the girls.

He asked me at the end of the hour of hell whether I’d enjoyed myself and I cocked an eyebrow at him.

Not exactly.

He said I was welcome back any time. He’s also offered to give the youngest a surfing lesson, after spotting her battling with her board at the beach a few months back.

He has a heart of gold.

The Warrior’s real name is Rob Rowland Smith. He’s a hard-core fitness freak who has trained some of the biggest names in the business – various Olympians, Kelly Slater, Tom Carol, Layne Beachley, Pamela Anderson, the Manly Sea Eagles and The Tigers rugby league teams – to name but a few. And he’s infamous for his intense sessions in the Palm Beach sand dunes, known to make Olympians cry.

He went easy on me because he’s a big fan of DD, who not only books lots of sessions with him, but also helps fix broken equipment at Muscle Beach and provides the soundtrack to The Warrior’s group training sessions when Sydney isn’t in lockdown.

DD even put together a special soundtrack for my workout, which included an ode to redheads by Neil Young called “Cinnamon Girl”. I felt a bit mean spirited to be cranky about being gifted a personal training session as the carefully selected songs played.

Throughout the workout, The Warrior kept raving about how much all the other Muscle Beach attendees love DD, which is no surprise because he’s a sweetheart and I adore him too. Although I sometimes get a little jealous that The Warrior sees more of him than I do.

Will I go back to Muscle Beach? Maybe. Will my arms forgive me if I do? Probably not.

Among other iso highlights from yesterday: the eldest shaved half his eyebrows off, I had my first shower-free day during lockdown and the youngest made shui Mai dumplings. The boredom is getting to us.

You?

Song of the day: Neil Young “Cinnamon Girl”