I’ve been a member of the Center for a few years. I aimed to work out 3 times a week, but I wasn’t consistent. Plus, I fell into a rut. I wasn’t accomplishing much. I’d raise the weight levels on the machines and increase the distance on the treadmills, but I didn’t see a significant change. My doctor then put me on a different high blood pressure medicine. I was soft.
During one session, Ahmed Mohammad struck up a conversation with me. He told me that he was a new trainer. I once lived in Arabic-speaking countries teaching English, and I speak a little Arabic. I decided that this might be the time to get a Personal Trainer. So, I signed up with Ahmed Mohammad as my trainer.
If you think I’m now bench-pressing five times my weight and running a mile in 30 seconds, guess again. Ahmed started me with stretches to build up coordination and flexibility. In school, I was never the first kid picked for a team sport, although I compensated with theatre classes and dance, and movement. Ahmed’s program was challenging for me. The stretches were hard at first, especially the Spider-Man stretch. The other exercises pushed me to my limits. One of the odd exercises was a squat walk with the wide rubber bands wrapped just below my knees. Then I walked sideways across the mezzanine. Walking sideways with bent knees sounds a bit dirty, but it’s not. It’s awkward. I hate being awkward. I found I could do it better when I thought of a piece of classical music. “In the Hall of the Mountain King” by Edward Grieg. I mentioned it to Ahmed. What do you know? The next time I did the exercise, he pulled out his phone and played the music so that I could hear it. And I did the exercise without any problem.
Ahmed’s initial workout exhausted me terribly. Sometimes I hobbled back to the locker room only to sit down for a few minutes, wondering if I had enough energy to make it home. Yet, I continued. Ahmed’s methods and instructions pushed me beyond my self-imposed limits. He would correct my posture (constantly) when I did push-ups and planks. He commanded, “Raise your waist.” With the Spider-Man twists, he said, “twist the hips more.” Like Yoda, he would scold me when I said, ‘I’m going to try.’ No, don’t try. Do it. We talk a great deal about movies and TV shows. I had difficulty with the dead hangs. I could never hang on for one minute. My best time was 56 seconds. Some of the exercises sometimes got the best of me.
Ahmed’s methods are direct and simple: kind guidance, a gentle, if wacky, sense of humor, and a thorough knowledge of muscle development, strength building, stretching, and nutrition.
While I had no specific goals, I have benefited so much from Ahmed’s training. I have seen some muscle development. My blood pressure has come down quite a bit. While I am still about the same total weight as when I started, I have lost body fat and gained muscle weight. I’ve exceeded my initial performance levels. The dead hang? Last month, I set a personal best with 1 minute and 30 seconds. I can easily do a plank and side planks for a minute and a half when I could barely make it past 30 seconds. Likewise, I have done a 5-minute, 40-second wall-sit. That is elite status for my age group. At least, that’s what he tells me. I sometimes do a wall sit just to relax, and he calls me weird for that.
Ahmed Mohammad has been promoted from tier three to tier two as a trainer during this period. It is a well-deserved promotion. It’s gratifying when someone is recognized for his excellence and richly deserves it.